Review of The Unarmed Truth by Jon Sherwood

Posted on October 15, 2026 by Leroy Seat

The eminent Richard Rohr recently wrote, “I don’t think there’s any way we can call ourselves Christians without aiming for nonviolence as our ideal” (his “daily meditation” for 9/23/26). That is the main point of Jon Sherwood’s book, whose subtitle is Following the Prince of Peace in a World of Violence. Although the author has no direct ties with the Anabaptist tradition, his book was published in 2026 by Herald Press, the trade book imprint of MennoMedia and the official publishing agency of Mennonite Church USA.

Most Mennonite church members don’t particularly need to read this book, so perhaps MennoMedia, was hoping to increase its sales to Christians who are not directly related to Anabaptism. And, indeed, as I was reading the book I thought how this book needs to be read by traditional Southern Baptists (such as I was for decades, although since 2012 I have been a member of a MC USA church), as well as other conservative evangelicals and by most members of the “mainstream” denominations.

Author Sherwood has some Baptist ties. He holds a D.Min degree in Justice and Peacemaking from Mercer University, which was directly related to the Southern Baptist Convention by being a Georgia Baptist Convention (GBC) school from its beginning in 1833 until that relationship was severed by the GBA in 2006. Sherwood’s book was based upon his doctoral dissertation, directed by Dr. David Gusheee, who has been the Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer since 2007. I also found it interesting that the Foreword was written by Rev. Malcolm Foley, who is employed by Baylor University, another traditional Baptist school.

The author begins his book by highlighting his own personal journey into nonviolence as a Southern pastor. He says that for many Christians in the southern part of the U.S., such as rural Georgia where he was born or east Tennessee where he now lives, “pacifist is a curse word—equal with sedition” (18). As he states in the last paragraph of the first chapter, he writes as a “reluctant pacifist” because of how even the people closest to him sometimes look at him as a “crazy person” because of his emphasis on non-violence (28).

In the second chapter, Sherwood emphasizes the importance of reading the Bible through the lens of Jesus, and he takes Matthew 5:43~48 as the cornerstone for Jesus’ teaching of Jesus regarding non-violence. This is a highly important point, as the fundamentalist point of view and largely the view of the current Southern Baptist Convention leadership affirm that all Scripture is equally inspired by God and all must be seen as inerrant, even the terrible book of Joshua, which is about Moses’ successor and leader of Israel (the man Joshua) being called by God to commit genocide of the Canaanites. There is no way a non-violent Christian viewpoint can be adopted if the book of Joshua is part of the infallible Word of God.

The next chapter is about Jesus and the political powers of the world. Sherwood states that “Jesus was not killed for being loving, nice and nonviolent.” Rather, he “was brutally murdered because he exposed the evil powers of the world, even those that invoked the name of God” (42). On the next page, the conservative Protestant pastor himself cites words from Richard Rohr, the Franciscan friar. Then in the following chapter, Sherwood depicts how the Apostle Paul, Jesus’ hot-headed disciple Peter, and John in the book of Revelation all three follow Jesus into “nonviolent battle,” continuing to champion turning swords into plowshares. For the most part, they believed that all forms of killing were shortcuts, signs of impatience that were not appropriate for a follower of Jesus (66). A couple of pages later, there is reference to Eberhard Arnold (1883~1935), the German Christian writer, theologian, and founder of the Bruderhof movement, a community committed to radical discipleship, shared life, and Anabaptist principles. (One wonders if this was in Sherwood’s original draft or added in response to a suggestion by the editors of Herald Press.)

The sixth chapter if about the “seismic shift” following the Edict of Milan in 313 and the issue of The City of God by Augustine of Hippo. In that monumental work written from 413 to 427, the great African theologian had to grapple with the Roman Empire being considered a Christian empire with all the violence that embraced. This led to Christianity becoming known as Christendom. Over time, this came to encompass the rise of the British Empire—the largest empire the world has ever known—which was characterized by an enormous amount of violence.

The following chapter provides a good introduction to the historic peace churches, although it is a bit dated. Sherwood says that these churches “need to be roused to action—not hiding the light of Jesus’ peace and attempting to sequester it away safely in the hills of Pennsylvania, Ohio, or Idaho, far from the troubles of a broken and violent world” (90). He fails to recognize the active presence of what some, including myself, refer to as neo-Anabaptists, members of peace churches who actively engage in the sort of non-violent action he sees as imperative for those seeking to implement the non-violent message of Jesus.

“One Nation Under God,” the eighth chapter, presents the author’s strong rejection of Christian nationalism. Despite repeated emphasis on non-violence by churches through the decades, he says that by the 1980s, “most of the Churches of Christ had become pro-military, conservative Republican.” Although he doesn’t mention President Reagan, he was the one whom conservative Christians and even Southern Baptists chose as President in 1980 over Jimmy Carter, a traditional Southern Baptist and a devout Sunday School teacher. Author Sherwood goes on to lament, “In one generation, nonviolence as a foundational tenet of discipleship all but disappeared across large swaths of American Christianity” (103).

Drawing from theologian Walter Wink, in the ninth chapter Sherwood debunks “the myth of redemptive violence,” and in the next chapter shares about his own congregation’s reluctant journey into nonviolence and hope for a new world. With “Subversive Resistance and Uncivil Worship” as the subtitle, the eleventh and final chapter is especially important. It ends with words from Martin Luther King’s 1964 acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize—and reveals where the title of the book came from. King declared that it is “the unarmed truth and unconditional love that will have the final word in reality” (144).

Jon Sherwood’s book is assessable to lay Christians, and I would recommend it not only to pastors who want to speak out on this important topic but also, and even especially, to church members who often meet to discuss new books relative to Christian belief and discipleship.

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Review of “Grace over Guns,” authored by Ben Daniel

Posted on August 3, 2026 by Leroy Seat

In Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence, Pope Leo’s first encyclical released in May 2026, the Pope said, “Today, more than ever, without prejudice to the right to self-defense in the strictest sense, it is important to reaffirm that the ‘just war’ theory, which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated.”

