I am a big fan of John Howard Yoder’s

It is a great book that is short enough to read and re-read often and deep enough theologically to be challenging and refreshing every single time. Every ecclesial dreamer should have to read it at least once.So I was admittedly a little suspicious to see Obery M. Hendricks, Jr. had put out the following book:
Just the connection of the shared title was enough for me to pick it up and read it. I must confess that, while I still resonate more with Yoder’s theology, Hendricks book is truly outstanding.He begins by arguing that while most Christians condemn the heresey of docetism, the overwhelming majority of them proclaim a “gospel” that is remarkably politically docetic. Here is an extended excerpt that sets up a portion of his argument:

These politically docetic modes of thinking that deny to Jesus even a modicum of political consciousness might seem to be merely the product of a simple misunderstanding or innocent differences of theological opinion. However, they constitute a much more pernicious and destructive reality.

As we have seen, political docetism distorts and even denies important realities of the life of Jesus, which should be unacceptable enough for those who believe in him. But even worse, it denies to the victims of oppression and exploitation for whom Jesus fels such compassion and concern–those Jesus called “the least of these”– the empowering example of his radical response to the social and political realities of his day. In this sense, the nonpolitical Jesus presented by mainstream Christianity ultimately serves the very forces he opposed by foisting upon oppressed peoples a model of Jesus that, tragically, is devoid of the power of Jesus’ social witness. As a result, oppresive institutional structures are left essentially unchallenged by the considerable spiritual and material resources of the Church. In this historical moment, in which the gread specters of political repression, economic exploitation, self-righteous warmongering, racial and gender inequities, homicidal religious intolerance, and murderous xenophobia seem to raise their heads ever higher, the Church’s continued political docetism san portend only greater dispossession and disaster for the masses of those Jesus came to serve and to save.

In short, preaching, teaching, and serving a nonpolitical Jesus constitutes an un-Christian abdication of responsibility to wage struggle against the demonic structures of oppression that mititate against the justice of God.

That Docetic biblical interpretations serve the the forces of domination is not just coincidental. It is the consequence of two very crucial, yet very different developments.¹

Setting off from this point of departure, Hendricks gives several readings of well know biblical passages and offers an alternative interpretation. He uses several contemporary events to place the biblical narratives into a framework that opens up our imaginations to hear these familiar stories in a new light. While I don’t always agree with Hendricks conclusions I certainly found his perspective to challenge my own in ways that are convicting and humbling. Perhaps my favorite example is his perspective on Matthew 20:1-16.² That chapter alone was worth picking up this book.

All in all, I enjoyed this book very much. It is challenging, thought provoking and right on target in calling those of us who claim to follow Jesus the liberating, political revolutionary to examine our faithfullness in this task.

1. Page 80 [back]
2. His read of this passage offers a critical look at our commitments to economic paradigms and how those commitments color our reading of this story in not so helpful ways. Just a simple exercise of who we identify each of the characters in the story with when we interpret its meaning and purpose was very revealing for me. [back]

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 14th, 2007 at 12:50 am and is filed under Books.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.