Subversive Jesus

Author: Craig Warren Greenfield
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 031034624X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
When Jesus left the most exclusive gated community in the universe to come live with the people he loved and gave his life for, he turned everything we know and believe about life on its head. Jesus said that he came to bring good news to the poor, but most Western Christians remain disconnected and isolated from the poor and their contexts of injustice. Even our churches echo society’s pressure to isolate ourselves from the margins (e.g. by moving to a better suburb) and instead teach us how to be “nice people” who worship a “nice Jesus” and don’t disrupt the status quo. Convinced that Jesus places love for the poor and the pursuit of justice central, Craig Greenfield has sought to follow in Christ’s footsteps by living among people at the edges of society for the last fourteen years. His quest to follow this Subversive Jesus has taken Craig and his young family from the slums of Asia to inner city Canada and back again. This is the story of how Jesus led them to the margins: initiating the Pirates of Justice flash mobs, sharing their home with detoxing crackheads, welcoming homeless panhandlers and prostitutes to the dinner table, and ultimately sparking a movement to reach the world’s most vulnerable children. This book is a strong and potentially controversial critique of the status quo too often found in our churches, but it offers an inspirational and hopeful vision of another way. While readers may not relocate to a slum, they will certainly come to view their lives and ministry through a fresh lens—reconsidering how they are uniquely called by Jesus to subversively love the poor and break down systems of injustice in their sphere of influence.

Subversive Kingdom

Author: Ed Stetzer
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
ISBN: 1433673827
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
Noted missiologist/church researcher Ed Stetzer offers an accessible treatment of the doctrine of the kingdom of God, inviting readers to actively explore, advance, and live in this "subversive kingdom" today.

Parables as Subversive Speech

Author: William R. Herzog II
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 1611642337
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Book Description
William Herzog shows that the focus of the parables was not on a vision of the glory of the reign of God but on the gory details of the way oppression served the interests of the ruling class. The parables were a form of social analysis, as well as a form of theological reflection. Herzog scrutinizes their canonical form to show the distinction between its purpose for Jesus and for evangelists. To do this, he uses the tools of historical criticism, including form criticism and redaction criticism.

Subversive Jesus Radical Grace

Author: Robert Thornton Henderson
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1625640234
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Book Description
THEY'RE BRIGHT. THEY CAN BE BRUTALLY HONEST. THEY CAN BE CYNICAL. THEY'RE SPIRITUALLY HUNGRY. HOW WILL YOU TELL THEM ABOUT JESUS?There is a new, "postmodern" generation with a vast, unmet spiritual hunger. They don't know Jesus. In fact, they don't know much "about" Jesus. They need someone who can relate the truth of the gospel to them in terms they understand. But how does one communicate this transforming truth to a generation increasingly suspicious of religious words and cynical about religious claims?Robert Henderson invites you to look over his shoulder as he addresses the brutally honest questions of faith posed by a young postmodern man named Chip. Chip's questions echo those of a spiritually hungry generation uncertain of where to look for answers--and totally unimpressed with what they see as powerless religion that offers no hope for change. Discover how to introduce the next generation of seekers to the radical grace of Jesus--grace that will make a difference in their lives.

Subversive

Author: Crystal Downing
Publisher: Broadleaf Books
ISBN: 1506462766
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Book Description
Known for her bestselling detective novels, Dorothy L. Sayers lived a fascinating, groundbreaking life as a novelist, feminist, Oxford scholar, and important influence on the spiritual life of C.S. Lewis. This pioneering woman not only forged a literary career for herself but also spoke about faith and culture in revolutionary ways as she addressed the evergreen question of to what extent faith should hold on to tradition and to what extent it should evolve with a changing culture. Thanks to her unmatched wisdom, prophetic tone, and insistent strength, Dorothy Sayers is a voice that we cannot afford to ignore. Providing a blueprint for bridge-building in contemporary, polarizing contexts, Subversive shows how Sayers used edgy, often hilarious metaphors to ignite new ways to think about Christianity, shocking people into seeing the truth of ancient doctrine in a new light. Urging readers to reassess interpretations of the Bible that impede the cause of Christ, Sayers helps twenty-first-century Christians navigate a society increasingly suspicious of evangelical vocabularies and find new ways to talk and think about faith and culture. Ultimately, she will inspire believers, on both the right and the left, to evaluate how and why their language perpetuates divisive certitude rather than the hopeful humility of faith, and will show us all a better way forward.

