Rebuild the Church: Richard Rohr's Challenge for the New Millennium

Western civilization is undergoing a crisis of meaning, and the Christian community needs to find new value, identity, and purpose through hope, says Franciscan Father Richard Rohr. In lectures and homilies he describes both the crisis and cure. In the 13th century, he tells us, St. Francis was called by the Lord to “rebuild my Church.” Anguished by the fragmentation in the Church today, Rohr invites us to rebuild the Church in the 21st century.

Rohr says we need to tap into our historical roots, both European and American, to recover from spiritual exhaustion. He explains limits, challenges any attitude of arrogance that insists it has all the answers, and reminds us that paganism still rules in our time, with its focus on power, prestige, and possessions. True religion gives us the way through the darkness of life, not around it. “There has been too much talk of loving Jesus without suffering”, he says. He offers remedies to grow beyond our false worldview and narrow individualism that have destroyed our values and traditions. Rohr proposes a Reconstruction Creed that focuses on God’s movement in history.