“Jesus for President” Review April 7, 2008

Simply stated, Jesus for President is all about “provoking the Christian political imagination.”  Such a phrase strikes fire or fear into even the most apathetic of believing hearts.  Juxtaposing the concepts of Christianity and politics is a very ancient, complex and difficult task, yet that is exactly the aim of authors Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw. 

To say that Jesus for President is a thought-provoking read is far too gentle a description.  The terms perspective-shattering and concept-restructuring seem far more appropriate.  Even a few times as I was reading the words “provocative” and “extreme” flashed across my mind.  As with any book based on the Christian faith, there are sentences and passages that plainly serve to reaffirm the reader’s beliefs; however, even these parts of the text have unique historical and cultural insights.  The book includes fresh takes on familiar stories of the Israelites and Jesus that shed light on overt political themes found in the Scriptures. 

The concept of “politics” is taken in a different sense than it is so often utilized in our bipartisan, American culture.  We often associate politics with governmental parties, candidate nominations, speeches, interest groups, or perhaps even belief systems.  The authors confess in the introduction: “So while we will insist that the Christian faith be political, we also want to redefine what political means or looks like.  We hope to redefine it simply as how we relate to the world.”

Finding and fleshing out what the Bible has to say about how the body of Christ (the Church) is to relate to the world is the main theme beautifully conveyed in Jesus for President.  The book is divided up into four sections. The first is titled “Before There Were Kings and Presidents” and examines the beginnings of humankind and the nation of Israel.  Despite God’s evident favor and guidance, the Israelites insisted that they desired an earthly king to rule over them.  This section shows that struggle and the sad consequences that came from their dangerous desires. 

“A New Kind of Commander-in-Chief” is the title of the second section that closely looks at the teachings and life of Jesus Christ.  By sharing contextual and meaningful details, Claiborne and Haw illustrate exactly how political Jesus was asking his followers to be, or rather (much more importantly), how he was asking his followers to be political.  Examining Jesus’ relationship and reaction to the powerful Roman Empire provides a great glimpse at how strikingly different he was building the kingdom of God.

The third section, “When the Empire Got Baptized” delves into the shaky, unholy wedding of religion and government, the Empire and the Kingdom of God.  The authors take the reader on a historical journey: starting way back with the early Church, Constantine and the beginning of Christendom all the way up to the present day and the connection between the American church and the American state.  Here is where the most challenging ideas emerge (just in case the reader was not hit hard enough with the earth-moving words of Jesus) in the book.  Some reasoning or theology within this section may seem like a stretch to certain readers, but at the very least the concepts presented are well worth thoughtful consideration.

“A Peculiar Party” is the final section of the book.  Here are the stories of people who have lived out and are living the Christian political imagination.  Out-of-the-box thinking and unorthodox action are shown to be necessary in order for the body of Christ to maintain dissimilarity to the world and Empire.  This section of the book follows this line of thinking: the stranger the call for peace the greater likelihood it will be heard.

Jesus for President is a book that will surely challenge every reader to examine how Jesus calls for his followers to be political, or rather how to live out life.  It imparts both deep, theological reasoning and viable steps for the Church to live out its politics in the face of the Empire.