Ben Daniel is a Presbyterian minister who has served as pastor of the Montclair Presbyterian Church in Oakland, California, since early 2014. Although Presbyterians are generally supporters of the “just war” mentality, Daniel has long had pacifistic leanings and in this book makes it quite clear that he is now a pacifist. His earlier books were published (in 2010, 2013, and 2015) by Westminster John Knox Press, the long-established publishing house of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A). His new book, however, appears under the imprint of Herald Press, the publishing house of Mennonite Church USA, a shift that aligns naturally with the book’s strong Anabaptist pacifist commitments. The book’s subtitle is Pursuing Peace in a Militarized World.

Daniel first writes about “just war” in the fourth chapter, which is titled “The Prayers of Nagasaki.” As an American who lived in Japan for 38 years, that was the chapter of which I was the most interested, and I honestly think it was the best of the book’s seven chapters. In his discussion of the United States dropping two atomic bombs on Japan, he succinctly and clearly explains the “Christian just war theory.” He then asserts that there is no way the use of nuclear weapons in August 1945 can be justified by using that theory. Despite all the ways Americans from President Truman to many war historians up to the present have sought to justify those bombings, Daniel concludes that “the bombing of Nagasaki and of Hiroshima was evil, at least according to the ethics of Jesus” (97).

The author then ends that chapter by telling how he attended a soccer match in Nagasaki. That match was in the new stadium, which was opened in October 2024. He was impressed that that fine new facility “is called Peace, not in Japanese, but in the language of those who dropped the bomb” (108).

Daniel’s seven chapters were written in five different countries. The first two were both written when he was in Costa Rica. The opening chapter largely helps the reader get to know the author. He accompanied his daughter as she was going to Costa Rica to work as a volunteer in the summer of 2023. He stayed there for a while, enjoying being back to where he had gone with his high school Spanish club in 1986. While he was there (37 years later), he wrote the first chapter, but even though he was writing while in Costa Rica, the title of that first chapter is “Patriotism and the American Military Fetish,” and there he contrasts the prevalence of military adulation in the U.S. with only one brief statement about the situation in Costa Rica: it “doesn’t have a military” (31).

The second chapter is “Who Needs a Military?” and Daniel writes about how Costa Rica decided in 1948 that it did not (need a military), and they have not had one since. This chapter is largely about the meritorious political career of Óscar Arias, who was the Central American country’s president twice (1986~90 and 2006~10), and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987. The following year, using the monetary proceeds of his prestigious prize, he created the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress. Its purpose is to promote more peaceful, just, and equitable societies, both in Costa Rica and internationally. It is said to be one of the most influential peacebuilding NGOs in Latin America. In formal terms, Arias may not be a pacifist, but in practical terms he has long been aligned with the anti-war, “grace over guns,” stance that is the heart of Daniel’s book.

Interestingly, it seems that only two chapters of the current book were written in the U.S. The first of those is the fifth chapter, where Daniel wrote first about North Coast, the idyllic environment in northern California. But he came to realize that that region carries two layers of historical trauma: indigenous genocide and anti-Chinese persecution. After the overall introduction, the chapter, which is titled “Crimes Against Humanity,” morphs primarily into the crimes against the Chinese people who came to this country mainly, at first, to live and work much as the enslaved Black people had done in the American South. But through the last fourth of the twentieth century, the Chinese were forced to leave their homes and work in many parts of the state, especially on the North Coast, to live in Chinatowns in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles. And then, Daniel goes on to write about the crimes against the Japanese living in the U.S., beginning early in 1942.

“The Cost of War” is the sixth chapter and while it could have been written anywhere, it is primarily about the enormous amount of money spent on the military in the U.S. and how just a small percentage of the military budget could house every homeless person in the country. Here is part of one of his most powerful paragraphs:

From the perspective of Christian ethical traditions, prioritizing military spending over the needs of those who are hungry, unhoused, or lack access to healthcare or education is profoundly immoral. No biblical passages suggest that virtue should be ascribed to a nation that spends the abundance of its wealth on the capacity to kill while its citizens fester in preventable poverty (142).

The concluding chapter is “Opting Out of Empire,” and he clearly states the reason why such opting out is good and necessary: “empires are awful.” And he also asserts what few citizens in the U.S. realize: the U.S. is an empire, and as such, it “shares the moral failings of all empires.” And then he closes the book with the main point of his book: “We can choose grace over guns.”

Having finished Daniel’s delightful book, I am looking forward to reading Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer’s book, which was also issued in 2026. It is titled On Courage: How to Be a Dissident in an Age of Fear. Perhaps most of us need greater courage to dissent—peacefully and effectively—from the evils perpetrated by the empires of our present world,” which Daniel wrote about in his closing chapter.

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Review of “Why Christians Should Be Leftists” by Phil Christman

Posted on January 23, 2026 by Leroy Seat

In September of last year (2025), I read two reviews of Christman’s book, one in Sojourners (posted on Sept. 9) and the other in The Christian Century (Sept. 19). Those reviews of this book motivated me to read it, and finally finishing it early in 2026 led me to write this review of a book that is not only worth reading but also worthy of being read and discussed by conservative evangelical Christians, such as Christman once was, as well as by progressive Christians, which the author is now. However, he is also somewhat critical of that stance.

When in college, Christman gathered some friends to read and discuss Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. James K.A. Smith (in the Century article) writes that as a result of that reading/discussion, the author concluded, “The Sermon on the Mount is a manifesto about the possibility of and call for ‘universal solidarity,’ and the form of political life that best lives out such a call is socialism.” Consequently, he left the fundamentalism in which he had grown up, but he didn’t become a “liberal.” But he did become an honest witness to what he sees as the truth of the Sermon on the Mount, and thus he believes that Christians should be leftists—and that means being a socialist.

Toward the end of the book, Christman cites a 1980 essay by Herbert McCabe. That British Dominican friar (1926~2001) “argues that class warfare is something that exists whether or not we approve of it, and that our only choice as Christians is to enlist on the side of the oppressed: the side God has chosen. Then he, too, points to the Sermon on the Mount for instructions on how to do so” (155).

