Discerning God's Will Together: Biblical Interpretation in the Free Church Tradition. By Ervin R. Stutzman. Telford, Pa.: Cascadia Publishing House. 2013. Pp.176. $16.95.

The "problem" that Ervin Stutzman addresses in Discerning God's Will Together is that the notion of the hermeneutic community in Anabaptism has been "primarily ideological and not sufficiently concrete or practical really to test the concept in the life of a congregation" (149). He argues that "invoking the discernment function of free church ecclesiology can effectively aid the contemporary church in communal efforts at biblical interpretation, even amid conflict and controversy" (22).

The book is organized into six chapters. In addition to his thesis, chapter 1 includes Stutzman's underlying assumptions and the limits of his study. Two of these are especially worth noting: his literature review is limited to secondary sources (with particular reliance on the work of Stuart Murray and John Howard Yoder); and his recommendations assume healthy congregations with relatively low levels of conflict and relatively high capacities for flexibility and paradoxical thinking. Sara Wenger Shenk notes one additional limit about which Stutzman is not explicit: the book appears to be aimed at readers who grew up in aging, white, Swiss German communities (12).

Chapter 2 makes the case that discernment is a necessary function of a free church ecclesiology--that a contrast-culture notion of the church inevitably shifts the responsibility for biblical interpretation away from experts or external authorities and squarely to the congregation, the community of the Spirit distinguished by "the more excellent way" of love (33). Stutzman goes on to note both barriers to discernment as well as components or steps in a discernment process.

Chapter 3 is the longest of the book. It lays out the characteristics of Anabaptist hermeneutics, offers a critique of the weaknesses of that hermeneutic, and suggests ways to offset those limitations. It also names a number of modern developments influencing the hermeneutics in the twenty-first century, including technology, the variety of biblical translations available in congregations, historical-critical study of the Scripture, insights from the sociology of knowledge, and rhetorical analysis.

Chapter 4 explores ways to work with the ideological and practical differences which inevitably arise in communal discernment processes. Stutzman argues that a dialectical approach that recognizes the value of opposing "poles" is an especially appropriate way to work with tensions in a postmodern (pluralistic) world. He lists eight idea pairs that stand out in the literature on free church ecclesiology: church vs. world, church vs. kingdom, kingdom present vs. kingdom future, discipleship vs. justification, Word versus Spirit, individual vs. community, clergy vs. laity, and scholarly contributions vs. unlettered contributions, suggesting that polarity management is the best way to work with them. This means recognizing that both poles are necessary, acknowledging that each pole has downsides as well as upsides, and learning "to swing back and forth between them in a relatively balanced manner" (111). He briefly discusses transformational (as opposed to transactional) leadership, listing types and levels of typical church conflicts, recommends the use of trained facilitators/leaders, and identifies the goal of all of this work as reconciliation.

Chapter 5 very briefly suggests ways to engage with the Bible in the three arenas of congregational life identified in the congregational discipling model: worship, community, and mission. Stutzman also notes that congregations are not the only hermeneutical communities: small groups, groups of congregations, and academic institutions are also group settings in which people interpret the Bible. Chapter 6 gives a brief overview of the whole book and lists possible topics for further study. The seventh and final chapter comprises one of the regular features of Cascadia's Living Issues Discussion Series: affirmations and critiques by three responders and a response from the author.

Discerning God's Will Together does well what it intends to do: make a case that Anabaptist ecclesiology and Anabaptist hermeneutics are inextricably linked. And it provides an overview of ways for leaders to help groups work together at biblical interpretation and discerning God's will for specific contexts. It is clearly written and extensively researched. It contains some beautiful little gems: ideas elegantly stated, or thought-provoking observations. The foreword and the responses nicely point to areas that deserve further attention. Chapter 3, "Biblical Interpretation in the Anabaptist Tradition," draws together different authors and ideas in brief form. I will likely assign it in at least one of the classes I teach.

But I have to confess that I ultimately found this book disappointing. Its topics have fascinated me both in my pastoral and academic work, yet because Stutzman is covering so much territory in such a relatively small number of pages, his engagement with his material, while broad, is necessarily shallow. This raises questions for me about the audience for whom this book is intended. If it is for scholars, Discerning God's Will Together lacks engagement with primary sources and a sufficient breadth of secondary sources, including perspectives that match the diversity of Mennonite Church USA. If it is intended for pastors and other congregational leaders, the book lacks the specificity leaders need to carry out group biblical interpretation in a discerning way. By combining hermeneutics and discernment, and by addressing these topics from both a systematic and a practical theology approach, Stutzman has set himself a bigger task than is possible to accomplish in the format within which he is working.

In addition, by focusing his recommendations specifically on groups or congregations who are not in significant conflict, Stutzman has sidestepped some of the most thorny issues in communal hermeneutics. It is relatively easy to lead a process when people are mostly in agreement or behaving with maturity. Yet in the socially, culturally, and politically polarized context in which we find ourselves, and which is deeply (and often unconsciously) forming our attitudes and actions, this book does not pay sufficient attention to the creation of the habitus that would make discernment, biblical interpretation, and communal processes not only possible but profitable. As George Schemel and Judith Roemer (quoted in chapter 3) note, the first three elements of their discernment process are not so much actions as "habitual modes of mind and heart." They are part of the group's lifestyle rather than something it quickly does on the morning of a decision'" (48). Jan Wood picks up this notion in her response at the end of the book. "Being committed to Christ--in and of itself--does not empower folks for the task of being disciples-in-community" (153). Unless we pay a good deal more attention to our formation as "disciples-in-community," I doubt that overviews of either theology or process will be able to move us far along in discerning God's will together.

Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary