book review vol. eighteen: Jesus for President

by D.O.

Jesus for President was published while I was in Philly working at my internship. While working there I met both Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, the authors of this book.  One of the perks of working (for free) with the folks in this camp up in Philadelphia was that I managed to acquire a copy of this book for free. Four months later I finished it.

I was very excited about reading this book because Shaner’s first book did one of the biggest numbers on me that any book has ever done, and I was curious to see if his second would do the same. I was also excited to see the actual book, as each page is graphically designed in the hippest of ways. See the Jesus for President website for some samples (and know that your’s truly designed the blog for that site).

The book is divided up into four parts, each that explore the political aspects of the subject at hand. Part one is essentially a brief (and arguably overly light-hearted) overview of the Old Testiment. Part two introduces us to Jesus, the love revolutionary. Part three is a sort of survey of Church history and shows the follies of the Church when it’s found itself in bed with the State. Part four offers examples of political snapshots for “ordinary radicals”.

I found that this paragraph on page 240 was a fairly good summation of what the book was addressing:

Much of the world now lies in the ruins of triumphant and militant Christianity. The imperially baptized religion created a domesticated version of Christianity — a dangerous thing that can inoculate people from ever experiencing true faith. (Everyone is a Christian, but no one knows what a Christian is anymore.) Our hope is that the postmodern, post-Christian world is once again ready for a people who are peculiar, people who spend their energy creating a culture of contrast rather than a culture of relevancy.

Though Claiborne and Haw had plenty of good things to say in their book about politics and how Christians should and shouldn’t view it, I didn’t love the book. I will say though, that a major reason I felt that way is probably the bad taste in my mouth that remains from the internship. The book isn’t perfect, but it certainly wasn’t terrible.

So if you want to read a political book during this election year, then consider this one of your options. If you don’t want to read a political book, then you’re in good company. Most people don’t.