The next-to-last “chapter” is titled “Enemies,” and early in that essay he refers to Jesus’ injunction in the Sermon on the Mount to love one’s enemies. The first paragraph concludes, “And no matter how you do it, the person who gets involved in politics is a person with enemies” (157). He soon shifts to a discussion—and affirmation—of universalism. He states, “I need to shape myself … into the kind of person who will, in the end, not be mad if universalism is true” (160). And on the next page he asserts, “God loves everybody absolutely—I oppose any version of Christianity that tries to water this down … .”

Then, Christman write, “One of the most important things about leftism is that it is a rejection of the existing reality in favor of moral values that no society has made concrete yet” (162-3). As an example, he says, “One of the reasons I would like people to take another look at just war theory … is that it pretty clearly condemns every US war since World War II” (163).

“God’s Solidarity is Universal” is the title of the last “chapter.” Beginning at the bottom of the first page, he states, “Holding left convictions, like holding Christian convictions, doesn’t make you a good person. It helps you to see, rather, why you need grace. The fact that you share that need with everyone on earth, in turn, is not a bad starting point for solidarity” (165-66). He ends with a strong affirmation of universalism, affirming that “there is nothing in the universe as certain as God’s saving love.” And then, “God’s justice is ultimately love and reconciliation” (174).

This book will be offensive to those who are vehemently opposed to socialism and/or universalism. But such people are the very ones who need to read and think deeply about what Christman has written. His affirmation of socialism is similar to that of the liberation theologians of South America. They did/do not agree with Marx’s rejection of religion as “the opium of the people” (“das Opium des Volkes,” from Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right)—although there is much agreement with the fuller statement than there is with Marx’s response.

Marx wrote, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”​ That metaphor argues that religion acts as a painkiller for societal suffering under capitalism, providing illusory comfort rather than addressing root causes like class exploitation. When Marx published those words in 1844, “opium” carried positive connotations as an analgesic, aligning with Marx’s view of religion as illusory relief for real suffering, not mere escapism.

Latin American liberation theologians, such as Gustavo Gutiérrez, frequently drew on Marxist social analysis to critique capitalism’s exploitation of the poor but explicitly rejected Marx’s atheism, materialism, and revolutionary prescriptions. They affirmed his tools for diagnosing structural injustice—like class struggle and historical materialism—while subordinating them to Christian theology centered on God’s preferential option for the poor and scriptural liberation motifs. José Miranda, the Mexican priest who is accurately identified as a liberation theologian, is the author of Marx and the Bible: A Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression (published in English in 1974 by Orbis Books; it is the translation of Marx y la Biblia: Crítica a la filosofía de la opresión, first published in Spanish in 1971).​

Although I can’t recall Christman using the term “democratic socialism,” I think it is plain that that is the type of socialism he avows. Certainly, he does not espouse the violence of Marxism as articulated by Marx and put into practice by the former USSR and by the People’s Republic of China under Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party. The socialism Christman advocates is the democratic socialism of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has served since 2019 as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives), and Zohran Mamdani (the mayor of New York City since the first day of 2026).

Regarding universalism, I think back to what I heard from Jitsuo Morikawa, a Japanese American who was a pastor and then for many years a denominational executive with the American Baptist Churches USA. (The Northern Baptist Convention was formed in 1907, and it then it was known as the American Baptist Convention from 1950 until the current name was adopted in 1972.) In July 2022, I posted a blog article titled “What about Hell? In Memory of Jitsuo Morikawa.”

In the mid-1960s, when I was a graduate student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Morikawa (1912~87) was invited to speak there, and he was questioned about his rejection of the traditional Christian belief in Hell. He said that it was strange to him that so many Christians seemed to be disappointed and disapproving whenever he or anyone suggested that perhaps there was not a literal hell where non-Christians are punished forever.” If he had been speaking about universalism, it is most likely he would have said that it was strange to him that so many Christians seemed to be disappointed and disapproving whenever he or anyone (such as Christman) insists that God’s grace is such that “nothing in the universe is as certain as God’s saving love” and that “God’s justice is ultimately love and reconciliation.” Why would anyone want to shun or disavow God’s amazing and everlasting grace?

For those who are already progressive (leftist?) Christians (such as Mitchell Atencio and James K.A. Smith, the authors of the two reviews mentioned at the beginning of this article), Christman’s book will be a pleasant read. But Matthew Loftus, whose September 17 review in Christianity Today was titled “An Unpersuasive Plea for Christians to Swing Left,” evaluated the book in a mostly negative light. Most conservative evangelicals will likely agree with Loftus, who is affiliated with Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), a conservative Reformed evangelical denomination. He opines that “the biggest flaw with Why Christians Should Be Leftists is that it will do little to change minds among most right-leaning Christians.” Sadly, that seems to be a fair appraisal.

Conservative Christians (including those affiliated with PCA) are loath to change their position on anything. In 1872, Charles Hodge, a systematic theology professor at the old Princeton Theological Seminary, said: “I am not afraid to say that a new idea never originated in this Seminary.” Having new ideas about the Christian gospel regarding the teachings of Jesus being positively linked to leftism/socialism may be quite a stretch for present-day conservative evangelical Christians. They tend to applaud theologians such as Hodge, whom they see as contending “for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3, ESV).

But for others, for those who are progressive Christians or even those who perhaps are no longer active Christians, Christman’s book is well worth reading, and I recommend it for your thoughtful consideration.

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Review of “The Sutra on the Mount” by Toto Tay

Posted on December 3, 2025 by Leroy Seat

Toto Tay is likely the pen name of T. Carson Taylor, who is listed as the publisher of the book The Sutra on the Mount: An Exercise in Nonduality for Rediscovering the Sermon on the Mount. That rather slim paperback book of 140-odd pages was issued in September 2025. The author has written three other books, focusing on the Gospel of Thomas (“Thom”) and the Gospel of Mary (“Maggie”), which are often cited in his latest book. 

Not much biographical information about Tay/Taylor is available. He self-identifies as an “independent researcher and also as a caregiver and special needs parent.” His grown son, who has epilepsy and is autistic, requires considerable care and support. But the author exhibits a wide range of knowledge: he freely uses Greek, Hebrew, and Sanskrit words in his book. In addition to the Bible and the two non-canonical works mentioned above, he also frequently cites Hindu and Buddhist writings. The latter are cited because of his deep interest in nonduality, the spiritual-philosophical perspective that emphasizes oneness rather than separation. 

