I got back from a weekend away in St. Ives (possibly my favourite place in the UK) and found a box with Amazon printed on it… O how I love getting books in the post. It was Shane Claiborne & Chris Haw’s new book; Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals.
At the moment I have only just flicked through it, but it looks really interesting. The ‘feel’ and artwork (which is on every page) is very cool, almost more like a scrapbook of thoughts and ideas with accompanying images than a systematic book.
More importantly the book is part of my continuing journey in rethinking what it means for me to be a follower of Jesus. I am just finishing Brian McLaren’s The Secret Message of Jesus then I have his Everything Must Change to get through. Maybe then, I will be able to get onto getting Jesus for President!
Now if that lot want get me at least talking radical talk then nothing will. But that’s the danger isn’t it…just talking. The real test is if people like me who love to read books like these and can whitter on about ideas till the cows come home, can put the ideas into practice or praxis ["Theology without action (praxis) is the theology of demons." —Maximus the Confessor]. It makes me think of last week when I went to a skate park and everywhere I looked the anarchy sign was printed on helmets, shoes or t-shirts as a symbol/logo of that sub culture. Yet most of the young people who wear that logo [I would guess] would have little idea what it really represents, its just a pop icon of sorts. This is the danger of the branding and culture of the emerging church. We/I love to read the radical books, listen to the speakers, read the blogs, like wearing the anarchy sign, but do we/I really want to get our hands dirty when it counts, do we really want to be a new kind of christian when it may mean ‘everything must change’ the way we/I shop, think, talk, travel, spend, work, parent, spouse, entertain etc. These are the things that I have to think through if I truly want to be holistic in my faith and its getting a little uncomfortable…especially in my wallet!
Some Websites:
Jesus for President Facebook Group
Popularity: 60% [?]
yeah…amen…get off your butt and do something! i’ll try to do the same brother! we’ve all got plenty of work to do.
Thanks for your blog post about Jesus for President! I just wanted to let you know there are 2 videos of Shane speaking about Jesus for President, plus audio clips, visuals, and a blog tour at this link:
http://zondervan.typepad.com/zondervan/2008/03/jesus-for-pre-1.html
Please feel free to join the blog tour.
Blessings,
Amy