The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature of Jesus' Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted

Truly a powerful book

I am truly astonished how many self-proclaimed Christians just don't get it...and likely never will. I know I didn't, not for a long time. I am half-way through this book and find it inspiring. This passage sums up what the book is all about: "In practical terms, then, Jesus' way...is a society based on love of others rather than self-centeredness and greed; an economy based on cooperation and consideration of others' needs rather than thoughtless competition; a government based on caring rather than cronyism; politics based on service rather than selfishness."This is the polar opposite of what our society is like today. Our's is a society of the anti-Christ, pure and simple. How anyone can seriously believe that America is a Christian nation must never have read the Bible. Social justice is what the Jewish Scriptures, the Tanach, is all about; social justice is what Jesus preached and acted upon; social justice is what white folks have never been taught since so few of them (me too) remain clueless AND indifferent to it. The not-any-longer Master Race seems to be floundering, grasping for a Never Never Land that doesn't exist any more...AND NEVER WILL.Obery Hendricks is an African American minister and as such has a more realistic view of what America pretends to be and what it MIGHT be. Our nation has changed considerably since my childhood in the 1950's. Many positive changes have happened along the way, Civil Rights among them; but the system that owns and rules us only seems to get worse, more avaricious, more greedy, more corrupt, and more dysfunctional than ever. Too many Christians have gone along with this for so long and so stubbornly than they and their denominations are a great part of the problem. Our society is evil and it will kill us all unless the self-proclaimed 'holy men' stand up and call a spade a spade instead of their usual boring bromides. Faith is worthless unless it aims for better than just personal piety. Want to be pious? Help others; denounce evil; denounce our posturing rulers!

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.

An excellent exposition of the basic tenets of the Christian message as articulated by Jesus in the Gospels, emphasizing its revolutionary nature and the disconnect between it and the cultural values of the time as well as those of today. Although we may think of the teachings of Jesus as challenging the cultural status quo, this book expands our sense of just how real and extensive that challenge is. Hendricks' vision is both intensively personal and strikingly universal. I highly recommend the book.

This book captures my political argument about today's extreme capitalism very well indeed. The Jesus that I feel in my heart is no capitalist, no republican, and no lover of empire. He would never enlist in the military, for example, and yet so called conservative Christians preach hawkish policy. It's like a "What's the matter with Kansas" problem in religion. I think Kohlberg the psychologist had it right when he claimed to have discovered levels of morality and feared that half of the population never reached the highest level that Jesus certainly achieved. It might be that applying the teachings of Jesus to these unfortunate people produces a Christian that can only understand Jesus by seeing him as the biggest bull on the block. Imagine if someone has a primitive understanding of human social behavior where they see the world as completely competitive, kill or be killed, survival of the fittest, social Darwinism etc. They might only be able to see the things that Jesus did as a competitive strategy. Lastly, I don't think you can figure out the politics of Jesus by reading what he said. All we have is what other people say that he said. The best we can do is look at what he DID. When I do that, I see a someone who hates capitalism and empire. Someone who sees competition in nature and wants us to grow away from it and value cooperation and universal human equality.

Couldn’t put this book down once I started reading it. Really enjoyed it and it equipped me with knowledge

great course book for history in theology