A Fresh Perspective

Reza Aslan’s basic thesis in Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth is that Jesus was a failed revolutionary who was willing to use violence to overthrow the political and religious order to bring in God’s kingdom. He rejects outright the many teachings of Jesus about nonviolence, peacemaking, and love of enemies and dismisses as irrelevant Jesus’ refusal to resist his own capture and execution. Instead, he focuses on a few passages where Jesus says he didn’t come to bring peace: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! . . . Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three . . .” (Luke 12:49-53). Aslan’s argument can be easily refuted by historical scholarship, but we are still left to wrestle with Jesus’ teaching in the above passage. What is Jesus talking about? Reconstruction involves ...

A phrase in the contemporary Christian song, In Christ Alone , has sparked a great deal of discussion lately. The phrase in question reads, “as Jesus died/the wrath of God was satisfied.”  The phrase reflects a particular interpretation of the saving efficacy of Jesus’ death that is popularly called substitutionary atonement. It is one of several ways Christians have tried to make sense of the rather loose and varied New Testament metaphors employed in reference to the atoning significance of Jesus’ death. This became the dominant view in the Western Church when theologian Anselm explained Jesus’ death as a satisfaction of divine honor using the framework of the feudal system in the 11 th century. Progressive Christians level numerous criticisms against any theory that would demand Jesus’ death by God as a payment/punishment for sin or satisfaction of divine justice, which would seem to legitimize violence and make God guilty of cosmic child abuse. The primitive de...

The old adage, “One can be so heavenly minded that one is no earthly good,” bears some truth.  Traditional forms of Christianity tend to focus on the afterlife and being right with God so that one will end up in the right place. They also tend to be quite exclusive in terms of who’s in and out of God’s favor. More progressive expressions of Christianity emphasize more inclusive versions of the kingdom of God . In Colossians 3, after admonishing his readers to clothe themselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forbearance, and forgiveness, the writer says: “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (3:14). “Everything together in perfect (or complete) harmony” can serve as a poignant depiction of a progressive view of God’s kingdom. From the progressive point of view, the kingdom of God is as much about this life in this world as it is about the life and world to come. It’s about being in ...

Isaiah leaves no doubt that social justice is at the heart of prophetic faith. He calls the covenant people to repentance and it is very clear what he expects: Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;    remove the evil of your doings    from before my eyes; cease to do evil,    learn to do good; seek justice,    rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan,    plead for the widow (1:16–17). Three groups of people were the most vulnerable in ancient Israel and these three groups are repeatedly mentioned in the prophetic literature: strangers/aliens (non-Israelites), widows, and orphans. Authentic faith in the prophetic tradition involves pleading their cause, defending their dignity, and rescuing them from their oppressed condition.    There are some positive signs that a growing number of evangelicals are coming to realize that redemptive justice is not peripheral to the gospel, but at the very hea...