The Catastrophist : A Novel

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Perhaps it takes a writer with Ronan Bennett's peculiar personal history to write so compelling a novel about the place where politics and art intersect. By the time he was 23, Bennett, an Irish Catholic from Northern Ireland, had already spent five years in and out of various jails, charged with politically motivated crimes he'd never committed. He then traded in prison walls for the rarified halls of academia, studying for a Ph.D. in history before embarking on a new career as a fiction writer. Though at first The Catastrophist, set in the Congo during its bid for independence from Belgium, may seem a far cry from Belfast in the '70s, Bennett uses his hard-won wisdom to examine the role of the artist in a political conflict.

James Gillespie, a disillusioned Irish historian turned novelist, has arrived in the Congo on the eve of independence, hoping to reunite with his Italian lover, Ines. The two had once been passionately involved in Europe, but Ines's job as a journalist took her to the Congo, where her Communist leanings have kept her. Ines is an enthusiastic supporter of Patrice Lumumba, and her journalism reflects her bias. Gillespie, on the other hand, has a novelist's broader view, and his ability to see all facets of the issue simultaneously keeps him from choosing sides and drives a wedge between him and Ines. As she becomes more involved with Lumumba and his followers, he is befriended by an American CIA agent whom Ines suspects of being an enemy. When the political situation heats up, she puts herself increasingly in harm's way until, at last, Gillespie must put his own life on the line to save hers. Bennett does a stellar job of recreating the complicated web of political intrigue and shifting alliances at play in the Congo in 1959, but he really shines when exploring how personal relationships unravel under the strain of ideology. As Ines tells Gillespie shortly before she leaves him, his ability to see all points of view is a privilege few people can afford: "When you are on history's losing side, when you are poor and cursed to eat bread, to accept your enemy's point of view is to accept starvation and slavery." The Catastrophist is a love story, a historical novel, a troubling reflection on Africa's ongoing political upheaval. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

Short-listed for the Whitbread Novel Award, "The Catastrophist" is a haunting novel set in the politically charged landscape of the Belgian Congo just before independence. At its heart is the passion between novelist James Gillespie and the fiery idealistic journalist Ines, whom he follows to Africa as their affair begins to fray. They are as unlike as lovers can be; he is willfully apolitical and desperate for her love, while she is obsessed with the unfolding drama, caught up in history, hero-worship, and soon, a new passion. In a country that will self-destruct upon giving birth to itself, Gillespie is plunged into violence and betrayal, and moved by love to a final act of nobility. In his ravishing U.S. debut, Ronan Bennett delivers heart-stopping suspense, profound moral questioning, and a searing depiction of a doomed love.

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Short-listed for the 1998 Whitbread Novel Award and glowingly reviewed on both sides of the Atlantic, The Catastrophist is a haunting novel set in the charged landscape of the Belgian Congo just before independence. At its heart is the passion between novelist James Gillespie and the fiery, idealistic journalist Ines, whom he follows to Africa as their affair begins to fray. They are as unlike as lovers can be. He is willfully apolitical, desperate for her love, while she is obsessed with the unfolding drama, caught up in history, hero-worship, and soon, a new passion. In a country that will self-destruct upon giving birth to itself, Gillespie is plunged into violence and betrayal and moved by love to a final act of nobility. In his ravishing U.S. debut, Ronan Bennett delivers heartstopping suspense, profound moral questioning, and a searing depiction of a doomed love.

Customer Reviews:

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.".......2006-05-02

On June 30, 1960, the Congo was emancipated from Belgium. African nationalist leader Patrice Emery Lumumba became the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo when it declared its independence - the long awaited "Depanda" had arrived! In October 1958 Lumumba had founded the Congolese National Movement (Mouvement National Congolais; MNC), the first nationwide Congolese political party. Forced out of office during a period of violent political upheaval in September 1960, he was assassinated in January 1961.

During the Congo's turbulent beginning many countries intervened in its political affairs. "They used: fear of communism, economic collapse, civil war, and protection of European citizens living in the Congo to back themselves for intervening." And the expatriate community, living in luxury, sipping sundowners at poolside, did not appreciate their world, their comfortable lives slipping out of their control.

