15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Timely, Insightful and Challenging, August 10, 2009
This review is from: Christian America and the Kingdom of God (Hardcover)
At a time when we are being challenged to rethink and reshape our economic, political and social values, Richard Hughes offers this timely, insightful and challenging book on how some American values and policies are unchristian and even anti-Christian.
Is America a Christian nation? On one hand, over 80% of Americans say they are Christian. Christian customs and holidays help shape our society. On the other hand, many key American policies and actions directly contradict the Bible's teaching on the Kingdom of God, "from Indian removal and extermination to African slavery to racial segregation to state-sanctioned killing in wars for dominance and profit to state-sanctioned torture of enemy combatants." A great part of the book shows how the Bible's teaching on the Kingdom of God focuses on peace and justice and not on power and dominance.
Very troubling, Hughes traces the influence that some evangelical and fundamentalist values have on America's unchristian and anti-Christian behavior. Hughes builds on his previous book, Myths Americans Live By. Myths that some Christians foster include: America is 1) a Chosen Nation (so we must show our values to the world, even at times, force them upon others), 2) a Christian Nation (despite our secular Constitution), and 3) an Innocent Nation (we're right and those who disagree with us are wrong).
Hughes shows how the Bush administration bought into these myths, e.g., re: Iraq, and thereby implies how much work must be done to undo the damage done by that administration.
He laments the Biblical and theological illiteracy that runs rampant throughout the U. S. Very importantly, he shows how some evangelicals and fundamentalists misread and misapply the Bible, especially in their appeal to the early parts of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament, where the emphasis was on tribal views of dominance, war and annihilation. Beginning in the 8th C. BCE these views were rebuked by the Hebrew prophets, who preached peace and justice. This theme was picked up by Jesus and, in Christian eyes, completed by him. (Cf. the Beatitudes.) Writing from his own personal depths of peace, Hughes shows how Jesus's teaching on the Kingdom of God stands
in stark contradiction to many American policies and to many evangelical and fundamentalist views of how our country should operate.
As a Catholic who strives to encourage fellow Catholics to see that they are "everyday mystics" who can use their ever-living, perennial wisdom to discern the presence and intentions of God for today's world, and who are "everyday prophets" who can work within that wisdom to implement God's intentions, I see with sadness that many people who have achieved wisdom and maturity in their chosen fields, e.g., education, science, business, etc., apply their faith to their fields--and to society in general--with such biblical and theological illiteracy and immaturity.
This book goes a long way toward helping all Christians of good will gain clearer knowledge of the Kingdom of God, and gain the encouragement to get effectively engaged in helping make our society more luminously human in the grace of Christ.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Every Religious and Political Leader in this country should a copy on his or her desk, October 10, 2009
This review is from: Christian America and the Kingdom of God (Hardcover)
The author, far from disparaging those sincere believers in the myth of the Christian nation, does his best to set guidelines, and to reinforce the idea that his goal is to call attention to what it means to move past America's current civil religion to something more closely resembling the biblical ideal for the kingdom of God while acknowledging the Constitutional restriction on legalization of such a program.
Throughout this book, the reader will encounter the phrase "the myth of Christian America." When I use the term myth, I don't have in mind something that is fundamentally untrue. (p1)
This book does not argue that the United States should seek to become more faithful to the Christian religion or that the nation should embrace as its norm the biblical vision of the kingdom of God... But I do argue - and this is the third important thesis of this book - that Christians should behave in ways that are consistent with their profession of faith, especially in American's public square.(p4)
Hughes, in the introduction, explores recent political history and the intrusion of this myth into the American political scene. He mentions the stark differences between the biblical ideal of the kingdom of God and what has been created in the American mindset. He does not shy away from naming names, such as Ann Coulter, taking time to compare her insistent statements that she is in line with the Judeo-Christian tradition and those of Tony Norman who concluded, "I can't be a Christian in a world where Ann Coulter can call herself a Christian without fear of contradiction." He sets the tone of the book as defending biblical Christianity against political, or civil, Christianity in these few chapters.
Hughes demands that attention of the conservative reader who would dismiss him but repeating that he is not undermining the Christian ideals of the country, nor the contributions of Christianity to the foundation of the United States. He does, briefly in the introduction, mention the legality of the Christian Nation status, giving snippets of evidence of moments in the past, defeated on legal grounds, or as part of passing fads, which attempted to re-clarify the notion of the nation. His exegesis of the Battle Hymn of the Republic is very much worth reading.
He ends the introduction in (again) acknowledging that the United States is a Christian Nation because it has become infused, nurtured,and culturally nourished with Christianity, but (again) seeks to measure the American idea of the Christian Nation with the Biblical Ideal of the Kingdom of God.
Chapter 1 finds the author examining Christian America as God's Chosen People. He starts by recounting the most recent national example of Christianity - the massacre of the Amish children at Nickle Creek Mines which saw the family of the victims reach out repeatedly to the family of the murderer.
The author discusses the rate of biblical illiteracy in the American public, starting in the 1940's when bibles were far outselling any other books, but only 50% of the American public could name a gospel (it is only 40% now), using this as a focal point in discussing the historical misconception of what a Christian Nation is.
