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A batch of the best highlights from what Todd's read, .
when it comes to Jesus’ battle with Satan, both conservative and progressive Christians snip out critical parts of the conflict. With their focus on traditional family values, the Protestant work ethic, and “God and Country” patriotism, conservative Christians snip out the Jesus who marginalized the family, who was a friend of sinners, who sided with the poor against the rich, and who was executed by the state for sedition. Snip. Snip. Snip. Progressive Christians snip out different stuff. We’re aware that Jesus was executed by the state but fail notice that Jesus’ battle with the Satan didn’t look a whole lot like what we’d describe as political activism. Jesus lived under empire, one of the most exploitative and oppressive in world history. And yet, Jesus never led a protest against Roman occupation. Jesus didn’t lead a “March on Rome” or carry a sign through downtown Jerusalem protesting Roman oppression. Jesus’ one disruptive action, clearing the Temple, was the restoration of a house of worship so that it could be a house of prayer. And most worryingly, Jesus was routinely gracious to the colonial occupiers and agents of empire like tax collectors and Roman centurions, to say nothing of telling his oppressed countrymen to “love your enemies.” We’ve failed to grasp the exact nature of Jesus’ provocation because of all the snipping that’s been going on. With Old Scratch snipped out of the Gospels, we’ve lost track of what Jesus was up to and why he was killed.
Reviving Old Scratch
Richard Beck
The habit of Constantinian thinking is difficult to break. It leads Christians to judge their ethical positions, not on the basis of what is faithful to our peculiar tradition, but rather on the basis of how much Christian ethics Caesar can be induced to swallow without choking. The tendency therefore is to water down Christian ethics, filtering them through basically secular criteria like “right to life” or “freedom of choice,” pushing them on the whole world as universally applicable common sense, and calling that Christian.
Resident Aliens
Stanley Hauerwas & William H. Willimon
Christianity got into bed with empire. It went from being a prophet of the kingdom to a puppet of the empire. Love of neighbor was swiftly discarded for a more practical ethic of upkeeping the political life of the state. A church that was once on the margins had become the center, had become the persecutor of other minorities, and now wielded the power over society. A church went from a people to a building and institution. Mission was out “there” beyond the boundaries of Christendom. ... Orthodoxy (right beliefs) overtook orthopraxy (right behavior or practices) rooted in the story of Jesus
Making It Plain
Drew G.I. Hart
...catch up on these, and many more highlights
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