Barry HARVEY. Baptists and the Catholic Tradition, Reimagining the Church’s Witness in the Modern World. (Second Edition). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academics, 2020. Pp. 229, $27.99 pb. ISBN 978-1-5409-6079-5. Reviewed by Francis BERNA, La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA 19141.

A few weeks after Easter 2020, with churches still closed because of the pandemic, a friend remarked how she longed to go back to church. Though she could watch the Mass livestreamed from her parish, she really missed receiving the Eucharist. A few weeks later, a different friend raised the question, “Do you think we will remember what we have learned from this experience?”

Barry Harvey’s text both looks back to remember and pushes forward to challenge the Christian churches toward mission in the contemporary culture of the United States and Western Europe. He introduces his work by quoting Joseph Ratzinger just prior to his election as Pope Benedict XVI. In the interview Ratzinger stated that the church in the future would no longer be the form of life for the entire culture. Rather, the church would stand as a minority striving to bring good, striving to allow God into the world.
Whether or not one agrees with some of Pope Benedict’s perspectives on the church  as a select group of steadfast and faithful believers, one cannot deny the reality of the diminishing place of the church in the public square – Evangelical politics aside. Baptists and Roman Catholics suffer along with other religious people from the privatization of religion in American culture. Harvey sees that modern culture has reduced the human person to a worker and consumer. He identifies this as part of the “social grammar of neoliberal capitalism.”

The author’s apocalyptic vision, while sometimes rather grim, actually suggests a new opportunity for Christian ecumenism. To this end, Harvey draws on a wide array of the best of Baptist and Catholic theologians as well as other literature. Additionally, he roots his understanding of the Christian life in the story of Ancient Israel which is for the historical Jesus the narrative of God’s action in the world. The apocalyptic narratives of the 7th Century, BCE, he identifies as stories of making “space for a new order.”

A real temptation for Ancient Israel, and for the church in history, lies in a desire to “be like the nations.” Israel fell into forgetting God as king, while the church fell into the imperial powers of Christendom. In contemporary culture, discipleship has become religion in the form of private beliefs. The autonomous individual purchases a community in which they find personal value and the church becomes a “vendor of grace.”

As a remedy to the current situation, Harvey proposes that the church, inclusive of Baptist perspectives and the Catholic tradition, rekindle its sacramental life with particular emphasis on the lived dimensions of Baptism and Eucharist. While well aware of historical theological perspectives on the matter of “real presence” Harvey moves forward reclaiming a theology of the church as the Body of Christ. He argues that the church be more than the “Mystical Body” which tends to lend itself to the realm of private belief.

Aligned with Pope Francis’ theme of Christians as “missionary disciples” Harvey writes of a spiritual formation whereby Christians get “caught up” in Jesus’ story and “make the grammar of God’s reign” one’s own. He proposes that the church take workers and consumers and produce “martyrs to the apocalyptic activity of God.” As a missional people, Christians will once again find themselves “dwelling in tents.

Baptists and the Catholic Tradition offers a rich experience of ecumenical theology attempting for forge a new path for the church as a minority community in contemporary culture. Particularly in terms of his challenge to a culture which tends to reduce the human to a worker-consumer, Harvey could have done more to incorporate some perspectives from Roman Catholic social teaching. He briefly mentions several important figures like Dorothy Day, but more could be said. Readers will find some chapters more engaging than others. And, the text does not lend itself to a quick read; nor should it. Academic theologians, pastors, and seminarians should give the text the serious consideration it deserves.

In the midst of the pandemic, hopefully, we have remembered our human need for one another; our profound need for community. We are much more than autonomous individuals identified as worker-consumers. We are meant for communion with one another and communion with the Holy Mystery of God. The author proposes some fine perspectives on how Christians can live this mission in today’s world.