Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Christ's Teachings About Love, Compassion and Forgiveness [Paperback]

Wendell Berry (Compiler)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 4, 2005

For two thousand years, artists, social and cultural activists, politicians and philosophers, humanists and devoted spiritual seekers have all looked to the sayings of Jesus for inspiration and instruction. Unfortunately, on occasions too frequent and destructive to enumerate, the teachings of Christ have been either ignored or distorted by the very people calling themselves Christian. Today, we see a vigorous movement in America fueled by a politicized and engaged portion of the electorate involved in just such ignorance and distortion. Whether directed towards social intolerance or attitudes of warlike aggression, these right-wing citizens have claimed a power of influence that far exceeds their numbers.

This small book collects the sayings of Jesus, selected by Mr. Berry, who has contributed an essay of introduction. Here is a way of peace as described and directed by the greatest spiritual teacher in the West. This is a book of inspiration and prayerful compassion, and we may hope a ringing call to action at a time when our country and the world it once led stand at a dangerous crossroads.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Thomas Jefferson famously culled from the Gospels to present Jesus the Enlightenment rationalist but, knowing that public Christians of the time wouldn't take it well, left the selection for posthumous publication. Berry aims his gospel sampler first at public Christians, and he publishes immediately because he has prophetic fish to fry. Wealthy and powerful Christians continue the age-old processes of warring for vengeance and self-interest, he says, despite what Jesus said about loving our neighbors--and our enemies--and forgiving one another. To make those sayings stand out, he gathers passages including the parable of the Good Samaritan, the story of the woman taken in adultery, and the hard teachings about coming "not to send peace, but a sword." After the selections, he discusses "The Burden of the Gospels," which is essentially the injunction to follow Christ and keep his commandments, and consequently to believe in the world's sanctity and the human duty of stewardship of creation. Berry restates an old message as beautifully as he has stated anything in his long, distinguished career. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (October 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593761007
• ISBN-13: 978-1593761004
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #205,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #35 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Bible & Other Sacred Texts > Bible > New Testament

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Making Christianity unfashionable but authentic, May 17, 2006

By 

Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Christ's Teachings About Love, Compassion and Forgiveness (Paperback)

Wendell Berry begins this little book on a Kierkegaardian note by asserting that Christianity in the U.S. has become so fashionable that it has "remarkably little to do with the things that Jesus Christ taught." In our cultural endorsement of war and economic/environmental practices that destroy creation--both fashionable expediencies--we betray, for the sake of national interests (the heresy, by the way, of phyletism), the Gospel. We thereby put outselves in "an absurdity" that we can "neither resolve nor escape: the proposition that war can be made to serve peace; that you can make friends for love by hating and killing the enemies of love."

Berry goes on to reflect on the "burden" (but blessing, too) of being a good enough Christian to avoid this absurdity. His analysis focuses on Christ's promise to bring "life abundant." As Berry interprets it, "abundant life" refers to all creation, not just one's personal existence, which has its being in and through God's creative spirit. To celebrate what God has made and graciously sustains, we need to adopt ways of living that nurture rather than destroy, that encourage peace rather than war, and that affirm rather life than death.

In between the introductory and closing essay in which Berry reflects on all this, he collects 123 New Testament verses that speak to Christ's Gospel of Peace and its promise of life abundant. Actually, I think he undersells the centrality of peacemaking in the New Testament: I'd add at least half again as many verses. But Berry's point is well-taken: one either takes scripture seriously, or one doesn't. What the Bible says is pretty clear, and it's not so easy to interpret away as many of us wish or believe.

Berry offers a litmus test for whether we take scripture seriously: if we heard some guy named Joe Green in the public square saying exactly the same things Jesus said 2,000 years ago (only we're hearing them for the very first time), would we drop everything and follow him? Or would we mock him as unfashionably crazy? How many of us who call ourselves Christians, I wonder, would pass this test? Would I?

Highly recommended. As usual, Berry's style is heartbreakingly beautiful, and his reflections insightful.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A challenge to hear anew the Jesus of the Gospels, December 4, 2005

By 

Michael R. Duncan (Kentucky) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Christ's Teachings About Love, Compassion and Forgiveness (Paperback)

Berry is a prophet somewhat in the mold of Amos from the Hebrew Bible, though a bit more disarming in his challenges. His selection of Jesus-sayings on peacemaking is intriguing for what it reveals both about what Jesus said and about Berry. The book is worth the price for the introduction and the essay, "The Burden of the Gospels," that are included. In the introduction, Berry indicts modern Christianity: "It seems to have remarkably little to do with the things that Jesus Christ actually taught." In the concluding essay, he suggests that a more honest reading of the Gospels could improve the modern practice of the Christian faith.

Anyone who seeks to take seriously the Gospels and the Jesus they present, should read the above referenced essay. It was first presented in August 2005 at the joint convocation of Lexington Theological Seminary and Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, two institutions that share space in Lexington, Kentucky. Berry's essay has an important word for all readers and interpreters of the Gospels--be they in the pew or in the pulpit.

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Am Always on the Lookout for Books Like This..., November 3, 2005

By 

Aaron J. Kunce "Aaron J. Kunce" (York, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Christ's Teachings About Love, Compassion and Forgiveness (Paperback)

There are very, very few essential living authors. Berry has once again proven that he is among them. An absolutely inspirational work. Jefferson said: "the words of Jesus shine in this world like diamonds in a dung-hill".

Berry lifts these coruscating words and sayings -- and gently turns them so that their fiery truth is sometimes illuminating... and sometimes blinding. +Aaron K