Claiborne-Hauerwas mash-up
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
I’ve recently been reading two books that make an excellent pair: Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne and Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon. The two make an interesting ‘theory plus practical implementation’ combination.
Resident Aliens is about (amongst other things) the church resisting both ‘total withdrawal from culture’ and a ‘serving the culture’ approaches. In saying ‘serving the culture’, the implication is that we adjust the gospel (and, in particular, political aspects) to fit what is acceptable — so we make sure that we fit the expectations or at least the rational of the culture. We assume “that the key to our political effectiveness lies in translating our political assertions into terms that can be embraced by any thinking, sensitive, modern (though disbelieving), average” person.
For example, we may focus on lobbying as is the acceptable method of political action in Western democracy. But, perhaps in taking this approach we are forced to adapt the gospel to fit the system or persuade those we are lobbying to support our view.
The alternative presented is to be true to the gospel, with church as a ‘Christian Colony’. So that we do act, but we act in radical ways that follow the gospel even when it may not fit the expectations of the culture and its politics.
That which makes the church ‘radical’ and forever ‘new’ is not that the church tends to lean toward the left on most social issues, but rather that the church knows Jesus whereas the world does not. In the church’s view, the political left is not noticeably more interesting than the political right; both sides tend toward solutions that act as if the world has not ended and begun with Jesus.
…we are forever forgetting how decisive, how eschatological, is the event of Christ.
Irresistible Revolution is about (amongst other things) stepping away from the ‘giving to the poor’ model to actually going and living with the poor. And about living as true communities where middle-class Christianity doesn’t normally hang-out. And about living as true communities full stop. It also goes on into creative demonstrations on issues and, really, prophetic actions. It seems that this is one thing that might result if you read Resident Aliens and take it seriously.
(Afterword: I wanted to call this ‘Disruptive Grace’, borrowing (and re-creating!) the idea of Disruptive Technology. I found the term is already taken. But, hey, there are only so many words to go around, so I’m sure we can share. And accidentally stealing from Flannery O’Connor is no bad thing…)
Tags: church, culture, Irresistible Revolution, Resident Aliens
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