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Product Description

From Elaine Pagels’s Beyond Belief to Jim Wallis’s God's Politics, investigations into the relationship between the historical foundations of Christianity and the role of religion in today’s world have risen to the top of bestseller lists. Obery Hendricks, Jr., who was Pagels’s first graduate student at Princeton University, adds an important new voice to the ongoing discussion in THE POLITICS OF JESUS. Filled with riveting, original insights, it confirms Cornel West’s declaration that “Obery Hendricks is not just on the cutting edge, he’s the knife.”

Focusing on a powerful but little-examined aspect of the Gospels, Hendricks portrays Jesus as a political revolutionary whose teachings are meant to lead the way to freedom from the tyranny of principalities and unjust rulers in high—and low—places. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus employs various tactics to address the social, economic, and political conditions of his day and exposes the terrible effects of oppression and poverty on the mind, body, and soul.

In an in-depth examination of Christianity’s history, from its foundation through the time of Paul to the reign of Constantine to the present day, Hendricks traces how the church became a hierarchical structure, protective of the powerful and intent on maintaining the status quo. THE POLITICS OF JESUS recaptures the revolutionary implications of Christianity, and calls on Christians to embrace anew the core values of Jesus’ message and restore his fight to alleviate the suffering of underprivileged and abused peoples.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #276552 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-29
• Released on: 2006-08-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Thundering like a biblical prophet against social and economic injustice, racism and political deceit ("Jesus did not establish a bureaucratic institution, weekly social gatherings, or houses of religious entertainment"), Hendricks, professor of biblical interpretation at New York Theological Seminary, proclaims Jesus as a political revolutionary who overturned the unjust social policies of his day. Rather unoriginally, Hendricks suggests that Jesus employed seven political strategies (e.g., "treat people's needs as holy"; "give a voice to the voiceless"; "expose the workings of oppression") in his challenge to the status quo. With cunning insight, however, Hendricks fervently examines the politics of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush—two U.S. presidents who have professed to be following the politics of Jesus—and argues that these leaders fall woefully short of living out Jesus' message of justice, righteousness and steadfast love. Hendricks also indicts church leaders for their complicity with these political figures, condoning unjust wars and corrupt economic practices and not calling judgment on them in Jesus' prophetic voice. Overall, Hendricks echoes the call to Christian social justice that John Howard Yoder proclaimed over 30 years ago in his own book of the same title. (Aug. 29)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post
"It is," the Anglican Archbishop William Temple once remarked, "a mistake to suppose that God is only, or even chiefly, concerned with religion." The prelate's words would resonate with Obery M. Hendricks Jr., who, in the beginning of his new book The Politics of Jesus, recalls a childhood spent in the church. He was, he puts it, "a son of the Christian Church. Raised in the Church. Nurtured in the Church." His family was thick with ministers and lay elders; he started singing in the choir at age 5, and accepted Christ five years later. The Jesus he offered his life to was a messiah drained of controversy, a kind of air-brushed savior. "I was raised on the bland Jesus of Sunday School and of my mother's gentle retellings," Hendricks writes, "the meek, mild Jesus who told us, in a nice, passive, sentimental way, to love our enemies, and who assured us that we need not worry about our troubles, just bring them to him."

As it turned out, this Jesus was too gentle and too serene -- and Hendricks left the church as a young man, only to return once he discovered what he calls "Jesus the political revolutionary." Now a minister and professor of biblical interpretation at New York Theological Seminary, Hendricks found that, for him, the figure of Jesus resonated powerfully when understood through the prism of politics. "To say that Jesus was a political revolutionary is to say that the message he proclaimed not only called for change in individual hearts but also demanded sweeping and comprehensive change in the political, social, and economic structures in his setting in life: colonized Israel," Hendricks writes. He goes on to argue that the proper Christian posture in political life should be one of loving one another as Jesus loved us, feeding the hungry, comforting the poor, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, tending to prisoners.

Hendricks's Christian manifesto for a politically liberal vision of America and of the world arrives at an especially rich moment in the long-running debate over the role of religion in the nation's public life. After roughly three decades of largely ceding the language of faith to political conservatives, liberals are mounting an aggressive and often intellectually stimulating counterattack. The Politics of Jesus joins John Danforth's Faith and Politics and Jim Wallis's God's Politics as essential reading for Americans trying to move beyond the corrosive standoff between the religious right and the secular left. One need not agree with Hendricks's liberalism to appreciate that his book is a useful contribution to a conversation that seems ever more urgent: how to manage and marshal religion's influence over our public lives.

Some secular extremists will probably object to Hendricks's argument on the grounds that we ought to keep Jesus out of politics altogether, but in my view such an absolutist stand is not really helpful. We are a nation full of religious people, and faith has been interwoven with our politics from the start. Yes, church and state are rightly separate, but it is impossible, I think, to separate religion from politics, for both are about what people value. Religion may not be the only thread in the tapestry, but is a significant one, and to argue that religion is a fairy tale and believers are dupes does virtually nothing to lead us forward.

