The Unkingdom of God: Embracing the Subversive Power of Repentance, By Mark Van Steenwyk alt

The Unkingdom of God

Embracing the Subversive Power of Repentance

by Mark Van Steenwyk
Foreword by David E. Fitch

The Unkingdom of God
Ebook
  • Length: 189 pages
  • Published: May 20, 2013
  • Imprint: IVP
  • ISBN: 9780830895670

Christianity is carrying a lot of baggage. Two thousand years of well-intended (and sometimes not so well-intended) attempts to carry forward the good news of God with us have resulted in some murky understandings of the teachings of Jesus and theculture of God?s kingdom. To embrace Christianity, sometimes we have to repent of what we?ve made of it. In The Unkingdom of God Mark Van Steenwyk explores the various ways we have failed our mission by embracing the ways of the world and advancing our own agendas. He shows us that the starting place of authentic Christian witness is repentance, and that while Jesus' kingdom is not of this world, it remains the only hope of the world.

"Mark Van Steenwyk is a committed voice of a new generation rising to the ancient calling of radical discipleship. Mark's perspectives will seem new and troubling to American Christians, yet they are rediscovering the historic stream of gospel dissent to empire that has always survived at the margins of the church, following the Jesus who forever afflicts the comfortable and comforts the afflicted."Ched Myers, Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries
"Sometimes I look around at the church and think its biggest need is a revolutionary manual, a manual for undoing the myths that enslave us, for revealing the ideologies that blind us, a manual that probes for new points of engagement where we can start living this grand radical life that has been made possible in Christ's victory over the powers. Mark Van Steenwyk's book could just be that manual."David E. Fitch, from the foreword
"I've often wondered, if I had lived back in Old Testament times, would I have listened and repented of veering from God's ways or turned a deaf ear to the jarring words of his prophets? The prophetic message of The Unkingdom of God brings that question forward into the present. Gripping, unsettling and painful to read at points, this book exposes how we've reshaped Jesus in our own Western image and lost him in the process. Van Steenwyk calls himself and us to repent, rethink and 'rewild' our faith in God. Read at your own risk, but be forewarned--no one gets off easy."Carolyn Custis James, author of Half the Church: Recapturing God's Global Vision for Women, www.whitbyforum.com
"Mark Van Steenwyk is a mystic, seeking to follow the wild and compelling guides of Scripture, Savior and Spirit. He is a sincere brother in the faith, sharing his own important questions. I have been challenged by his questions. Perhaps we all should be challenged by them."Evan B. Howard, founder and director of Spirituality Shoppe and author of The Brazos Introduction to Christian Spirituality
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CONTENTS

Foreward
Introduction: Waking Up from the American Dream
1. The Gospel According to the Empire
2. The Powers
3. The Gospel of Plastic Jesus
4. Repenting of Christianity
5. On the Mysticism of Children
6. Jesus the Unkingdom
7. Encountering the Feral God
8. Walking with the Compassionate Christ
9. Discerning the Subversive Spirit
10. Jesus the Jubilee
11. Jesus the Revolutionary Table
Conclusion: When Repentance Becomes Revolution
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Notes

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Mark Van Steenwyk

Mark Van Steenwyk is cofounder of the Mennonite Worker, a Christian intentional community in Minneapolis. Mark is an editor at JesusRadicals.com and the producer and co-host of the Iconocast podcast.