Many people today are lonely; they feel alienated and divided in their personal and social lives. Along with this awareness, they experience a growing hunger for genuine community life. Community in the Lord is a reflection upon actual experience of Christian community as it is being lived at the present time. It is a combination of Christian witness to what God is doing in forming his people, and a theological interpretation of it. Father Hinnebusch writes out of his experience in the charismatic Community of God's Delight in Dallas, Texas. "There is nothing in this book," he writes, "which does not reflect what is happening in that community." But his treatment is not narrow: "We have tried to include those elements which we think are integral to every Christian community."
Community in the Lord is a sequel to Friendship in the Lord, ". . . flowing from a new and deeper experience of the truths expressed in that book-a deeper experience of at-homeness with friends in community, and of at-homeness with God in prayer, especially community prayer." A noted author of books on spirituality, and a longtime retreat master and spiritual director, the author is well qualified to speak on community and its place in the lives of Christians and the Church today. He brings to his subject the wisdom of long experience-over 30 years in religious life and now in giving spiritual guidance to the community in Dallas. His treatment, soundly traditional and universal, nevertheless answers the need of all who seek a contemporary expression of what it means to live a full Christian life in authentic community.