This book is a new, second edition of Gerhard Lohfink's classic work on Jesus, discipleship, and the church.
Rebuking individualistic views of the redemption offered in Jesus's ministry, the novel aspect of this volume is Lohfink's clear connection between the preaching and ethics of Jesus and his intent to gather around him a renewed, alternative community, a "contrast-society," centered on radical love of one's neighbor.
The truth is that for Jesus, absolute nonviolence was a fundamental constant of his message. He simply cannot be understood without it. The same is true of the early church. Despite all its strife and failures, it strove to live out Jesus's nonviolence and his command to love our enemies. The evidence of that runs like a scarlet thread through this book. That is another reason for reviving it in this new situation.
Another decisive and distinctive character of Jesus and Community lies in the fact that it casts a long arc: from Jesus, through his community of disciples and the early post-Easter communities, to the pre-Constantinian church. Jesus and Community intends to show how what was specific to Jesus's message continued in the early church.
