Miroslav Volf recently wrote in Christian Century (thanks Carlos Stouffer for this) that neither religious left nor religious right maintain a gospel-like Jesus in their discussions of faith. The religious left reconstructs Jesus as a propagator of their pet social causes while the Jesus on the right does the same. Both groups abandon the gospel in advocacy of their politics. The irony is that if either of these groups embraced the life described in the gospels, Jesus would exceed the left's demand for social justice and the right's demands for 'right' living. What encourages me is that I have seen a move to an embodied, gospel-like Jesus in the churches I have studied, granting me a hope that we can overcome these dualisms that cripple American Christianity.
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Excellently put! This says in a short post what I tried to say in my post on nationalism a few days ago. Thank you for this.
Peace,
Jamie
Posted by: Jamie Arpin-Ricci | December 08, 2005 at 07:35 AM
Cool, thanks Jamie for visiting the site...
Posted by: Ryan Bolger | December 08, 2005 at 03:55 PM
Good piece by Volf. Thanks for posting it. I'm curious as to how folks on the left and the right would respond to it.
Posted by: Tyler Watson | December 13, 2005 at 12:19 PM