Transforming Faith Communities: A Comparative Study of Radical Christianity in Sixteenth-Century Anabaptism and Late Twentieth-Century Latin America

An examination of the parallels between liberation theology and 16th century Anabaptism and the transformative model they offer for the modern church.

Transforming Faith Communities draws upon a model for the church that combines congregationalism with a constructive approach to church-state relationships within a vision for a renewed Christendom, commended as a viable option for Christian mission in the twenty-first-century world. Michael Ian Bochenski uses two movements to make his case: sixteenth-century Anabaptism and late twentieth-century Latin American liberation theology. Each movement is held up as a mirror to the other in a vision for the transformation of church and society that resonates powerfully with contemporary culture. Outlining the development of radical religious communities, Bochenski examines some of the factors that create world-affirming Christian faith communities, and explores many examples of effective and constructive engagement with church and society across the centuries.

Michael Ian Bochenski has had very wide pastoral and academic involvement. He has degrees from both Cambridge (Social and Political Sciences) and Oxford (Theology) Universities. He has been a local church pastor, committed to community praxis, for over thirty years. He has led two local homelessness charities, has been the President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, and for four years was the Rector of the Polish Baptist Seminary in Warsaw, Poland.