At the time, the Congo was the biggest and richest country in central Africa, one with huge strategic importance - not only to the Belgians, but to the US. Katanga Province, the size of Britain, remains one of the richest areas in all Africa if not the richest. "The mines of the Union Miniere and Forminiere provided the world with eight per cent of its copper, sixty per cent of its uranium, seventy-three per cent of its cobalt, eighty per cent of its industrial diamonds. Katanga has gold, silver, tin, zinc, manganese, columbium, cadmium, tungsten, tantalum: its supplies will never be exhausted." This was the land of Unilever, Brufina, Union Miniere and the Banque Empain, companies which were not about to let their holdings slip away easily.

Into this tumultuous, politically charged setting wanders James Gillespie, a disaffected Irish/English writer, author of a few well received novels and a contributor to various periodicals. He arrives in Leopoldsville with the intent of pursuing a waning relationship with Ines Sabiani, his fiery, radical Italian girlfriend with whom he is deeply in love. Gillespie's arrival in the Congo represents a major emotional commitment for him. Ines is a journalist with her country's communist newspaper L'Unita. She is as passionate about the cause of Independence and about the charismatic leader, Lumumba, as James is indifferent, or as he would say, "objective." And he is a skeptic, a pessimist. Part of the problem between the two lovers is that James is never on anyone's side. He insists, "I see all sides. My craft demands it." He is against intolerance, dogma, illiberalism. But he is for nothing. In?s invests herself emotionally as well as professionally in that which she believes. Her affair with James is doomed before Gillespie sets foot on African soil - just as Patrice Lumumba's government is doomed before he takes office. At one point In?s tells Gillespie that, "Dante wrote that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality." She accuses him of being a "catastrofista," a "catastrophist," one who believes "that no problem is small. Nothing can be fixed; it is always the end."

As James becomes caught up in the historical movement, colonial injustice and the chaotic brutality that accompanies it, he is finally forced to take sides...and action.

Although well written, I did have some difficulty with author Ronan Bennett's style. It made for ponderous reading at times. I am fascinated by this period in Africa, especially the politics, and by the character of Patrice Lumumba in particular, so I had personal incentive to persevere. "The Catastrophist" reminds me of Graham Greene's "The Quiet American." Both novels deal with the chaotic end of colonialism, have journalists as protagonists and idealistic, if Machiavellian, CIA operatives fomenting intrigue and even more violence. The colonialists in both novels, the Belgians here, the French in Vietnam in Greene's work, act paternalistically and condescendingly towards the "natives" and don't really take the independence movements seriously.

"The Catastrophist was short-listed for the 1998 Whitbread Novel Award.
JANA

difficult to get through.......2003-07-06

although i liked the setting - and the plot & characters were good, they writing style made it difficult for me to get through this book. it seemed to general where more detail was needed, too much detail where i wasn't interested and in general i put the book down after every few pages, chapters - where is this going, why is he telling me this...it was just difficult to get through. on the whole the story is good, but it wasn't fun to read.

Wow!.......2002-12-21

I read this book over two years ago, and I still think of it often. The story is spellbinding, and I was introduced to Africa and the Congo. It may be my personal favorite.

One to remember.......2002-03-07

I read this novel when it was released. It stayed with me like almost no other novel ever has, hence my decision to review it. Simply put, it was excellent. Ronan Bennett told his story with sensitivity for the political climate, and a keen insight into human relationships. I echo the sentiments of another reviewer in that this is a thinking person's novel. Bennett's writing style is awesome. Those not interested in the content but partial to spectacular penmanship should still read this novel. They will not be disappointed.

Overthrown by Strangers is even better!.......2002-03-04

The Catastrophist is a very good read--highly recommended. It is a thinking person's page turner. Bennett has worked hard not to trivialize the suffering during a dark page in history by overlaying a love story. One feels that he honours history while using it to show the difficulties/intrigue between the personal and political.

If you liked this book, then try to get a copy of Overthrown By Strangers. It is an amazing book--gritty and on the edge. He "pulls no punches" as you ride through the underbelly of politics in Peru and Ireland which moves to California and Central America. Somehow the interception of the stories really works to create a provocative, fast-paced book. It contains the dark humour you found in The Catastrophist as well. Though there is a roughness to it, personally, I think it is his best and shows the depth of thought and feeling this writer possesses.

