Barry Harvey sees in the valley of dry bones of Ezekiel 37 a metaphor for the state of the church today: fragmented and scattered–dismembered–in its life and witness. Harvey critiques the church in its present state, and traces the developments that led it here. Yet just as there was hope for the people of Israel, there is hope for the church, that it can be re-membered into the earthly-historical form of the crucified and risen Christ that it is intended to be. For this to happen, the church must recover and reinvigorate core ecclesial practices. These include the spiritual interpretation of scripture, the development of sound doctrine, the centrality of baptism and the Eucharist, practices of spiritual discipline, and cultivation of the church as the social body of Christ.

Here is rich and thoughtful ecclesial and social criticism, written from a Baptist heritage yet decisively informed by the Catholic tradition. Can These Bones Live? will vitally contribute to the recently revived discussion of theological politics, and is sure to spark lively discussion in both the church and the academy. It will be of use in courses in theology, ecclesiology, missiology, social ethics, and hermeneutics.