Where Two or Three are Gathered: Christian Families as Domestic Churches (review)

Where Two or Three are Gathered is a much needed illustration of how Christians, and especially Catholics, can better understand their call to marriage and family in its ecclesial dimension and thus more intentionally "find God in everyday life" (8). Florence Caffrey Bourg has put together a masterful work that combines pastoral sensitivity with serious research and a lucid yet friendly presentation. The topic of domestic church is a hidden gem in Catholic teachings, and the Church and family would both be stronger for embracing it and teaching it more deliberately.

Bourg begins with a history of the term "domestic church" as it applies to the family. Scripture, early Church theologians, post-Reformation theologians and the Second Vatican Council are all cited. Regrettably, few theologians take the term as serious theological discourse, and the development of the teaching of the family as domestic church is sorely lacking at the parish level, in the governance of the Church, in marriage preparation, in relation to interdenominational Christian marriages, or in the reformulation of catechesis. Bourg proceeds to build a conversation between a broad spectrum of perspectives, so as to cover as much as possible related to "domestic church." Popes and mothers, married theologians and social scientists are just some of the resources she draws from to paint an increasingly complex but necessary picture of "domestic church."

She next considers the relationship between the family as domestic church and the hierarchical Church. What is the relationship? In what way does domestic church embody the Church? For Bourg, "Christ's presence, the mission of evangelization, and the life of prayer and charity" can all be present in the family as "domestic church." In this way domestic church "represents in some a unity fundamental to the Church and realizes her presence concretely in a determined milieu" (35). This is best understood in terms of the domestic church's uniquely educational mission in cultivating among its members "humility, hope, a desire to grow, and receptivity to guidance and comfort that God may offer them in their weak moments, often through each other as human instruments" (49). Families as domestic churches nurture the children of God in the midst of a normal and imperfect family life.

This acknowledgement that God is found in everyday human life erodes the old way of visualizing reality as divided into "sacred" and "secular." Now, the imperfect, the human, indeed the familial is an avenue toward God. This, of course, results in a certain tension between the ideal and the real—how can imperfect, even broken human families, be an avenue toward God? Bourg encapsulates a very important discussion here—how different approaches to family spirituality emphasize ideals but overlook the "real" as a possible encounter with God. Her summary of various perspectives is helpful in understanding, for example, John Paul II's writings in contrast to other authors who are fully immersed in familial life all the time.

Bourg then asks a theological question: what is the sacramental foundation of a domestic church—baptism? marriage? both? I particularly enjoyed not only the discussion of whether baptism or marriage ground the domestic church (chapter 6), but also her treatment of the question of whether the "traditional" nuclear family is the only possible model for the domestic church (chapter 7). With sensitivity and true nuance, Bourg navigates the rocky terrain of the contemporary family from a theological perspective. Her narrative draws upon personal experience and sound theological reasoning that always considers the perspective of the magisterium, as well as other theologians prominent in the theology of family and marriage, including Michael Lawler, Gail Risch, and Lisa Cahill. At the same time, Bourg is constructively critical of contemporary idealizations of marriage as always "romantic" (chapter 8). This critique is supported by sound research and...