Boff, who was still a Franciscan when he wrote the book, basically challenges the Church to recall and reanimate its apostolic origins. In the "primitive" Church, there were no hierarchical distinctions between ordained and nonordained. In fact, ordination as it came to be known didn't exist. The "laos" were the people of God, and even though individual members took on different functions in keeping with their unique talents (Paul's simile of the body and its parts is appropriate here), everyone was "laity." Worshipping communities were small--what we today would call "household churches"--and everyone was encouraged to take responsibility for the community and its works.

Over the past two millennia, this household model of Church was deemphasized. Top-down institutions replaced the bottom-up community. Ecclesial hierarchies, clear divisions between ordained and nonordained, and excessive authoritarianism became the order of the day, bringing to full fruition the imperial church instigated by the Edict of Milan in the 4th century. Needless to say, this "sacred" institution frequently allied itself with political and economic powers and principalities, at the expense of precisely those marginalized folks Christ favored

The Base Christian Communities of Latin America and Asia, small Christian communities in which the laity take primary responsibility for the worship and deeds of the community, were started to re-empower the laity, to avoid the burden of institutionalization, and to recapture the spirit of Christ's teachings and apostolic Christianity. Leonardo Boff believes that their example can serve as the catalyst for a worldwide awakening on the part of the Church as to its genuine calling. In this book, he explores the parameters of this "reinvention" in an exciting and challenging way.

In the original Greek, "ecclesia," the word frequently translated as "church," NEVER meant a building in which people worshipped. (The Greek word that designates worship building is "kuriakon.") Instead, "ecclesia" ALWAYS meant "an assembly of people"--the event of the people of God, working together, in full and nonhierarchical cooperation, to collaborate with God in the building of the Kingdom. Boff's wonderful and prophetic book reminds us of this important but sadly forgotten truth.