I just finished Len Sweet and Frank Viola’s new book, Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ. I had never read Viola and I must confess that I fail to appreciate Sweet as much as some of my friends and acquaintances do. Nonetheless, I had high expectations for this book and I was really hoping that I would like it a lot. Sweet and Viola suggest that with this book they are attempting a third way to move out of the crossroads the Christian finds himself in. Instead of moving toward the left or the right, they suggest the third way is to move forward. And as much as I would love to be able to follow them into their vision of what forward is, I just could not find any traction in this book. Instead, I feel a lot like I did after watching Avatar. Just as it was with the film, I believe that I may be in the small minority of people who do not really like this book.
Perhaps it was more about my unrealistic expectations. I was hoping that this book would get into some of the things that I think are becoming increasingly important in our pluralistic and complex theological landscape. I was hoping that it would be helpful for Christians attempting to be faithful to their own traditions in the light of so much religious and cultural diversity. For me, it did not.
Perhaps it is because I am admittedly not a very good mystic. I am not wired to let my emotions drive everything. Sweet and Viola tell me over and over in this book that when (or if??) I can finally see Jesus as he really and truly is, I will fall so much in love with him that I cannot help but fall at His feet and give Him my undying devotion (p. xxv of the introduction). They write that all anyone has to do is grasp the truth of Paul’s epistle to the Colossians and we will finally see the true Christ. But they are willing to admit that this is not as easy as it sounds. For them, the worldview presented in Colossians would spin the head of Stephen Hawking and dumbfound Albert Einstein. So what is the third way forward? If we read Colossians and don’t come to the same conclusion of the authors is it because we are not smart enough to “get it” or too smart to submit to it? No. It is that the eyes of our hearts have not been opened (p.40). And that is a work that we cannot do ourselves, so we pray that God will do it for us.
If not, we will always be stuck replacing Christ with things. Things like, rules, regulations, doctrines, duties, causes, etc. They urge us to stop proclaiming things about Christ and simply proclaim Christ. And here is where the wheels fall of for me. How are we to adjudicate between these competing proclamations of Christ? We are simply not told. The closest we get to a specific example is this:
This culture loves causes, and it lionizes those who died fighting them. There is nothing wrong with causes. Archbishop Oscar Romero took up the cause of victims displaced in the Salvadoran civil war, and was assassinated during his homily as he was giving mass in 1980. Now “San Romero,” as he is often called, is one of only ten twentieth-century martyrs honored above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey in London. On the other hand, Brother Roger Schutz, founder of Taize, was killed on August 16, 2005, not for a cause he was promoting, but because of who he was, a follower of Jesus.
Just what makes Schutz a follower of Jesus and not Romero is not clearly explained. And for Sweet and Viola, it cannot really be explained without falling into a ditch on either side if the one true path of yielding your self in such a way that Christ is the one living in you. To try to explain that simple truth one either falls into theological rationalism, on the one hand, or, theological ethics, on the other. But, for the authors:
According to Scripture, Jesus Christ (and not a doctrine about Him) is the truth. In addition, Jesus Christ (and not an ethic derived from His teaching) is the way. In other words, both God’s truth and God’s way are embodied in a living, breathing person–Christ.
Later they clarify that even further:
Jesus cannot be separated from His teachings. Aristotle said to his disciples, “Follow my teachings.” Socrates likewise said to his disciples, “Follow my teachings.” Buddha said to his disciples, “Follow my meditations.” Confucius said to his disciples, “Follow my sayings.” And Muhammad said to his disciples, “Follow my noble pillars.”
But Jesus said to his disciples, “Follow Me.”
In all the religions and philosophies of the world, a follower can follow the teachings of its founder without having a relationship with that founder. But not so with Jesus Christ. The teachings of Jesus cannot be separated from Jesus Himself. Christ is still alive, and He embodies his teachings. This is what separates Him from every other great teacher and moral philosopher in history.
While I accept the authors’ conclusion that Christ is indeed living, I do not follow their line of argument here. While Christians do have the ability to share in the divine life, in this moment of history we see only in part, and know only in part. (And here I will reveal in all its glory the claim I made earlier that I am not a good mystic…)I do not believe that I can see Jesus “face-to-face.” I cannot literally fall at his feet and put my finger in the scars from the cross. In this moment of history I relate to him through the mysterious body of his church as it lives out its witness. And this brings me, whether I like it or not, into a historically complex, culturally rich, theologically multifaceted, doctrinally diverse, and pluriform embodiment of practices that offer a multi-vocal proclamation and witness of Him.
All of this leaves me unable to follow Sweet and Viola entirely. There are some good things in this book, and I am sure a larger audience that will enjoy and benefit from it.
**Disclosure of Material Connection: I’d like to thank Thomas Nelson Publishers for providing me this Book free as part of their [...] book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
, I was already hooked. Lamott may be the most honest writer I have ever read and she has the ability to speak into the neediest places in my soul. 