Tay/Taylor seems to have grown up in a fundamentalist Christian environment, but his spiritual growth led him to integrate non-dual spirituality with the Christian faith. His understanding of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and the Sermon on the Plain in Luke is far different, and far deeper, than that found among most conservative evangelicals of the past or the present. He elucidates Jesus’ seminal Sermon(s) in eight sutras, each with several subdivisions. Those eight are nicely summarized at the end of the book (pp. 116-121, before the four appendices). 

Perplexity AI gives this correct, concise, and helpful summary of the author’s latest work: “The book rereads the Sermon on the Mount through the lens of nonduality, treating it as a kind of ‘sutra’ … that reveals the radical oneness of God, self, and creation rather than a legal code meant to induce guilt or moralistic striving.” 

Drawing on Jewish midrashic practice and comparative spirituality, Tay offers short, contemporary “sutras” derived from key texts—the Beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer, and other sayings—to invite contemplative engagement and inner transformation rather than doctrinal debate. Traditional themes like poverty of spirit, meekness, and perfection are reinterpreted as paths into emptiness, self-control, and wholeness, with anecdotes and exercises aimed at helping readers sense the divine Presence in everyday life beyond rigid religious boundaries. 

The author’s style is quite “folksy.” For example, in Chapter One (which, incidentally, begins with a Hindy prayer), he writes, “Scripture, then, isn’t a fossil; it’s a refreshment! What we draw from it can be like a tall glass of iced tea on a scorching day. Ahhhhh!”

Most of you readers of this review are quite familiar with the Sermon on the Mount/Plain, and you likely have read many essays and a book or two (or more) that explain/interpret that basic part of Jesus’ teaching. But I dare say you have never read such a book as this one. Whether you are an academic or active in direct Christian ministry, careful reading of Tay/Taylor’s book will most likely give you new insights that will deepen/broaden your understanding and will be beneficial to your teaching/preaching activities.  

Even though I don’t fully agree with everything the author says, I have no hesitation in recommending his book to whoever wants to expand their understanding of the meaning and importance of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. 

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Review of “Faithful Exchange” by David Opderbeck

Posted on October 31, 2025 by Leroy Seat

David W. Opderbeck is a Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology and Institute for Privacy Protection at Seton Hall University Law School. Opderbeck (b. 1967) earned a J.D. from Seton Hall University Law School and an LL.M. from New York University, and then in 2011, he received a Ph.D. degree in Systematic and Philosophical Theology from the University of Nottingham.

Faithful Exchange: The Economy as It’s Meant to Be (2025) is Opderbeck’s third book. His previous books are Law and Theology: Classic Questions and Contemporary Perspectives (2019) and The End of the Law? Law, Theology, and Neuroscience (2021). His newest book marks a shift from law and theology to a broad historical sweep concerning economic issues.

Opderbeck is an impressive scholar. In this new book, there are 689 footnotes, the last one being a reference to his 2022 essay titled “Donald Trump and the End Times.” There are 18 pages in the Bibliography, and most of the books and essays included in it are cited in the extensive footnotes.

“This book offers a narrative theology of economic life.” That is the first sentence of the first chapter of Faithful Exchange—and the book is narratival almost to the extreme. From the beginning of the second chapter until almost the end of the last one, the author summarizes narratives over a broad sweep of world history—from Genesis to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis of the early 2020s. It is only in the final ten pages of the book that Opderbeck elucidates his own views on “the economy as it’s meant to be.”

“Exchange” in the title is a classic term in economics, referring to the giving and receiving of goods, services, money, labor, and value. And writing as a Christian believer, “Faithful” refers to the author’s belief that the economy as it is meant to be must align with the realities of creation, redemption, covenant, justice, and the good of all, culminating in the Parousia. Thus, the book’s concluding sentence declares that Christians “are called to act with grace and wisdom, affirming but relativizing private property rights, prioritizing the poor, emphasizing fairness, and actively waiting always for the coming of Jesus, when God will be all-in-all.”

The tenth chapter is titled “Toward a Contemporary Constructive Christian Economics,” and it is only in the eighth and concluding subsection of the final chapter that Opderbeck elucidates his own position—and even that is under the title “Ecclesial and Augustinian Coda.” In the first sentence in that subsection, the author states that “the theological themes ecclesiology, pneumatology, soteriology, and eschatology cannot correlate neatly to any temporal economic system.”

In the final ten pages of the book, the author states one of his key assertions: “In the biblical narratives, the ekklesia is the community that receives and embodies, practically and sacramentally, the kingdom of God in this present age. The members of the ekklesia share material goods in common so that no one is in dire need, contribute their diverse spiritual gifts to the community’s welfare, and value one another equally.” In order to do that, the church must first of all “remember its true identity.” This is linked to “a renewed focus on membership in the Christian community as a commitment of all of one’s property and financial resources to the kingdom of God in Christ.”

Opderbeck goes on to state that another core focus “should involve liturgy and worship that emphasizes repentance, lament, and tangible reconciliation for economic injustice.” Then a third core focus is the place of the church’s public witness and advocacy about economic issues. Following the biblical model and the arc of the Christian tradition, the church’s witness should respect but relativize private property rights, prioritize the poor, emphasize fairness, and suspect the power of wealth.

This book is highly recommended to all who want to read a scholarly, extensive, and concise narration of economic matters from Genesis to the present and to peruse the author’s pungent summary of “the economy as its meant to be” in the final ten pages of his valuable book.

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Review of “A Palestinian Theology of Liberation”

Posted on August 30, 2025 by Leroy Seat

A Review of Naim Stifan Ateek, A Palestinian Theology of Liberation: The Bible, Justice, and the Palestine-Israel Conflict (Orbis Books, 2017; 172 pp.)

(This is the review I recently wrote for the Englewood Review of Books.)

Naim Stifan Ateek (b. 1937) is an ethnic Arab Palestinian, a citizen of Israel, and an Anglican priest. His slim but highly significant book is the fruit of decades of theological thought and praxis.

