Not Reliable Guides: An Analysis of Some Covenant Community Structures

A scholar's twelve-year journey inside a secretive Catholic group.

When the Catholic charismatic renewal emerged in the late 1960s, it inspired dreams of authentic Christian community. From this movement emerged tightly organized "covenant communities"—most notably People of Praise and The Word of God/Sword of the Spirit—that promised to restore unity to a Church they saw as weak, confused, and divided.

Drawing on twelve years as an insider and decades of theological scholarship, Adrian J. ...