122 - To Love As God Loves: Conversations with the Early Church

To Love As God Loves: Conversations with the Early Church
By Roberta C. Bondi
Philadelphia, Fortress, 1987. 111 pp. $5.95.

In any period of history, the believer's vision of Christian faith and practice tends to be circumscribed by prevailing cultural and theological assumptions. The variegated riches of the Christian tradition are rarely accessible to those dissatisfied with current patterns of discipleship. In this book, Bondi seeks to remedy the dilemma by inviting the reader to engage in a conversation with Christian ascetics of the fourth through the sixth centuries.

The conversational method allows for a non-technical yet careful examination of the convictions of these early Christians and the transformative effects of these convictions upon their lives. Bondi suggests that many of the truths which these ascetics professed and practiced might have a similar power today if properly understood and judiciously applied. Accordingly, she gives considerable attention to the meaning of these ancient teachings for the present. One may not always agree with Bondi's analyses, but the book provides the resources for a refreshing and potentially fruitful reconsideration of the nature of Christian life.

Rebecca H. Weaver
Union Theological Seminary in Virginia
Richmond, Va.