In doing so, he starts with the earliest colonial history, and the propaganda used in previous generations to focus on the divine predestination of the colonies, especially, it seems, New England. He recounts the confusion of America's purpose with Israel's purpose, quoting actual bible verses (NRSV) as opposed to mentioning them in passing. He notes that many see the bible as an `undifferentiated' document which blinds Americans to the idea of divine nationhood.
He starts the history of the myth of the Christian Nation with none other than my personal hero, William Tyndale, who saw England under the thumb of anti-biblical enforcers, and started to confuse the divine covenant in Deuteronomy with England's status - calling for a covenant with God. He quotes briefly from Tyndale's preface to Jonah, adding,
There Tyndale lamented that over the years, God had sent numerous prophets to proclaim repentance to England, but England reused to respond to those indictments. Now England, like Israel of old, was in danger of suffering the wrath of God.
He follows that line of thinking from Tyndale to the earliest settlers unto the present, including Billy Graham's promise that if Americans turned to God, Communism would be kept at bay, and to D. James Kennedy's insistence that American was both a chosen and a Christian nation.
Hughes then moves to accessing the claim, noting that some early founders rejected the notion that the United States was the new Israel, such as Roger Williams who founded the colony of Rhode Island. In this section, he notes many of the reasonings used in naming America either a chosen or a Christian nation, but I fear that he misses one. While he does note the strong confusion/connection seen by many between Israel and the United States, he fails also to note the strong belief among many quarters that the sole-purpose of the United States is to secure a defense of the physical state of Israel.
He writes concerning the many notions that he mentions,
This conflated view of the Bible therefore sustains the notion of the United States as a chosen nation, just as it sustains the erroneous but common designation of the United States as a Judeo-Christian nation.
Moving on, he examines biblical passages for the understanding of a chosen nation, comparing the Old Testament and the New Testament, to show that Israel was chosen exclusively but that under the New Testament, `chosen' applies to believers regardless of race, creed, or color.
He briefly discusses (p28) the outcome of confusing `chosen' and then applying it in confusion to the United States. With the importation of the covenant view of the English people and the transference to the New England colonies, came the reliance upon the Hexateuch and it's history if Israel's invasion and war against the natives. In doing so, the New England Puritans (and the South African colonists) found justification for severe and inhumane crimes against the native population. Further, he mentions this rhetoric as it touched the American-Filipino War and the Iraqi War.
He doesn't merely mention people form the past and then give an interpretation of their statements, but allows them to remain in their own words.
In Chapter 2, the author examines what it means to be the kingdom of God according to the Hebrew bible, but using the mission of Christ as the starting point. He makes the point,
Americans can claim their country as a Christian nation if they wish, but to make that argument stick, they must somehow make it square with the Bible.
From there, he goes on to examine the parallel visions of Israel as a biblical kingdom of God, noting Israel was never meant to exist as a kingdom, and became one only after a rebellion against God. He draws the distinction between Israel of the Hexateuch and that which developed after the Kingdom and through the prophetic writings against the backdrop of wars and waywardness by Israel. In doing so, he focuses on God's repetitive focus on justice as His measurement of Israel's obedience. For Hughes, a biblical kingdom of God is one which focuses justice (to the poor) and governed by peace and goodwill to all. (p32)
In his examination of the Witness of the Hebrew Bible, he notes the two visions of Israel - a warrior, vengeful and the other, a peacemaker. He calls attention to the fact that when Christ announced His mission (Luke 4.16-21), he omitted the phrase `vengeance of God' from His quotation of Isaiah 61.1-2. This is a key point in his argument that the kingdom/rule of God/heaven which Christ established was one which developed in later prophetic writings.
To drive home the point, he shows that Christ fulfilled (incarnated as Crossan concluded p37) not passages from the warring manifesto of Israel's history, but those passages related to a kingdom of peace and justice.
The author does not hesitate to use biblical passages - without the added baggage of historical criticism or long winded commentaries. Further, he reveals his influences of John Dominic Crossan, Walter Brueggemann (who has lent his endorsement), and Gordon Brubacher.
Hughes concludes the chapter by pointing to the Maccabean period which began to see Israel's mission not just to Israel - justice wasn't merely for Israelites - but a new mission in which Israel was the light to the world.
In Chapter 3, Witness of the New Testament, the author sneaks in the imperialistic hermeneutic of Jesus/Paul vs. Empire, along with small amounts of historical criticism on the disputed books of Paul (although he in the end shows that it does not matter, as they are clearly Pauline and within Paul's theology).
Nearly his intire premise is based on Crossen's words that the principles of the kingdom of God and the those of human civilization are in tension and played out in the bible itself. He continues his previous theme of the paradox of the warring kingdom and kingdom with brings peace through justice, noting,
But in the New Testament, especially in the teachings of Jesus, the theme of paradox emerges full-blown.
His focus for this chapter is stated clearly in the words of Horsley who insisted on understanding Christ and the Gospels by understanding the context. By placing the New Testament in the sphere of the Roman Empire, with the intricacies of Augustine rule, he examines the United States as an imperialistic power, not from the very beginning of the...
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