Average customer rating:

Daniel Wellington's Non-Destination Guarantees Many Laughs

loved this book

A funny and refreshing debut.

Author of ones fears

5 stars all the way

The Catastrophist
Lawrence Douglas
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156031779

Book Description

Meet Daniel Wellington: art historian, academic star, devoted husband, and total basket case. Although Daniel has known nothing but success, he’s convinced the future promises nothing but disaster. When his wife, known simply as R., presents him with a tiny, size-XXS Yale sweatshirt, Daniel is seized by the impulse to bolt; the specter of imminent fatherhood sends him into a full-blown existential crisis. Soon this well-intentioned young professor finds himself plotting bigamy, lying about his past, imagining his pregnant wife in the arms of an androgynous grad student, and explaining to the dean his obscene e-mail to the lead in a student production of Miss Julie.

From an idyllic New England campus to the rarefied art worlds of Berlin and London, The Catastrophist charts the rise and fall and partial rebound of an ambivalent but endearing Everyman and heralds the appearance of a major new comedic voice in American fiction.

Customer Reviews:

Daniel Wellington's Non-Destination Guarantees Many Laughs .......2006-11-27

I thought "The Catastrophist" might be another first novel by an academic. I gave it a chance, and by the second page, I was "hooked". The main character reads like a train wreck with a colorfully described internal life that captures a self-depreciating good humor. Professor Douglas offers a take on modern culture that mixes insight with derailment, then adds dry wit with a bit of animalistic vitality thrown in.

The Catastrophist's turn of phrase is laugh-out-loud funny.

P. 33 "Gradually I lost the ability to distinguish between my original dread and my dread of my dread. My anxiety reflected back on itself, like an object trapped between two mirrors."

The female characters, the supporting male characters, the incidents, locations and dialogue are all very ...varied. The supporting characters remain unique unto themselves. They could be the Cheers/Seinfield casts that carry on to spawn their own shows and develop their characters (Frazier, Lilith, Julia Dreyfus, Kramer, etc.) long after Cheers/Seinfield has vanished.

A disappointing quality of novel rests in Daniel Wellington's state of non-maturation. He doesn't seem to learn any life lessons or mature. He just keeps on keeping on, and gets away with it, at least through page 274.

Not to spoil the ending...the other shoe doesn't drop...there is no ending. The author could easily pick up with the same character in "The Catastrophist: Part Deux", or page 275. The book didn't take a nosedive, it just glides.

"The Catastrophist" was amusing; it was entertaining. However, the potentially deep material stayed superficial. I'd hazard a guess that Part Deux would land the reader at a destination, hitting pay dirt.

At the onset, I gave ""The Catastrophist" five stars. By mid-book I had descended to four stars, and I concluded with generous three stars by the non-end. I'd round it off to a nice four stars. Professor Douglas may or may not be on to something...too soon to tell.

loved this book.......2006-10-17

This is a memorable book, incredibly funny with serious underlying themes related to marriage, family, self esteem and struggles with inner demons. Douglas uses language very creatively. I loved the book and would highly recommend it.

A funny and refreshing debut. .......2006-09-19

A good beach read for those who can't stomach mass-market paperback pap. This is an often funny, sometimes fiercely sad, tale of the fairly likeable Daniel Ben Wellington who cannot seem to make the correct move in almost anything he undertakes. It speaks to anyone who has been mildly aware of how "chance" tends to rule our lives to a greater degree than most self-help poseurs acknowledge.

