Anarchy and Apocalypse: Essays on Faith, Violence, and Theodicy
Ebook
Overview
In this wide-ranging collection of essays Ronald E. Osborn explores the politically subversive and nonviolent anarchist dimensions of Christian discipleship in response to dilemmas of power, suffering, and war. Essays engage texts and thinkers from Homer's Iliad, the Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament to portraits of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Noam Chomsky, and Elie Wiesel. This book also analyzes the Allied bombing of civilians in World War II, the peculiar contribution of the Seventh-day Adventist apocalyptic imagination to Christian social ethics, and the role of deceptive language in the Vietnam War. From these and other diverse angles, Osborn builds the case for a more prophetic witness in the face of the violence of the "principalities and powers" in the modern world. This book will serve as an indispensible primer in the political theology of the Adventist tradition, as well as a significant contribution to radical Christian thought in biblical, historical, and literary perspectives.
"In reading Osborn you cannot help but think, 'He has to be
kidding. He has to be putting us on to suggest there is a
connection between anarchy and that form of Christianity called
Adventist.' But he is not kidding. Rather he has written a book of
lively essays to remind us that a commitment to peace is a
challenge to any order based on violence. It was the Adventists, in
their early formations, who reminded us that a commitment to peace
cannot avoid challenging orders based on violence; that peace
requires a different kind of order altogether. This is a call to
the church to be that community based on the order of Christ's
peace."
--Stanley Hauerwas
author of Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary
"This book is a bracing read for anyone trying to make sense of
Christian witness in a violent world. Osborn ranges both widely and
deeply, connecting insights from theology, history, literature, and
political science in startling and inventive ways. He shows how
violence creates its own momentum, and offers a wide range of
resources for countering that momentum. Anyone interested in living
creatively in a destructive world will benefit from this book. It
is the kind of book that has the power to transform lives."
--William T. Cavanaugh
author of The Myth of Religious Violence
"The Christianity of the American Empire has not only come to
accept the normalization of violence; it often celebrates it! How
desperately American Christians need the keen insights regarding
the demonic dynamics of power and violence that Ronald Osborn
reflects in these essays!"
--Greg Boyd
author of The Myth of a Christian Nation
Product Details
- Title : Anarchy and Apocalypse: Essays on Faith, Violence, and Theodicy
- Author: Osborn, Ronald E.
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Publication Date: 2010
- ISBN: 9781621890751
Ronald E. Osborn is an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Peace and Justice Studies Program at Wellesley College.