Nearly thirty years ago Ateek wrote a closely related book, Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation. In that same year, 1989, he founded Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem. That organization has continued to grow in influence through the years with chapters in several countries. One such chapter is FOSNA (Friends of Sabeel North America).

Ateek ends the introductory chapter of his new book with a clear statement of its purpose: “The intention of this book is to provide an understanding of Palestinian liberation theology that will challenge readers to active participation in the work of justice, peace, and reconciliation” (7). Throughout his book, it is clear that Ateek wishes not merely to inform his readers about the plight of the Palestinians and their need for liberation but also to stir his readers to action.

Following the introduction there are ten chapters: the first four are largely historical, the next four biblical/theological, and the last two about taking action in the present.

The first chapter gives a very brief summary of liberation theology as first articulated by Gustavo Gutiérrez and as developed among some Latin Americans, black South Africans, and feminists. The common emphasis in all of these is that the central Christian message is one of freedom and justice. Thus, “Within this global liberation movement, Palestinian liberation theology was born when faith confronted the injustice of the conquest of Palestinian land by the government of Israel and its oppression of the Palestinian people” (11).

Since Ateek realizes that one important characteristic of liberation is “the way it takes seriously the context of liberation” (15), the second chapter sketches the historical story of Palestinian Christians. “Today,” he writes, “more Palestinian Christians live outside Palestine than inside. It is estimated that fewer than 200,000 Christians live inside historic Palestine, while over 200,000 are living in the diaspora” (23).

This is a part of the larger “Nakba,” the Arabic word for “catastrophe,” which is used to refer to what happened in 1948 when “approximately 750,000 Palestinians fled in fear or were driven out by force from their country because of the brutal onslaught of the Zionist militias” (25). Accordingly, the third chapter is “The Threefold Nakba,” the human, identity, and faith catastrophe for Palestinians in general and especially the latter for those who were Christians.

In addition to Nakba, according to the author there are three other historical events that led to the emergence of Palestinian liberation theology: the Holocaust, the War of 1967 and the rise of religious Zionism, and the first intifada (1987-91). Akeem’s fourth chapter succinctly explains the significance of those events.

The fifth chapter begins the theological/biblical section of the book. It is about Jesus and makes the highly significant point that Jesus is “the lens or principle of interpretation” by which we Christians should interpret the rest of the Bible (44).

The next chapter deals with the Old Testament and especially with some of the difficult passages found there. Based on his assertion of the previous chapter, Ateek insists that all those passages must be interpreted from the hermeneutic (method of interpretation) based on Jesus and the centrality of love. Further, he emphasizes that in the Old Testament there is a progression from a tribal and exclusive theology to a theology of inclusion. The former is seen clearly in Leviticus, the latter especially in Ezekiel and Jonah. Concerning the latter, the author writes, “With the story of Jonah, the Old Testament reaches a theological climax” (82).

The New Testament is considered in the seventh chapter, and a major emphasis is on how Jesus “rejected exclusivity and emphasized inclusivity” (90). That same emphasis is found in the writings of the Apostle Paul.

In his brief summary of key biblical themes, the next chapter begins the primary assertion of the book: “Justice is foundation for the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict” (105). In seeking justice, though, Ateek makes “a plea for a strategy of nonviolence” (117-9). This emphasis on nonviolence is seen throughout the book and stands in stark contrast to the common charge that Palestinians are terrorists.

The ninth chapter is about Sabeel, the organization the author started in 1989. The core objective of that movement and its chapters in many Western countries is stated clearly: “to see the end of the illegal occupation of Israel of the Palestinian territories and the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel, so that a just and secure peace can be achieved for all the people of Palestine and Israel” (131). To this reviewer, that sounds like a goal worth being sought by people of goodwill everywhere.

The main emphases of Palestinian liberation theology are reiterated in the final chapter. From that perspective he emphasizes “three essentials that must be realized in order for a genuine peace to be achieved: justice, peace, and reconciliation” (142). So, to the end there is stress on justice linked to love (“When there is genuine love, justice is done. When justice is done, there is love,” 148), on peace sought by nonviolent means, and on reconciliation that is linked to forgiveness. This is an outstanding vision of a man who represents a people who have been severely mistreated for decades. That vision is based upon and due to the author’s superlative Biblical interpretation and theological acumen.

The impact of this book is heightened by Walter Brueggemann’s fine Foreword, which ends, “This important book will be a great learning among us to which Western Christians of every ilk should pay attention” (xix). Of course, those who should especially pay attention to this book are those who are least likely to read it: Christian Zionists and Christian conservatives or fundamentalists who are greatly pro-Israel because of their eschatological views. But this book is one that those of us on the other side of the theological spectrum can recommend to those who do not have strong opinions about—or much knowledge of—the history of the mistreatment of the Palestinians. Perhaps some who are now “neutral” will be convinced that the gross injustices being experienced by Palestinians need to be addressed along the lines suggested in Ateek’s work.

This book should be especially significant now in light of the hoopla surrounding the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the formation of the State of Israel in 1948. The content of this book can—and should in the opinion of this reviewer—be shared without hesitation. It is highly readable, informative throughout, and consistently irenic.

In short, I highly recommend reading this book and sharing it, or at least its content, with others, the more the better.

 

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Review of “The Great Open Dance” by Jon Paul Sydnor

Posted on September 19, 2024 by Leroy Seat

Jon Paul Sydnor, the author of The Great Open Dance: A Progressive Christian Theology (Pickwick Publications, 2024), is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Emmanuel College in Boston. He is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and has a Ph.D. degree from Boston College. Sydnor is a co-editor of Nondualism: An Interreligious Exploration (2023) and also the founding director of The Nondualism Project (click here to access their attractive website).

The focus of this new book is the concept of agapic nondualism, based on God’s uniting love, the sustaining source of all reality. Most of the premodern and modern worldviews, at least in the Western world, have been predominantly based on a dualistic understanding of reality. That was the primary theological position of European thinkers for more than a thousand years. The modern worldview characterized as the Enlightenment rejected many of the ideas/emphases of the pre-modern world, but the dualistic worldview continued and was even strengthened. But Sydnor forwards an all-inclusive worldview that is more akin to some Hindu and Buddhist concepts than to premodern and modern Western ideas. But that viewpoint, he believes, is also rooted in a proper understanding of the foundational Christian concept of the Trinity.