Author of ones fears.......2006-08-09

A catastrophic reaction is defined as the disorganized behavior that is the response to a severe shock or threatening situation with which the person cannot cope. In Lawrence Douglas' "Catastrophist," the protagonist, Daniel Wellington, experiences a series of subtle catastrophic-type reactions to everyday life stressors (family, career, travel etc.). It is not entirely clear why Daniel is having these reactions. The author suggests that these may be part of the protagonist's generalized anxiety. The reactions are not violent displays of emotional turmoil such as predicting the end of the world, seeing unrealistic danger or doom in a situation or a total psychiatric breakdown. Rather, these catastrophic reactions are introspective and eat away at Daniel until they ooze out in the form of self-destructive behavior that is never consummated but yet harmful. Most of this behavior is in the form of flirtations that lead nowhere until one day he foolishly sends a sexually explicit e-mail to a former student and gets in trouble at work for possible sexual harassment. Another such "ooze" is Daniel's careless lies to the press and public about being a child of a Holocaust survivor. He does this at the pinnacle of his career in Berlin after making an important speech and being named to a prestigious Holocaust Memorial Board of Directors. He is eventually found out and forced to resign. The worst of these episodes is falsely leading his wife to believe that he was having affairs. In each of these three areas, he reacts to his fear of the worst (professional failure, sexual harassment charges and jealousy over his wife) by a disorganized, passive-aggressive and self-destructive behavior that paradoxically causes the worst to happen where it would not have been otherwise. Funny and tragic, the novel explores our fear of failure and loss and how our responses to these fears, if dysfunctional, can actually bring them into being. The author's technique is subtle, plot patiently developed and main characters realistic. This is also a real syndrome and the story is plausible and sound, full of humor and pathos.

5 stars all the way.......2006-06-20

Of the 175 books I've read thus far this year - yes, I'm still on that insane kick - The Catastrophist is one of only 15 that I'd give a starred review to if I were still a Publishers Weekly reviewer. It's that book every intelligent reader wants to read and every intelligent writer wishes they could write: a literary novel that is so tightly written, you'd swear it belonged on the commercial shelf. Mr. Douglas has written a smart-smart first novel with fascinating characters and twisting turns that will surprise you. Highly recommended.

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The Catastrophist: A Novel
Ronan Bennett
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NP1RAE

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the past the future

Cannot wait for the movie

Engrossing futuristic tale

Mind Blowing!!!

Great to the last page
Beyond Future Shock

Manufacturer: BookSurge Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1419609440
Release Date: 2005-06-22

Product Description

Beyond Future Shock begins as a pre-WWII love story that flows into an allegory and, ultimately, a powerful morality tale. It demands an answer to the question: What will become of mankind in the not-so-distant future, when we are faced with the dire consequences of our own trans-corporeal fusion into machines...and beyond?Three young, brilliant Germans form an intense friendship in academia. Heinreich and Lise later marry, but Hans, who has become a fervent Nazi, exposes Lise and her Jewish family. Lise escapes but her family is sent to Auschwitz while Heinreich, a test pilot, is coerced into fighting the war against American bombers to keep his wifes family alive. After the war ends, neither lover knows that the other is alive. Heinreich is expatriated to develop military jets for the Americans; Lise, caught by the Russians, is forced to help them build nuclear bombs; Heinreich becomes a wealthy industrialist with an American wife. A Cold War KGB assassination attempt destroys his family, except for his son, Douglas, who becomes an oil futures trader. When Douglas is killed in the World Trade Center terror strike, grief, loss, and ambition drive Heinreich into the world of Arab oil and retribution. At this time Lise, freed from the collapsing Soviet Union, retires to Paris.From this point forward, the story explodes into one of scientific vision: youth cocktails and human minds capable of being uploaded into mind-space servers. It is only then that Heinreich and Lise are finally reunited. But it is a time of fear, when these mind-space servers take on the characteristics of aggressive and powerful predators seeking to control the Earth and threaten the survival of humanity in the ultimate post-Darwinian war.

Customer Reviews:

the past the future.......2007-04-06

great book. i'm a history major that enjoyed the telling of the past & how it connects to the future. this book does exactly that and more. i would recommend and also tell you that it is an easy read.

Cannot wait for the movie.......2006-01-03

The love story between Heinreich and Lise, which takes them from their childhoods in WWII through the age of youth restoring technologies in the 2020s and beyond reminded me very much of Dr. Zhivago. Lise, a physicist, is a German Jew. Heinreich, a nobleman and fighter pilot is German. Just when they begin their lives together, they are torn apart by the forces of history, and try as they might to reunite, fate works against them. Yet, as science and technology advance, often for the purposes of war, these two do more than survive. In America, thinking Lise is dead, Heinreich thrives, becoming a wealthy aerospace industrialist. In Russia, Lise, also thinking Heinreich is dead, works on nuclear weapons. In their 90s, when stem cell and nanotechnology lead to youth restoration coctails, they reunite. Humanity seems on the verge of curing all its ills including death. But the power of pro-active evolution, no longer driven by chance, but by science, leads to the ultimate war for survival of the fittist post-human beings across the Solar System. This time Lise and Heinreich, using his vast aerospace resources to save humanist rebels and refugees, cling together. Suddenly, gripping the book ever tighter, you're thrust into a huge, strong science fiction 21st century techno-space battle. I cannot wait for the movie.

