The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

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Average customer rating 4.5 (4 comments)

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Shane Claiborne has a lot of interesting stories and valuable insights. It's a funny book; very Donald Miller-esque in tone. There were several parts where I had to cringe as Claiborne tended to border on self-righteousness from time to time, but I don't think that it distracted too much from the beautiful images he successfully presented of what it means to live in real Christian community, the way Jesus did and required ALL his followers to do as well. The accounts of the time Claiborne spent in Iraq were most poignant and personally challenging for me to read. In the first few years following the United States' spring 2003 occupation in Iraq, I heard several Bush-supporters say to me accusationally, "It's easy for you to march down the street and hold a sign saying you want peace, but there are young men and women overseas right now actually putting their lives on the line for what they believe in." They were right. It was easy for me to march in anti-war rallies and say what I thought, but Claiborne actually put his belief in Jesus' teachings about love into action by joining his brothers and sisters in the Middle East as a Christian peacekeeper. That's what sets the Christian pacifists apart from regular pacifists, I'd say. Overall, the book leaves the reader with a very strong message that waving our hands in the air at a trendy megachurch every Sunday has nothing to do with Jesus' teachings on discipleship. Hopefully I will be able to take some of the new insights I've gleaned from this book and actually do something with them. I think that's the point.

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It's been a while since I read a book that actually made me feel guilty. Alot of Christian authors are mid to upper class, educated, land owners talking about how we should emulate a gritty, blue collar, homeless guy (Jesus). And I'll be honest; it's hard for me to read books like that without a smirk and a slight feeling of superiority, but Claiborne is different. He is one of the few Christian authors I would describe as truly authentic.

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Irresistable Revolution IS well titled: it's irresistably funny and moving and thought-provoking. Claiborne writes with the candor and humor of Don Miller and the passion and zeal of Jim Wallis. I found it a very good read and had trouble putting it down at times. I think it's very hard to find books that are as enjoyable and as grounded in the harsher realities of our world than this one. What i did find quite resistable about the book is that it seems to me glaringly lopsided. Christians' responsibility to the poor and the passion of God for justice and mercy are undeniable, yet where in the book is there any significant mention of the reality of eternity? I totally agree that evangelicals have missed so much of the gospel by emphasizing eternity at the expense of God's kingdom coming to earth, and at the same time it seems to me that Claiborne has done the exact same thing in reverse: he wants to speak the truth in love, so where is the truth about people being reconciled to God in Jesus, both here and now AND forever? Maybe as the prophetic type that he is, his only concern is to wake us out of our self-absorbed matierialistic slumber. At the same time, I read the book and wonder how Claiborne and his cohort go about helping people find their way back to God and not just out of poverty and injustice? I'm confident they do this; I'm just not sure why he would make no significant mention of it in his book that I could find? Seems to me that the baby of eternity as ultimate reality may have gotten thrown out with the bathwater of right-wing, watered down evangelicalism. Overall, I'd want anyone I know to read this book. And I wouldn't want anyone to think this wing of the revolution is the only revolution there is for the church to be about. Jesus spoke plainly of both justice in this world and eternity in the world to come, and i wish this book had spoken more of both truths instead of one at the expense of the other.

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We are a wealthy congregation living in the wealthy suburbs of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Over the past few years I have felt a heavier and heavier burden for the poor, and more and more like something was wrong. I picked up this book and cruised through it in 2 days - I have never felt so liberated. A complimentary article is the emblezzlement paper by Ray Mayhew (http://www.relationaltithe.com/EmbezzlementPaper.pdf). These words are igniting a revolution that will reclaim the dignity and love of the Church (And I note STRONGLY that this revolution has the full support of scripture and the writings of early church fathers). It will free believers to escape our consumeristic system. If you are wondering if there is something more to Christianity, if you are outraged at the injustice to the poor, if you are fighting against apathy among our brothers and sisters - READ THIS BOOK. Thanks Shane!