Hendricks is right to use the gospel as a way of measuring the gap between the words and deeds of openly religious presidents. Or at least of openly religious Republican presidents: He treats Bill Clinton very kindly while sternly taking Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush to task.

There is no doubt that America falls far short of the kingdom of God, and it is nearly impossible to argue with Hendricks's bottom line, that "in the politics of Jesus, then, every policy and policy proposal must be judged by Jesus' yardstick of love and justice." (What reasonable person would dispute that love and justice are useful standards?) Yet such admonitions, while commonsensical (at least for Christians), raise profound theological questions. Jesus does not vote; God is neither Republican nor Democrat.

It can do no harm to ask the question Hendricks suggests when we are pondering policies and politics, but there is always a danger that we may come to think our own answer to the "What Would Jesus Do?" test is not merely our own best effort, but is in fact the only answer. We need more humility in our public life, remembering that, for now, we see through Saint Paul's "glass, darkly." To practice the politics of Jesus means practicing humility, an exercise that might well begin by bearing this story from the gospel of Mark in mind: The disciples had been traveling to meet Jesus, debating among themselves "who should be the greatest" -- a classically political undertaking. Learning of the bickering, Jesus would have none of it, saying: "If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all." And so may our politics, whether connected to the examples and words of Jesus or of Plato or of Machiavelli, be informed by charity and grace, not by self-righteousness. Then, and only then, will we come close, I think, to anything like "the politics of Jesus."

Reviewed by Jon Meacham
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

From Booklist
Evangelical activists claiming Jesus for the Republican Party have finally met a zealous challenger. Combining the skills of a theologian with those of a political analyst, Hendricks sees little evidence that today's Republican leaders are upholding the Gospel ideals Jesus once taught. Indeed, while Hendricks adduces from the New Testament numerous indications that Jesus championed the oppressed and challenged the powerful, he interprets recent political events as proof that President Bush and his Republican allies have done just the opposite. In the president's frequent professions of Christian faith, Hendricks hears only the echoes of the corrupt triumphalism that the Roman emperor Constantine long ago substituted for the true gospel message. Even many Bush voters may concede the justice of this skeptical critique of right-wing Republican claims clothed in religious rhetoric. But many will balk when Hendricks himself drapes the mantle of Christian sanctity around the policies of FDR and LBJ. Despite his excesses, however, Hendricks provides a corrective to the religious partisanship of the Right. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Customer Reviews

A Book about Christianity that deserves Widespread Discussion
This volume is divided into two parts. First, is the construction of a viable framework for understanding Jesus' immediate political and social message. Second, is the measurement of Ronald Reagan's and George W. Bush's conduct in light of that framework. I give 5 stars for the first part for its objectivity but only 3 stars for the second because it reads
like so many anti-Bush books that have already been written.

Nevertheless, I do agree with the central thesis that many Christians misunderstand Jesus message...ask not what God can do for you, ask what you can do for God. And what people can do for God is "dedicate their entire being to struggling to bring the world in line with a vision of love, liberation, and justice" to all of humanity, including the dispossessed, the forgotten, and the hungry. In other words, Jesus was as concerned about an individual's citizenship on earth as an individual's
citizenship in heaven.

You might say that there is nothing new in this book. (After all, it is a restatement of well accepted principles of "liberationist theology") True, but I still recommend reading the volume because the author presents his arguments as well, if not better, than others who have argued logically from the new testament texts.

If every Christian read this book..and chose to follow Jesus revolutionary program, all of us would have a chance for a better world.

What a landmark book
Regardless of your politics or religion, this book is thought provoking. If you are a "ditto head" you probably will not like that it will challenge your paradigm and push your buttons, but it is a challenge you should take on as should every other person concerned about greed, wealth accumulation, and the perversion of the teachings of Jesus. It even pushed some of my buttons but I needed to have my horizons expanded. I believe that a copy should be required reading for every religious and political figure in our world.

The theology and research behind this book is outstanding and I suspect that it will generate the types of conversations that we should start having in our places of worship and in our political circles. Do you really know why you are a conservative or a liberal? I though I was well educated on political topics but here I was enlightened. My son and our pastor are going to read next and we are going to use as the foundation of a theological conversation to broaden understanding of how we can focus on helping those in the world who are the least among us. How anyone can find fault with this is beyond me. Read this book. Be prepared to create learning conversations around the book. We need to have this book be a catalyst to guide our actions in light of the teachings of this great man we as Christians call Christ. All I can say in summary is thank you Obery for one of the most important works of our time.

Somebody's Politics
There is more of politics than of Jesus in this book. The historical picture of the Jesus' time was excellent. The exegetical work was questionable at best with what seemed like a significant amount of projection. There was significant criticism of politicians who use the name of Jesus to garner political support, but whose public policy runs contrary to serving the "least of these." I applaud the concept, however he focuses almost exclusively on the Reagan, Bush, & Bush administrations. That seems to make it one of the most thinly veiled political attacks I have come across, and essentially makes Dr. Hendricks guilty of what he is arguing against: using the name of Jesus as ammunition in a political fight. While there were some thought provoking points, it was too unbalanced to consider as a scholarly effort.