Belleno

Engrossing futuristic tale.......2005-12-25

I have to admit, I would have never picked this book up had it not been for the shameless plugs Dr. Alaniz, the author, has placed all over this site like some kind of cyberspace Burma Shave commercial. Now back to THIS book...The love story is not that engaging, but the fact that the science behind the story could happen in the near future in the way that Dr. Alaniz lays out the story is very frightening because it hits so close to home. The fact that the Richard Cheneys of the world could upload their brains into servers once their bodies give out, plug into limitless amounts of knowledge and thus wed the incarnate evil of the human soul and all of its insatiable appetites with all of the technology and knowledge available to man is chilling. 30 years ago DNA technology was just a dream, now it is commonly used as "the finger of God" to indict criminals and to free the wrongfully imprisoned. Thus, the idea of a permanent upper class that can never be overthrown because it shall always be smarter than everyone else due to nanotechnology and genetic engineering is an idea whose time is coming very soon. I would like to compare this work by Dr. Alaniz to Carl Sagan's "Contact", and it does compare in daring and originality. However, ultimately "Contact" was a hopeful work and I find the truth behind this book just frightening. Highly recommended.

Mind Blowing!!!.......2005-12-06

I completely agree with my friend Cathy's review, but as a concerned bioethicist, I worry that most of humanity might soon become insignificant in light of near future biotechnology. Alex's book, through the entangled lives, deep romances and awesome adventures of his living characters, has only made my fears worse. Whereas I have feared that within 10 to 20 years the ultra rich will be able to buy highly expensive, highly improved invitro produced offspring, leaving our kids in the dust of post-Darwinian evolution, Alex warns us that the super rich are likely to simply use their billion dollar resources to upload their minds into large supercomputers in thirty or forty years. Then the rest of us will be truly left in the dust. To me, Beyond Future Shock is a book filled with ideas that everyone should hear about, or see if this visually graphic epic is ever made into a block buster movie.

Randy

Great to the last page.......2005-12-06

Wrapped in a compelling love story than spans hundreds of years, Alaniz's novel is a solid science-based fiction dealing with humnanity's fast approaching bio/nano conversion to transhumanity: the so-called Singularity. (See Ray Kurzweil's new book, "The Singularity is Near" for a good, science based treatment of Singularity; Kurzweil claims it is no more than 50 years away.)

Beyond Future Shock, while carrying you away to scenes of romance amid vivid battles scenes, past, present and future, makes you think about the religious, scientific, and ecnomic promises and perils of Singularity

A Nazi combat pilot and his Jewish wife are torn apart during WWII. One gets to the know the hapless couple, Lise and Henreich during their "school" days at a Hitler youth academy all the way through the outbreak of WWII, when Lise's Jewish ancestry is revealed by a jealous "friend" of Heinreich. A beutiful romance is torn apart. The treatment of WWII, of its aerial combat and death camp suffering in particular, is painfully vivid. From the end of WWII through the Cold War, and the new war on terror, Lise (who ends up working for the Russians on nuclear weapons) and Heinreich (who emigrates to the United States and becomes a super succesful aerospace industrialist) do not reunite until they are in their late nineties in the late 2010s, when the first stem cell based "youth coctails" are being released for general consumption.

The world, on the edge of "killing" death through modern science, is, however, energy starved, and conflict between Luddite religious factions is rampant. Things only get worse when bio/nano brain chips, originally designed to cure Alzheimer patients in the early 2030s, enter the black market, and people begin to "upload" their brains into mindspace servers. The new beings, freed from slow, accidental evoulution, begin to evolve into ever more advanced and agressive beings through bio/nano technology, and a war involving every single transhuman erupts over possession of mindspace and energy resources.

Yet again the ex-Nazi combat pilot and his wife find themselves facing a world on fire. Heinreich and Lise use their vast aerospace resources to build a moon base to house mindspace refugies and humanist rebels who are trying to bring peace back to Earth. The battle between Earth and the humanists spills into the solar system. At stake is the future of transhumanity. Will a few, or even a single, ulitmate post-Darwinian super being take over the whole of the Solar System?

