Book Review
God’s Companions: Reimagining Christian
Ethics
Samuel Wells
(Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), pp.232.
ISBN: 1-4051-2014-2.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating and Sam Well’s latest book
not only reconnects eating and ethics but is great for the theological digestive
system. This struck me with particular force when I found a church member unexpectedly
devouring my copy of the book at a recent training event. Not only was she
reading it avidly, but was hungrily taking notes for future reference. Theology
which emerges from bread and butter discipleship has a bite often missing from
more abstract offerings.
God’s Companions is rooted in three convictions: the
plentitude of God, the significance of local congregations and
the centrality of the Eucharist. Wells is convinced that ‘God
gives his people everything they need to worship him, to be his
companions and to eat with him’. (p1.) and roots this conviction
in the remarkable discoveries he made whilst a parish priest
in deprived communities in East Anglia. In the phrase of his
mentor Stanley Hauerwas these are ‘Dispatches from the
Front’ of ministry and congregational life rather than
the speculations of academia. They represent the distillation
of discipleship at ground level. They are the conversation of
God’s companions living within the abundant grace of God.
For Wells, ethics and theology belong together since how Christians
live is parasitic upon the discipleship practices, which God
gives the Church. Participating in a local congregation, is therefore,
critical to Well’s understanding of embodying Christian
ethics. Ethics is about forming habits whereby Christians learn
to take the right things for granted and where the stories of
ordinary faithful discipleship are integrated into the great
narrative of God’s saving activity in the world. This is
how Christians cooperate with God to make the world a Eucharist.
Since ethics is about embodiment, the book is divided into three
sections exploring the Body of Christ as Jesus, as Church and
as Eucharist through the template of the Eucharistic Liturgy.
The Body of Christ as Jesus involves attention to the Church’s
memory present especially in Scripture. For Wells, Scripture
reveals Jesus as the superabundance of God overwhelming the world
with generosity. This generosity is particularly evident in the
Johannine account of Jesus’ signs and the hospitality of
Jesus expressed in his open table fellowship. By ‘walking
backwards’ or reading Scripture and Church History from
within the contemporary Church Christians can see how and that
the Holy Spirit gives God’s people everything they need
for their journey.
The Body of Christ as Church involves attention to the practice
and significance of Baptism. In Baptism Christians learn who
they are and to whom they are related. Grasping the implications
of being baptised also disposes Christians to understand practices
such as marriage, rearing children, treasuring life, evangelistic
reproduction, stewardship and caring for the alien and the sick
in a distinctively Christian way. Ethics is living holiness,
which, for Wells, represents the action of God in a worshipping
community’s life.
The Body of Christ as Eucharist offers Wells the opportunity
to expound liturgy as discipleship training. Worship is not instrumental
but it is formative and thus reflection upon the effects of gathering
together, greeting God and one another, being reconciled, attending
to Scripture, challenge, proclaiming the Creed, interceding,
sharing the Peace, offering gifts, giving thanks, remembering,
sharing food and being sent out, enable Christians to pray and
live faithfully in the contemporary world. Indeed throughout
the exposition Wells gives examples of how such liturgical nourishment
trains ordinary Christian communities in their discipleship.
Wells sees his ethics as both ecclesial and descriptive, rooted
in the stories of ordinary discipleship as he has encountered
them in parish ministry. As such this book promotes the significance
and witness of local congregational life at a time when pressure
from within and without the Church questions its value. This
should encourage many a hard pressed cleric and congregation.
I have two questions for Wells. First I wonder whether his identification
of local church with local congregation places too great an expectation
upon particular congregations to display the riches implied by
his liturgical exposition. Certainly as an Anglican, Wells may
wish to see the local church as a diocese rather than a congregation,
thereby enabling a richer and more diverse embodiment of Christian
ethics to be seen. A diocese is arguably less enthralled to the
contextual constraints of particular cultures, socio-economic
realities and histories than a congregation. Second, the structure
of the book still feels like an exposition of liturgy supported
by ecclesial examples rather than an exposition of an ecclesial
way of life which makes sense of liturgy. If God is at work in
the Church then the way the Church lives signifies the story
of God and gives rationale for its liturgical practices. In short
the walk indicates the talk rather than the talk suggesting the
walk. Thus expounding the stories of Christian discipleship should
display the immanence of liturgy in life and show how this co-ordinates
with its formal expression at the Eucharist.
That said, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I found
the book to be a rich feast of sharp insights, pastoral wisdom
and refreshing exposition. I am glad to find that one of God’s
companions and hence ours is Sam Wells.
John Thomson, Director of Ministry, Diocese of Sheffield
October 2006
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