Life changing | The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

True Religion | The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical | Shane Claiborne

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	• The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical Shane Claiborne Zondervan, 2006 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 135 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

IRRESISTIBLE REVOLUTION (Shane Claiborne)

IRRESISTIBLE REVOLUTION (Shane Claiborne)

(Zondervan, 2006).

Shane Claiborne looks, speaks, and dresses like an Old Testament prophet (or John the Baptist). And he makes the same sort of crazy sense. (But he's had a better formal education than most of them).

He's a young (my guess: 30s) idealistic American, who spent time with Mother Teresa's helpers in India, and went to Iraq with other peacemakers (there he was lucky to survive a car accident and other possible horrors). He's one of the founding members of The Simple Way community in very-downtown Philadelphia, and a prominent activist.

A couple of months ago I heard him speak at the Urban Neighbours of Hope conference in Melbourne, and was impressed. (My wife Jan's job at the conference was to provide hospitality - bedding and breakfast, for Shane - and his mother: he's never married - and other speakers, but that's by-the-way). He's a terrific raconteur. Who could forget his lines: 'Patriots you may bring your flags; we're washing feet and will need some rags'? Or his story about throwing $10,000 worth of small change around Wall Street. Or of his grandfather's setting fire to fields because he overloaded a new trailer with hay, which ignited from friction?

This book is a terrific read: those of us over 50-or-so mightn't get some of the modern lingo, but we'll certainly enjoy his humor (particularly 8 or 10 'Just kiddings!').

I have no other comments to make about the book, and would rather use the space here to cite a few representative 'quotable quotes' to whet your appetite:

* (When Roman Catholic authorities began the legal process of evicting homeless people from a deserted cathedral): 'We ran through campus hanging up flyers that read, "Jesus is getting kicked out of church in North Philly. Come hear about it. Kea Lounge. 10 pm. tonight".

* 'You guys are all into that born again thing, which is great. We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemas. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy too'.

* 'If you don't know what a eunuch is, see the diagram in the appendix. Just kidding. Check the phone book and call up a pastor and ask her or him: it should make for an interesting conversation'.

* 'Many spiritual seekers have not been able to hear the words of Christians because the lives of Christians have been making so much horrible noise. It can be hard to hear the gentle whisper of the Spirit amid the noise of Christendom'.

* 'When people move beyond charity and toward justice and solidarity with the poor and oppressed, as Jesus did, they get into trouble... Managing poverty is big business. Ending poverty is revolutionary'.

* 'There is one thing I will never forget - (Mother Teresa's) feet. Each morning in Mass, I would stare at them. I wondered if she had contracted leprosy. But I wasn't going to ask, of course... One day a sister said to us, "Have you noticed her feet?" We nodded, curious. She said, "Her feet are deformed because we get just enough donated shoes for everyone, and Mother does not want anyone to get stuck with the worst pair, so she digs through and finds them. And years of doing that have deformed her feet." Years of loving her neighbor as herself deformed her feet'.

* 'The stuff Jesus warned us to beware of, the yeast of the Pharisees, is so infectious today in the camps of both liberals and conservatives. Conservatives stand up and thank God that they're not like the homosexuals, the Muslims, the liberals. Liberals stand up and thank God that they are not like the war makers, the yuppies, the conservatives. It is a similar self-righteousness just with different definitions of evildoing. It can paralyze us in judgment and guilt and rob us of life'.

* 'Bono, the great theologian (and decent rock star) said in his introduction to a book of selections from the Psalms: "The fact that the Scriptures are brim full of hustlers, murderers, cowards, adulterers, and mercenaries used to shock me. Now it is a source of great comfort".'

* 'The Catholic Workers used to say "The true atheist is the one who refuses to see God's image in the face of their neighbor".'

You get the idea... Every Westerner whose life is fairly comfortable should read a book like this at least once a year.

Rowland Croucher
October 2007
jmm.aaa.net.au

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Life changing

Read this if you want to be knocked off your feet. I literally think about something related to it every day. Sure, there is much to be argued with...but the discussion he is generating is one that needs to be had.

True Religion

Great work Shane! Lord, forgive our apathy and help us to have true religion and to seperate it from our political ideology.

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The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

This is a great book which makes you think outside the box. Our bible study group is using it together and it has helped us to come up with ways we can serve our community and do things within ourselves to change our world as Jesus would.

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94 1/2 Theses for Shane Claiborne's *Irresistible Revolution*

First, a word of warning:

After reading through Irrestiible Revolution, I felt very, very self-righteous: here's a guy who's either been very hurt by one too many local churches because they lacked sufficient resources for outreach, lay development, fellowship, worship. et, al., or he's going out of his way to posture him as such an individual (I was a little tempted to pursue private investigation and find out if he really was elected prom king in High School; but then it struck me: I have a life of my own). And so, I found myself being thankful to be involved in a local congregation that is fulfilling my needs for "normal Christian Growth" - cf. Watchman Nee to read about what I mean by that). That's when it struck me that I've simply been blessed in different ways than other Christians have been, and such is never grounds for self-righteousness.