Chatherine Houghton

Customer Reviews:

Argh, Matey!.......2002-10-09

Boredom settles over the crew of the space ship STAR WARTS and Commander Toad has to do something quick. Lieutenant Lily, Mr. Hop, Jake Skyjumper and Doc Peepers are all unhappy. They've watched all the ship's movies-SPLASH GORDON, THE TOAD WARRIOR, INDIANA FROG AND THE LILY PAD OF DOOM-and read all the ship's books-ROBIN TOAD, THE LIZARD OF OZ, and SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN WARTS-and played a lot of croak-kay, leapfrog, and hopscotch. There is nothing to do and they're all going a little crazy. That all changes the day Commander Salamander and his pirate crew arrive. Commander Salamander boards STAR WARTS and takes everyone captive except for Doc Peepers. Only a little while after that, Commander Salamander makes Commander Toad Hop the Plank at sword point! Only Doc Peepers can save the day!

Jane Yolen is an award-winning children's book author as well as a writer of adult science fiction and fantasy. She's earned the Caldecott-given for the most distinguished picture book, the Nebula-given to the most distinguished writing in the field of science fiction and fantasy, the Golden Kite-given by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and the World Fantasy Award. She's written seven Commander Toad Adventures, including COMMANDER TOAD AND THE LONG VOYAGE HOME, COMMANDER TOAD AND THE PLANET OF THE GRAPES, COMMANDER TOAD AND THE SPACE PIRATES, and COMMANDER TOAD AND THE BIG BLACK HOLE. With dozens of books written in many genres, Jane Yolen is a great author to introduce to young readers.

Fun to read out loud and filled with puns and sight gags really well drawn by Bruce Degen, COMMANDER TOAD AND THE SPACE PIRATES is a blast to share with young or reluctant readers. The sentences are short and choppy, driving the story on and filling the events with laughs. The pirate talk, "Yo-ho-ho, me slithery-slees!" is top-notch and will inspire young readers to quote the lines long after the book is finished-if an adult is willing to read the passages in a properly piratical dramatization. The solution to the pirates, once revealed, is hilarious and makes perfect sense even to pre-readers who understand story and set-up that comes in narrative repetition.

The Commander Toad series, all seven books, is recommended for imaginative young readers who have already been exposed to STAR WARS, STAR TREK, and various other science fiction based television shows and movies. Jane Yolen is one of the most entertaining authors for young minds out there.

Argh, mateys!.......2002-10-01

A truly delightful children's book.......1998-11-28

Jane Yolen's "Commander Toad" series is a charming science fiction spoof, and an excellent children's book. The detailed, zany illustrations by Bruce Degen are the perfect complement to the witty text and off-the-wall characters. The test of any children's book is its reception by actual children, and "Commander Toad and the Space Pirates" gets full marks there. It has been requested so many times by my 5- and 3- year-old siblings that I can now recite it from memory. The text stands the test of many repetitions, and my five year old brother, just now learning to write, can often be heard to request "Mom, how do you spell 'Commander Toad'? How do you spell 'Space Pirates?'.

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Commander Toad and the Space Pirates
Jane Yolen
Manufacturer: Coward-McCann, Inc., New York
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OCTIY8

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House Church and Mission: The Importance of Household Structures in Early Christianity
Roger Gehring
Manufacturer: Hendrickson Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1565638123

Book Description

For nearly three hundred years, early Christians met almost exclusively in private homes built originally only for domestic use. In House Church and Mission, Roger Gehring investigates both theological and socio-historical aspects of the missional significance of house churches from the time of Jesus through Paul.

The development of early Christian ethics, the emergence of leadership structures, and the growth of ecclesiological concepts were all noticeably influenced by the households in which believers lived and gathered. In the last twenty-five years this early century house church phenomenon has generated a great deal of interest among New Testament scholars and church practitioners. This research has focused primarily on the implications of the social and theological effects of the house church on the early church.

House Church and Mission offers scholars the first comprehensive summary of evidence concerning home churches in the New Testament and supplies pastors and lay leaders with a well-crafted discussion of the nature of "church" that explores the practical implications of house churches for outreach.

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