The Nonviolent Coming of God

From the pages of the Gospels, Douglass lays out an understanding of Jesus' mission that makes compelling sense of the challenges before us in a nuclear age of withering life on earth. He beautifully relates conditions in the first-century Levant to those among billions of us who serve (and are served by) a modern-day Rome and among other billions who live on the dregs we leave them. He especially illuminates the contingent nature of Jesus' prophetic message about the downfall of Jerusalem: If the people repent from relying on violent resistance, from following the revolutionary "messiahs" into Roman killing fields, follow the Great Commandment, and learn to love enemies, the kingdom is here now. If not, just like the world in the days of Noah and of Lot, "you will all likewise perish." It is up to them (up to us). What does it mean that the kingdom is at hand, within us, among us, within our power (Lk. 17:21)? Once we read the Gospels clearly, the practicalities and the price of following Jesus are clear. This is an inspiring but humbling book; ultimately, however, it is empowering and energizing. Through correspondence, it relies on some of Walter Wink's early thinking on the Powers; if you are familiar with Wink's books, from "Naming the Powers" to "The Human Being," you will be grateful to find this work, with which they beautifully harmonize. Special thanks to John Wipf for bringing it back into print, among others of Douglass's earlier works on similar themes.