A Subversive Gospel

Author: Michael Mears Bruner
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 083089036X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 267

Book Description
The good news of Jesus Christ is a subversive gospel, and following Jesus is a subversive act. Exploring the theological aesthetic of American author Flannery O'Connor, Michael Bruner argues that her fiction reveals what discipleship to Jesus Christ entails by subverting the traditional understandings of beauty, truth, and goodness.

Subversive Spirituality

Author: Eugene H. Peterson
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802842976
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
In Subversive Spirituality Peterson has gathered together a host of writings penned over the past twenty-five years that reflect on the overlooked facets of the spiritual life. Comprising occasional pieces, short biblical studies, poetry, pastoral readings, and interviews, this work captures the epiphanies of life with the pleasing pastoral style and inspiring depth of insight for which Peterson is well known. Peterson describes his book this way: "This gathering of articles and essays, poems and conversations, is a kind of kitchen midden of my noticings of the obvious in the course of living out the Christian life in the vocational context of pastor, writer, and professor. The randomness and repetitions and false starts are rough edges that I am leaving as is in the interests of honesty. Spirituality is not, by and large, smooth. I do hope, however, that these pieces will be found to be freshly phrased".

The Parables

Author: Douglas D. Webster
Publisher: Kregel Publications
ISBN: 0825477352
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
A comprehensive study of Jesus's parables that emphasizes personal reflection and application Jesus's parables used familiar situations to convey deep spiritual truths in ways that are provocative and subversive of the status quo. Prayerfulness was pictured by a persistent widow. The joy of salvation in the homecoming of a lost son. Love of neighbor by a marginalized Samaritan. If we're not careful, we can easily miss details in the parables that reveal their subtle meanings as well as their contemporary relevance. Drawing on scholarship on the parables as well as theological, pastoral, and practical insights, Douglas Webster guides the reader through each of Jesus's parables, pointing out the important nuances that allow us to understand them and be transformed by them. Reflection questions at the end of each chapter can be used for personal or group study, and an appendix for pastors provides guidance for preaching the parables. Pastors, Bible teachers, and serious students of Scripture will find this tour through Jesus's parabolic teaching to be a feast for both the mind and the soul.

Subversive Witness

Author: Dominique DuBois Gilliard
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310124042
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 235

Book Description
Learn to leverage privilege. Privilege is a social consequence of our unwillingness to reckon with and turn from sin. But properly stewarded, it can help us see and participate in God's inbreaking kingdom. Scripture repeatedly affirms that privilege is real and declares that, rather than exploiting it for selfish gain or feeling immobilized by it, Christians have a responsibility to leverage it. Subversive Witness asks us to grapple with privilege, indifference, and systemic sin in new ways by using biblical examples to reveal the complex nature of privilege and Christians' responsibility in stewarding it well. Dominique DuBois Gilliard highlights several people in the Bible who understood this kingdom call. Through their stories, you will discover how to leverage privilege to: Resist Sin Stand in Solidarity with the Oppressed Birth Liberation Create Systemic Change Proclaim the Good News Generate Social Transformation By embodying Scripture's subversive call to leverage--and at times forsake--privilege, readers will learn to love their neighbors sacrificially, enact systemic change, and grow more Christlike as citizens of God's kingdom.

Subversive Sabbath

Author: A. J. Swoboda
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1493412906
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
We live in a 24/7 culture of endless productivity, workaholism, distraction, burnout, and anxiety--a way of life to which we've sadly grown accustomed. This tired system of "life" ultimately destroys our souls, our bodies, our relationships, our society, and the rest of God's creation. The whole world grows exhausted because humanity has forgotten to enter into God's rest. This book pioneers a creative path to an alternative way of existing. Combining creative storytelling, pastoral sensitivity, practical insight, and relevant academic research, Subversive Sabbath offers a unique invitation to personal Sabbath-keeping that leads to fuller and more joyful lives. A. J. Swoboda demonstrates that Sabbath is both a spiritual discipline and a form of social justice, connects Sabbath-keeping to local communities, and explains how God may actually do more when we do less. He shows that the biblical practice of Sabbath-keeping is God's plan for the restoration and healing of all creation. The book includes a foreword by Matthew Sleeth.