“Love is the ground, meaning, and destiny of the cosmos. We need love to flourish, and we will find flourishing only in love.” These are Sydnor’s opening words (in the Introduction), and they set the stage for all that follows in this 350+ page book.

“Unifying Love” is the title of Sydnor’s first chapter, and early in that chapter, he introduces the term nondualism, the literal translation of the Sanskrit terms advaita and advaya. Those terms both literally mean “not-two” and emphasize “the unity-in-difference upon which our universe is based” and “within which all diversity is integrated.” So, from this first chapter to the end of the book, the author presents a theology based on nondualism, which “asserts that all reality is inherently related. Nothing is separable from anything else, and no one is separable from anyone else.” Accordingly, nondualism “offers intellectual resistance to the false divisions that cause our suffering, implicitly condemning sexism, racism, classism, nationalism, … and every other divisive worldview.”

Toward the end of the first chapter, Sydnor contends that “the Christian Trinity is a form of nondualism” (italics in the original) and asserts that the Greek word agapé “unites the three persons [of the Trinity] into one God.” Thus, “God is three persons united through agapic love into one nondual community. God is agapic nonduality.” This, then, becomes the basis for his emphasis on the Trinity relating to one another in “a divine dance.” Moreover, all human beings “being made in the image of God, are made to dance—with God, with one another, and with the cosmos.” We are all invited into God’s dance.”

In the last paragraph of this seminal first chapter, Sydnor says that “people want faith to give them more life, and people want faith to make society more just, and people want faith to grant the world more peace.” And then he states, “I have written this book in the conviction that Trinitarian, agapic nondualism can do so.”

“God of Infinite Relatedness” is the title of Sydnor’s second chapter, and there he further develops his key understanding of the Trinity. He goes back to the Church Fathers, especially John of Damascus (675~749), and the concept of “circumincession,” a translation of the Greek word perichoresis, which he says contemporary theologians who prefer a less literal but more poetic translation refer to as dance. That is an indication of why he titled the book as he did. This chapter begins, though, with a discussion of bad theology. Sydnor declares, “Bad theology drives good people out of faith.” His goal, though, is to develop a progressive theology that makes a life-enriching faith possible, and his understanding of the Trinity is the basis for what he writes in the remainder of his book.

The third chapter is titled “Joy in the Earth,” and it begins with the prime philosophical/theological question, Why is there something instead of nothing? This, of course, is the introduction to the basic Christian belief in the Creator, One whom Jesus called Abba (perhaps best translated as Daddy or Papa). However, while continuing to use the term Abba, Sydnor avers that Abba is “omni-gendered or non-binary.” He goes on to affirm panentheism and to say that “the Trinity is the soul of the universe”—and this leads to say, “The soul-body analogy articulates our experience of God as both immanent and transcendent, both within and beyond.” Near the end of this chapter is an ecological emphasis, and the author posits that “because the universe is the body of Abba, and Abba is the soul of the universe, whatever we do to our environment, we do to Abba.”

The Christian doctrine of human anthropology is the subject of “The Abundance of Life.” In the second subsection of that fourth chapter, Sydnor states that we human beings “reside in the abundance of God. Everywhere we look we see divinity—in nature, in neighbor, even in the mirror. All reality is sacred; in response, we are to celebrate all reality—including our self—as sacrament.” He goes on to aver, “The Creator is benevolent, creation is real, and salvation occurs within the world; it does not take us out of the world. Matter and spirit, body and soul, time and eternity were to be united, not divided. Although the term would have been unfamiliar at the time, the church chose nondualism.”

The fifth chapter is about Jesus, and early on Sydnor writes, “Jesus of Nazareth is the Cosmic Christ, present at creation, grounding creation in communion, and then expressing that communion within creation. … He is not just a wise teacher or inspired prophet; he is the human manifestation of Abba’s purpose for the universe.” The author goes on to assert that “Jesus is the universal, unconditional love of God.” Concerning Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God, Sydnor asserts, “Our past is dark, full of warfare, brutality, misogyny, slavery, heterosexism, racism, ableism, and poverty. Jesus imagines a better world, one of equality, openness, and invitation. For Christians, this vision is our new cause.”

“Sophia, the Animating Power of Wisdom” is the title of the sixth chapter, and it is about the One whom Christians usually call the Holy Spirit. Among other things, Sydnor stresses that “the Holy Spirit embeds femininity within God.” Accordingly, he refers to the Holy Spirit as Sophia and assigns her a feminine pronoun. In a splendid summary regarding what the Holy Spirit does, the author writes, “Sophia acts in all times so that Jesus can act in one time. Hence, Sophia continues revelation, infusing agapic love into all times and all places through inspired people, guiding the cosmos toward the divine love that Jesus so perfectly revealed.”

“Agape and Inexhaustible Meaning,” the ninth chapter, is Sydnor’s discussion of the Bible and its interpretation. He begins by rejecting “biblical infallibilism,” asserting that such is a “bad interpretation of the Bible” that “drives people into atheism.” In contrast, he affirms the “agapic interpretation of the Bible” that “imitates Jesus’s interpretation of the Bible.” Of particular note is his stating that “we are proposing a canon within the canon—a selection of passages within the Bible that we prioritize over or even against other passages. The standard by which we select these passages is the agapic love of Abba for the world, as revealed by Jesus and continually endorsed by Sophia.” He calls those passages “omega texts” and avers that they are “perpetually transformative.” They “link us to the past, comfort is in the present, and lure us into a better future.”

The last numbered chapter (10) is “Now Is the Beginning.” Here Sydnor discusses three subtopics: “the physical destiny of the universe, the moral purpose of time, and the question of life after death.” He rejects the “end-time” fantasies” of millennialism/dispensationalism. His emphasis is on what has often been called “the eternal now,” and he posits, “The purpose of life-in-time is to enjoy God-in-time and enact their [God’s] will on earth.” Concerning the third subtopic, the author asserts that “a God of love could not create or sustain a Hell of everlasting punishment.” In perhaps his most controversial statement in the book, Sydnor says that “agapic universalism cannot culminate in everlasting exclusion. Agapic universalism can culminate only in universal salvation.” To those whose interest in, and perhaps serious questions about, these last statements is great, I recommend a slow and thoughtful reading of the final pages of this chapter.

