Problematising the communitarian story

I think Tony Payne linked to this article, which has sat in my To Read bookmarks folder on Firefox for a million years.

It calls into question the over-emphasis on community theology in a very interesting way. It explores how the "communitarian story" diagnoses the modern condition, explains its origins in the Enlightenmnet and provides solutions in community.

Then it unpacks the dangers of placing community front and centre in our doctrines of the gospel and the church and even God.

The very helpful category it introduces is the category of authority. The Enlightenment wasn't just a move to individuality but a move to individuality as the source of epistemological authority. What we need is not just restoration to relationship/community but submission to authority in relationship to God and the relationships of the church.