if you go to eastern, i'm sure you've heard of shane claiborne.
he is one of the founders of the simple way and
he wrote a book called the irresistible revolution.
i started reading the book before, after reading an article
in relevant magazine about shane, but never finished it.
today i read about half of it for a class and next
week i'll finish it up. i thought i'd share with a
sampling of quotes from it that i underlined while reading.
i'm kind of a hyper-underliner, so i'm probably going to do this in parts. :)
but i've found that this book is a culmination of what i've
been learning about all semester and is written in a similar
style to that of donald miller's blue like jazz, which i love (and
it's going to be a movie soon!! that's a whole other topic though...)
"..his notions of fidelity to the gospel seem to directly counter
the political loyalties that many conservatives on the religious
right have made into an almost doctrinal litmus test of faith."
-
"shane's disaffection from america's cultural and patriotic
Christianity came not form going "secular" or "liberal"
but by plunging deeper into what the earliest christians called "the way"-
the way of Jesus, the way of the kingdom, and the way of the cross"
-
"our battle was against a private piety that limited religion to
only personal matters, then compromised faith in a tragic capitulation
to the economic, political, and military powers that be."
pages 11-15 (foreward), Jim Wallis
-----
"being a christian is about choosing Jesus and deciding to do something
incredibly daring with your life" (18)
-
"so i am a radical in the truest sense of the word:
an ordinary radical who wants to get at the root of what
has made such a mess of our world." (20)
-
"another world is not only possible, she is on her way.
on a quiet day, i can hear her breathing" (arundhati roy). the whisper
cries out for God to save the church from us christians and
breathe new life into the aging body." (23)
-
"the truth is that much stands in the way of God's will for our world,
beasts like what dr. martin luther king jr. called the giant triplets
of evil: racism, militarism, and materialism" (26)
-
"folks separate the spiritual from the political or social, as if the
political and social issues were of no spiritual significance, and as if God had
no better vision to offer this world." (28)
-
"most good things have been said far too many times and
just need to be lived" (32)
-
"but then you start thinking there must be most to christianity,
more than just laying your life and sins at the foot of the cross" (38)
-
"i had gorged myself on all the products of the christian
industrial complex but was spiritually starving to death. i was
marked by an overconsumptive but malnourished spirituality, suffocated
by christianity but thirsty for God." (39)
-
"i met people who lived like they believed in heaven and hell, who
cried and worshiped like they were actually encountering God." (44)
-
"perhaps the devil is just as likely to wear a three-piece suit
as to have horns and a pitchfork. and perhaps the angels look more
like the bums in the alley than like feathered white babies." (50)
-
"we saw a homeless man lay a pack of cigarettes in the offering plate
because it was all he had." (50)
-
"i met a blind street musician who was viciously abused by some
young guys...one of us said, "there are a lot of bad folks in the world,
aren't there?" and she said, "oh, but there are a lot of good ones too.
and the bad ones make you, the good ones, seem even sweeter." (50-51)"
-
"mother teresa used to say, "in the poor we meet Jesus
in his most distressing disguises." (51)
he is one of the founders of the simple way and
he wrote a book called the irresistible revolution.
i started reading the book before, after reading an article
in relevant magazine about shane, but never finished it.
today i read about half of it for a class and next
week i'll finish it up. i thought i'd share with a
sampling of quotes from it that i underlined while reading.
i'm kind of a hyper-underliner, so i'm probably going to do this in parts. :)
but i've found that this book is a culmination of what i've
been learning about all semester and is written in a similar
style to that of donald miller's blue like jazz, which i love (and
it's going to be a movie soon!! that's a whole other topic though...)
"..his notions of fidelity to the gospel seem to directly counter
the political loyalties that many conservatives on the religious
right have made into an almost doctrinal litmus test of faith."
-
"shane's disaffection from america's cultural and patriotic
Christianity came not form going "secular" or "liberal"
but by plunging deeper into what the earliest christians called "the way"-
the way of Jesus, the way of the kingdom, and the way of the cross"
-
"our battle was against a private piety that limited religion to
only personal matters, then compromised faith in a tragic capitulation
to the economic, political, and military powers that be."
pages 11-15 (foreward), Jim Wallis
-----
"being a christian is about choosing Jesus and deciding to do something
incredibly daring with your life" (18)
-
"so i am a radical in the truest sense of the word:
an ordinary radical who wants to get at the root of what
has made such a mess of our world." (20)
-
"another world is not only possible, she is on her way.
on a quiet day, i can hear her breathing" (arundhati roy). the whisper
cries out for God to save the church from us christians and
breathe new life into the aging body." (23)
-
"the truth is that much stands in the way of God's will for our world,
beasts like what dr. martin luther king jr. called the giant triplets
of evil: racism, militarism, and materialism" (26)
-
"folks separate the spiritual from the political or social, as if the
political and social issues were of no spiritual significance, and as if God had
no better vision to offer this world." (28)
-
"most good things have been said far too many times and
just need to be lived" (32)
-
"but then you start thinking there must be most to christianity,
more than just laying your life and sins at the foot of the cross" (38)
-
"i had gorged myself on all the products of the christian
industrial complex but was spiritually starving to death. i was
marked by an overconsumptive but malnourished spirituality, suffocated
by christianity but thirsty for God." (39)
-
"i met people who lived like they believed in heaven and hell, who
cried and worshiped like they were actually encountering God." (44)
-
"perhaps the devil is just as likely to wear a three-piece suit
as to have horns and a pitchfork. and perhaps the angels look more
like the bums in the alley than like feathered white babies." (50)
-
"we saw a homeless man lay a pack of cigarettes in the offering plate
because it was all he had." (50)
-
"i met a blind street musician who was viciously abused by some
young guys...one of us said, "there are a lot of bad folks in the world,
aren't there?" and she said, "oh, but there are a lot of good ones too.
and the bad ones make you, the good ones, seem even sweeter." (50-51)"
-
"mother teresa used to say, "in the poor we meet Jesus
in his most distressing disguises." (51)