In the Afterword, Sydnor succinctly summarizes a central point of his book: “God is everything, everywhere, in every way, always within, and always beyond.” And he writes, “For Jesus, living truth boils down to love of God, self, neighbor, and world. Together, these four loves produce a comprehensive love of life.” In the next to last paragraph, then, the author states, “As an exposition of agape, this book should help individuals to feel more at home in the universe, more confident in life, less afraid of death, more peaceful within struggle, and more hopeful, even while acknowledging the darkness.”

Having read this book quite carefully and now having written this inadequate review of it, I think I would like to read it again from the beginning. There is so much worthy of serious, thoughtful consideration that one reading is not enough. I trust this review has helped you to gain knowledge of and appreciation for the breadth and depth of author Sydnor’s book, and perhaps some of you will be motivated to read the book at some point. The printed versions are quite expensive, but the Kindle price is reasonable—and perhaps gradually many libraries will have this valuable book ready for circulation.

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Review of Jim Wallis, The False White Gospel 

Posted on May 14, 2024 by Leroy Seat

[This is the draft of the review of Jim Wallis, The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy (St. Martin’s Essentials, 2024) that I sent to The Englewood Review of Books on May 14. It should be on their website in a few weeks.]

My Review

There has been a spate of good books published in the last few years regarding White Christian nationalism. Jim Wallis’s volume, published the first week in April, is undoubtedly one of the best. This book rhymes with a central issue Wallis (b. 1948) has been dealing with since he was an anti-war activist as a college student at Michigan State University in the late 1960s.

Then as a Trinity Evangelical Divinity School student, Jim and some friends there formed the People’s Christian Coalition in the 1970-71 academic year. In August 1971, they began publishing a tabloid dubbed The Post-American. It was an indictment of the civil religion in the U.S. that was supporting war, embracing racism, and neglecting the poor, all in contradiction to the Gospel of Jesus.

In 1975, the community moved from the Chicago area to downtown Washington, D.C., and changed their name and that of their publication to Sojourners. In 2021, after 50 years as the editor, Jim wrote, “I have accepted an invitation from Georgetown University to become the inaugural Chair in Faith and Justice at the McCourt School of Public Policy and the founding director of the new campus-wide Center on Faith and Justice.” The full name of the latter is the “Archbishop Desmond Tutu Chair in Faith and Justice.” The last subsection of the last chapter of Jim’s new book is “Hope,” and there he writes about his connection with and deep appreciation for Tutu.

Wallis is the author of many books, and to this point God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It (2005), a New York Times bestseller, is his most notable book. On April 21, though, his new book debuted as #4 on the NYT list of bestselling hardcover nonfiction books, and it might well turn out to be his most widely read, and quoted, book.

The Introduction states clearly what this book is about: “We are literally in a battle now between false religion and true faith and between racial fascism and multicultural democracy. That fight stems from fear, the motivator of hate, and the threat of violence. Helping to set us free from that fear, hate, racism, and violence is the purpose of this book” (4).

For many postmodern thinkers, including some who are Christian theologians, “heresy” is a word that is seldom used now. There is an openness to various viewpoints and a reluctance to be critical of dissenting points of view or to be “judgmental.” But Wallis doesn’t hesitate to call White Christian Nationalism a heresy. He first mentions that designation in the Introduction, and then in the first chapter he avers that the “old ideology of white supremacy is now religiously undergirded by an old heresy—with a new name: white Christian nationalism.” He goes on to assert that that heresy is, in his opinion,  “the single greatest threat to democracy in America and to the integrity of the Christian witness” (17). Much later in the book, he says that the heresy he is writing about was “on display” in the nation’s Capitol on January 6, 2021 (153-4).

On what basis does Wallis reject the old heresy with a new name? Even though some of his most stringent critics are conservative evangelicals, he was and continues to be a progressive evangelical who takes the Bible with utmost seriousness. Jim himself doesn’t use the word “evangelical” to self-identify his theological position as much as he used to, but that is still the way he is often identified by others. For example, an online CNN article posted in April 2024, the month his book was published, was titled “How one evangelical leader uses the Bible to expose the ‘False White Gospel.” Indeed, chapters two through seven are on six basic Bible passages that expose the error (=heresy) of White Christian nationalism. Those passages are Luke 10:25-37, Genesis 1:26, John 8:32, Matthew 25:31-46, Matthew 5:9, and Galatians 3:28.

The final chapter is “A Remnant Church.” An important point he emphasizes (in italics) is this: “A remnant church must not only be known for what it is against, but what it is for and starting to build” (224). Accordingly, while he is staunchly against the “false White Gospel,” which he has critiqued throughout the book, he is wholeheartedly for “reclaiming true faith” as elucidated in the previous six chapters. And, as he has often declared through the years, he asserts again that “the best answer to bad religion is always true faith” (232).

This book is also about “refounding democracy,” and Wallis mentions democracy about 180 times in the book, including these words in the Introduction: “Loving our neighbor, and learning to practice the politics of love, will be central to the future of democracy in America” (15), and this statement in the last chapter: “Today, we are in a unique historical moment, one that will determine the future of both faith and democracy in America” (207). Thus, this book is particularly worth reading in this election year in the U.S. Although he doesn’t say so directly, it is quite evident that the author thinks that the best answer to bad politics/politicians is better politics/politicians. And while he writes sparingly about President Biden (mostly on pages 39-41), he makes repeated negative comments about Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans (especially in the second chapter). His disparaging words about the 45th POTUS will be read with agreement and appreciation by even many people who don’t self-identify as Christians.

