// March 26th, 2009 // Comments Off // Books, Church, Current Affairs, Religion
In the follow up to The Myth of a Christian Nation, Greg Boyd completes many of the thoughts engaged in the first work with The Myth of a Christian Religion. His approach in this volume is different though. While you again get Boyd’s intelligent and thoughtful critical approach to scripture and the American context, this time his pastor’s heart seems to engage much more. His responses seem to come equally from the heart and the mind. The books is a solid re-enforcement to the first work but takes more practical steps to speak into a number of American cultural issues where the church seems to have moved away from the teachings of Jesus and his early followers.
The introduction and first two chapters of the book tie together this work with the previous and one and defines Boyd’s position in how we are to approach others and entities as believers of Jesus. Boyd in his useful terms gives us again the picture of power over (manipulation, strength, control) and power under (love, surrender, service) and how operating from this position puts us often in direct conflict with the way that the world works. We are called to manifest the beauty of God by sacrificially loving and serving those who are hurt and in need around us and that there is no way to do this without “revolting against everything in our lives that keeps us self-centered, greedy, and apathetic toward the plight of others.” Sadly the American church shares and even celebrates much of what it seems early followers of the way stood against. The kingdom of God must display the character of Jesus – the one who showed us sacrificial love. Boyd says, “To the extent that any individual, church, or movement looks like that, it manifests the Kingdom of God. To the extent that it doesn’t look like that, it doesn’t. It’s that simple.”
Boyd points out later that there have always been kingdoms vying for power on planet earth and that there have also always been revolutions trying to wrestle power away. The revolution that Jesus launched is far different and shows us that “the quest for power over others to be as hopeless as it is sinful.” The way of Jesus is a powerful revolution of humble, self-sacrificial, loving service and because of this the Kingdom of God wages war differently.
Before transitioning to a discussion on multiple issues facing kingdom, Boyd gives us an important chapter on Christ and Caesar. He keenly points out that there has never been a government in history that looks remotely like Jesus. In turning to a short discussion of Luke 4 we are reminded that Jesus could have taken a worldly kingdom approach to power but chose a different route of love and sacrifice – not control. Here he hits what I believe is a much overlooked fact from our past in that for the churches first three centuries, the followers of Jesus didn’t serve in the military or in the government because the believed that it was incompatible with a Jesus life-style. This was a safeguard against trusting in the empire. This all came to an end in AD 312 with Constantine.
“If a significant portion of Jesus followers lived like this, the Church might actually become “the conscience of government” in the sense that our contrasting lifestyle would draw attention to the injustice of the state.” (p. 28)
Boyd ends the intro portion with the simple idea from Gandhi that maybe the best thing we can do is simply be the change we want to see in the world.
The book then turns to discussing twelve areas where Boyd believes that followers of Jesus must revolt against the powers. The twelve focus areas are idolatry, judgment, religion, individualism, nationalism, violence, social oppression, racism, poverty/greed, abuse of creation, abuse of sex, and secularism. In each section Boyd takes his ideas of sacrificial calvary type love (power under) and shows what this means for how we interact with others. There is not enough space in this review to dive into each of these so I’ll just hit two here but each is actually very compelling.
The first that stood out to me was the revolt against nationalism. The chapter opens with an image of Jesus washing the feet of world leaders (Bush, Bin Laden, Anon, Blair, Bush, etc.). The picture stirs different emotions in different people and is a struggle for many as we have come to a place where we see the enemies of America as the enemies of Jesus.
“It’s a curious belief. If Jesus was willing to suffer a hellish death on behalf of Bin Laden, how can we imagine he’d balk at washing his feet?”
The chapter then confronts our allegiances and really forces you to think about where those allegiances lie. Boyd also points to the mixing together of military and Christian thought as America was founded and grew. This has created an American Christianity which has maybe lost site of the values of Jesus. We are called to imitate Christ and not Caesar and when the way of Jesus comes in conflict with the way of nation – we must choose the Jesus way! The chapter ends in what will probably be a controversial section for Boyd. He points out that the earliest followers of the Jesus way died rather than expressing their allegiance to Rome. For Boyd this has forced an examination of whether Christians should state their allegiance to nations. He reminds us that we cannot serve to masters and that the sad part is that in America we often don’t even see anymore how far removed we are from the way of Christ as a country.
The other section that I will address in this review is the chapter on the Revolt Against Violence. The chapter is prefaced with a quote from Blaise Pascal on the stupidity of one man being able to kill another simply because of where he lives. It then opens with the touching WWI story of the Christmas Eve where German, British and French troops stopped their fighting to celebrate Christmas together. Generals stepped in and ended the affair. British leaders ordered that the artillery fire be increased. Boyd points out that they could not afford to have the arbitrariness and madness of war exposed. He later writes, “To be willing to kill, soldiers must believe they are the good guys who are righteously fighting the bad guys – to defend God, country, truth, justice, equality, freedom, or whatever.” The reality of humanity cannot come in to play.
Jesus approaches those who stand against him in a different way. He could have asked his followers to fight; he could have called in/down heavenly powers but he didn’t choose to affect change in that way. Boyd writes, “Had Jesus engaged in a “just war” against his foes, he would have legitimized violence rather than defeating it.” He then points out that we are to “resist and evil person” and that the Greek word for resist doesn’t suggest passivity but responding to violent action with a similar non-violent action and in a line that I love: “love that refuses to retaliate is the most powerful force in the universe.”
Boyd returns to the fact that for the first three centuries of Church history, Christians followed Jesus’ example by refusing to respond to their enemies with violence. This idea was one of the first things to go in the 4th century as the church moved into a place of favor with the Roman government. Augustine wrote and helped the church move away from the way of Jesus by speculating that Jesus decision to suffer rather than use force was not intended to be a permanent example. The idea of a “just war” was developed and Christians have been engaging in violent activity, often directed by nations, ever since.
“Kingdom people are forbidden to decide who will and will not receive the love and good deeds we’re commanded to give.”
There are no exceptions to the love of Jesus. Boyd points out that Jesus and Paul both lived under a tyrannical regime but taught us to love and serve others without exception. Boyd admits that in our setting this idea is radical and could be seen as ludicrous, impractical and unpatriotic but we need to remember that it looked this way on Good Friday as well when the God of the Universe suffered rather than using coercive force – but, we can’t forget that Easter came and God won.
The final feature of this book that is worth noting is the action guide section. With each chapter comes ideas for next steps. This section is really really good and moves beyond simple discussion questions at the end. The action guide gives ideas for next steps and some pretty thought provoking actions to change your world.
I really like this book. It makes you think and dig…I like that. I think as well that the book is landing at a very timely moment where many American Christians are re-thinking what it means to be a follower of Jesus and what that means for our churches as well. Whether you agree with Boyd or not, the book will lead to some great discussion that will, if you will let it, further your faith and test why you believe what you believe. I’d be sure and pick it up when it drops in May.
