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Where Faith Begins by C. Ellis Nelson. Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press, 1967. pp. 244. $4.75. At a time when the parish ministry's effectiveness is being questioned and other forms of ministry are emerging, we would do well to take a look at C. Ellis Nelson's Where Faith Begins, lest the church develop structures that fail to consider the vital issue caught up in the book's title. The Union Seminary scholar states the book's problem in these words: "to describe how faith is communicated to a person and the way the church can use that process more deliberately and intelligently." (p. 10) Nelson, utilizing insights from the social sciences, describes the process in a detailed, scholarly fashion that does not make for light reading. His thesis is "that faith is communicated by a community of believers and that the meaning of faith is developed by its members out of their history, by their interaction with each other, and in relation to the events that take place in their lives." (p. 10) This is not to say that we must simply beef up our present programs nor merely create different structures, for "a community of believers could be a small group of concerned individuals within a congregation. It could be a denomination that is obedient to the lordship of Christ. It could be a residential community. . . . It could have many manifestations." (p. l4) But it must be a community! The concluding chapter "Guidelines for Communicating Faith" includes useful discussion of the centrality of the congregation, the shaping of mentality, leadership, curriculum, family, etc. These will be of particular help to the practically-minded reader. It should be noted that Dr. Nelson is not naïve: "I do not want to underestimate the apathy, conformity, or downright hostility to change which lies beneath the surface of the average congregation." (p. 211) However, his thoughts are constructive challenges to those struggling in parishes, the ''specialist,'' preservers of the status quo, and to everyone else concerned truly with the communication of Faith. Richard T. Nolan |
This book review was published in The Hartford Quarterly, a publication of The Hartford Seminary, in the summer of 1968. Dr. Nelson's comments ring true today as well as then.
About the same time Dr. Norma Thompson, Professor of Religious Education at New York University, observed (in a paper nowhere to be found among the website editor's retirement items) that many, perhaps most, people are actually motivated to learn at important junctures of their lives: baptisms, confirmations, marriage preparations, crises, and the like. In such instances the pastoral and educational blend well.
One may wonder whether we have made any progress with regard to communicating the Faith in the context of community and at pivotal moments in people's lives.