Beginning with the first issues of The Post-American, for over 50 years now this reviewer has read much of what Wallis has written. Other than the examples he gives related to recent events and his personal experiences, there is little in this book that is new. Nevertheless, this powerful book, published just two months before his 76th birthday, encapsulates well Wallis’s lifetime of faithful Christian service. Wallis says that in seminary and later at Sojourners he and his friends sometimes called themselves “the AND movement.” He explains: “We want personal faith and public discipleship, evangelism and social justice, contemplation and action, prayer and peacemaking, worship and politics” (215). That both/and position is one reason I have followed the life and work of Jim Wallis for so long and why I greatly appreciate this book. So without reservation, I highly recommend The False White Gospel to pastors and thoughtful lay people in the church—as well as to those who are “exvangelicals,” “nones,” or even members of other religions.

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The Love of God

Posted on April 17, 2024 by Leroy Seat

In the worship service at Rainbow Mennonite Church on April 14, the first hymn we sang was “The Love of God.” This was a “new” hymn for many of those who had long been Mennonites, for it was not in the previous (1992) Mennonite hymnal. I was glad that it had been added to Voices Together (VT), the new (2020) Mennonite hymnal. As a Baptist, it was one of my favorite hymns back in the 1950s and 1960s, and I have long been impressed especially by the third stanza. 

The hymn writer was Frederick M. Lehman (1868~1953). He became a pastor in the Church of the Nazarene and in 1911  he moved to Kansas City, where he helped found the Nazarene Publishing House. He composed the hymn in 1917, but as noted in the information at the bottom of VT #162, the third verse was based on the words written about 1050 by a rabbi who lived in what is now Germany. 

Here is what I found on Hymnary.org about that third stanza:

“The third [stanza], by [Lehman’s] own account, he heard in a camp meeting sermon. They were apparently lines ‘found written by a demented man on the wall of his narrow room in the asylum where he died.’ those words are a translation of an Aramaic poem, ‘Hadda-mut’ written ca. 1050 by Rabbi Meir of Worms, Germany. From the Qur’an (31st Sura) from the early 7th century there are these lines:

“If all the trees on earth were pens, / and the ocean were ink, / the writing of God’s wonderful signs and creations / replenished by seven more oceans, would not be exhausted; surely God is All-Mighty, All-Wise.”

Note the similarity and the difference between the Christian words and those of the rabbi and the Qur’an. The latter speaks of Allah’s/God’s “wonderful signs and creations,” the rabbi wrote about God’s power, but the Christian pastor wrote,

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made;
were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill,
and ev’ryone a scribe by trade;
to write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry;
nor could the scroll contain the whole,

********************************************************************************

** On the evening of April 16, I was going through a file of sermons I had preached at the Fukuoka International Church, where I was pastor/co-pastor from 1980~2004. I found the manuscript for “Loving Like Jesus,” a sermon I had preached on September 1, 2002. In it, I introduced Lehman’s hymn “The Love of God,” and quoted all of verse three

Note: This article will be linked to in a footnote in my April 20 post on my main blogsite.

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Review of Mike Graves, Your One Wild and Precious Life (Market Square Books, 2023).

Posted on January 12, 2024 by Leroy Seat

Jesus Vision for Your One Wild and Precious Life was a delight to read and a joy to review. It is also a pleasure to recommend Mike Graves’s book to all who are Christian believers, whether lay or clergy, and to those who are interested in learning more about Jesus and his vision for human flourishing. There is much in this book for all to read and ponder.

Graves (b. 1957) taught at three theological seminaries in Kansas City: Midwestern Baptist in Missouri, Central Baptist across the border in Kansas, and then back in Missouri at Saint Paul School of Theology, a Methodist institution. After being a professor for thirty years, Graves retired in 2018 and has been serving as Scholar in Residence at Country Club Christian Church.

Despite his close association with three major Protestant denominations, the title of Graves’s book comes from American poet Mary Oliver. Her short poem, “The Summer Day” ends with these words: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / With your one wild and precious life?” Graves introduces these lines from Oliver and refers to them again in a later chapter. Graves also includes a section titled “Wild and Precious Dreaming” near the conclusion of each chapter.

From the beginning of the introduction, Graves emphasizes that Jesus was born into this world not primarily to die, although that has often been a major focus of Christian belief and preaching. Rather, the author asserts that “Jesus wasn’t born just to die, and neither were we (4). Graves reiterates this point in the final pages of the book, “Jesus didn’t come to die. He came to live, and….the life he lived can be a model for us on how to live before we die” (159).

For a long time in word and song, there has been emphasis on the “seven last words” of Jesus. But Graves focuses on Jesus’ “seven first words.” Not Jesus’ literal first seven words, but what the author reframes as “seven essential sayings of Jesus,” considered in the book’s seven chapters. The title of each chapter sums up each saying: “Follow Me,” “Good News to the Poor,” “Blessed Are the…,” “You Give Them Something to Eat,” “Your Faith Has Made You Well,” and “Love of God and Neighbor.” These are all familiar words, but the author elucidates them in insightful ways.

As might be expected from a professor of preaching, Graves’s book is engagingly written and accessible to lay readers and not just to members of the clergy or to scholars. He cites both scholarly and non-scholarly books and several aspects of his citations are impressive. First, most of the books cited were published after 2000 and are not the books that he studied as he was working on his Ph.D. Furthermore, several of the books cited were published in 2023, the year his own book was published. Additionally, he referenced his recent trip to Israel/Palestine, which concluded in September 2023. It is also notable that so many of the books referenced were written by female authors.

The “Reflections” at the end of each chapter are six or seven short paragraphs with questions that would lead to meaningful discussions for a group who had read/studied the book for the purpose of growing together. This would be an excellent book for a class to study for up to 10 sessions.

In these troublesome times in which we live, Graves draws valuable lessons from Jesus for how we can live with delight daily as well as engage in meaningful service to suffering neighbors, both nearby and around the world. In doing so, he cites the words of E.B. White that express the stance of the author for himself and his desire for all of us readers: “I arise in the morning torn by a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world.” But this dual desire is a bit problematic, for White continues, “This makes it hard to plan the day” (77). I hope you will plan to read and ponder Mike Graves’s superb book, even though doing so might complicate making your daily plans.

[This review was published on Jan. 10, 2024, by The Englewood Review of Books.]

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