Arnold's vision is far more radical than one we might find in the contemporary American church. That's because Arnold takes the early Christian commitment to becoming "pilgrims in a strange land" seriously. That vision sees the Church as the "family of God", and bases that vision on a close reading of Acts 2 and 4. For Arnold, the relationships and connections to others name the Christian faith at its most essential nature. And those connections then reframe how we view possessions, among other things.
The question that kept coming back to mind as I read Arnold -- and Thomas Merton's later reflections on Arnold -- is quite simple: Why don't we live in such communities now?
Is the idea of this sort of "life together" genuinely threatening to the cultural values Americans hold dear? Is it that the "biblical values" we Americans so often tout about ourselves have far more to do with the kinds of "civil religion" that Robert Bellah popularized in the 1950s?
When I put Arnold's Why We Live in Community alongside other classics like Bonhoeffer's Life Together and Hauerwas and Willimon's Resident Aliens, Arnold's little book really is one that I'll be recommending heartily to folks in the Church. Because this little book is deceptively small, but is filled with material for churches and their leadership to hear and act upon.
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I received a free copy of this book from Plough Publishing in exchange for an honest review here.