But I came back to the book, and was struck by how many thoughtless, ridiculous, arrogant, and/or ungodly remarks were made by a professing evangelical Christian. That's when it dawned on me: either Shane Clairborne is writing satire, or he's truly an arrogant and ungodly individual. I'll presume the former since, if for no other reason, some of his statements are so funny they could not possibly come from the thoughtful, caring, compassionate individual as Mr. Clairborne's reputation affords. So in that spirit, I hereby respond to Mr. Clairborne with the following 94 ½ Theses (not to outdo any other truly revolutionary, Chruch-nourishing endeavors):

If Shane Clairborne or any of his followers are even slightly offended by even one of these theses, then that would demonstrate that he is not after all being satirical, but is indeed a pathetic loser worthy of membership at any local church of his choosing.

1)Thanks, Shane, for making us privy to all the up-and-coming culture wars as they appear on your radar: "Religion and politics ... are now two of the most popular things to talk about. (IR, p. 22) ... how did I ever sleep through that start-up??

2)Thanks for sharing with us your knowledge of the Greek-language derivative of euangelion (p.23): after all, doing this lends credibility to the authors of books we like to read. We're very impressed, but just one question: do people really ask you if you're evangelical? I believe what they're quibbling about is if you're a part of the Church (y'know, Christ's bride)

3)To paraphrase the woman at the well (John 4): Do you perceive yourself to be a prophet? "...Prophets are rising up who are trying to change the future, not just predict it (IR, p.24) - yeah, but not all of us call ourselves " prophets," since we occasionally make lapses in judgement. "Children of God" will do fine.

4)Oh, Shane, what so kind hyperbole you wrought: "This thing Jesus called the Kingdom of God is emerging across the globe in unexpected places...(IR, p. 25). I won't embarrass you with your lapse in theological judgement on this one ... but this *thing* ??

5)Thanks, Shane, for sharing with us your astute knowledge of stock market terminology: "... the bear and the bull of Wall Street are aggressive and are ready to tear apart anything in their way ..." (IR, p25)- sorry to nit-pick here, but technically, the "bear" connotes the "sleeping" aspect of the market. He's not going anywhere. Talk to your financial underwriters, Shane, and they'll explain this to you with more grace and prowess than I ever could.

6)I know revisionist history is the thing all former prom kings and other cool kids are doing, but ordinary radicals? Not so much: "Jewish uprisings toppled the beastly golden eagle of imperial Rome that was placed in front of God's temple ..." (IR, p. 26)
I think you're referring to the Jews' response to all the edicts placed on them and their families, forcing them to banish the area, right? I believe that was because they were being blamed for all the noise the Church was making (after all, it is their king at the front of the line of the "toppling," as you call it).

7) [This one's a two-parter (i.e., two comments to make about one idea in Irresistible Revolution): -Thanks for extolling the virtues of flawed cause-effect relationships: "If people get too excited (by what I'm doing), I'll start to wonder whether I have really spoken the truth ..." Aw, come on, Shane, you're awesome. Hey, when's your next book coming out?"

8) (Part Two, continuing the quote from above): "... for Jesus said, `Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets ..." And for all the things you are, "false prophet" is certainly not one of them. Besides, whoever voted in that first group of elders and deacons at the time of the Early Church, at the adbice of Paul's letters, were all clearly drunk.

9) Thanks for including what shall always be considered the best writing ever to accompany Richard Srauss' "Also Sprauch Zarathustra" (i.e.., the 2001: A Space Oddyssey them (p. 28-9, chapter's final paragraph). I was especially moved to notice this when one of your followers said (pretty much ver batim), "I'm going to follow Jesus, not Christianity." And yet, Shane's kinda okay with a *new* Christianity as noted in this cited quote

10) Thanks for understating the veracty of godly sorrow, which I believe is uttered somewhere in 1 Timothy: "There are a lot of people speaking the truth with no love, and there are a lot of people talking about love without much truth. And let's not get stuck in guilt." (IR, p. 31). Or grieving of the Holy Spirit, for that matter, Shane.

Finally, Shane:
Thanks for demonstrating, first and foremost, that the intent of radical generosity is not merely to give to the poor (for if we're to learn anything from Milton's Paradise Lost, living a godly life should be pursued to be godly, not noble), but to demonstrate a lifestyle indicative of Kingdom living. You have demonstrated repeatedly that giving and giving cannot truly be a lifestyle: at some point,, we're going to stop giving (maybe not with our money, but with something else).

jj

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