The Holy Thursday Revolution [Paperback]

Beatrice Bruteau (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 338 pages
• Publisher: Orbis Books (March 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570755760
• ISBN-13: 978-1570755767
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bruteau Offers New Paradigm for Living, December 28, 2005

By 

Marshall Marvelli "Amateur scholar" (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Holy Thursday Revolution (Paperback)

The marvel of this book is that Dr. Bruteau traces the troubles of the modern world back to their roots. She argues that for too long, we have existed in a world based on domination which appears in every scale of human experience from worldwide war to one-on-one disputes. What characterizes domination is that one part undertakes to control the other party.

This political, economic, and social attitude/action results from a psychology of fear, "a tortured psychology and the even more fundamental existential anxiety and insecurity."

Bruteau argues that "we do not have a secure hold on existence.... Each of us believes we are a finite, contingent, vulnerable being and each of us has personal identity by 'not being the other.'" This she calls the "logic of mutual negation."

The alternative, according to Dr. Bruteau, is "mutual affirmation," from which arises a metaphysics of 'community' making possible at long last 'love for the neighbor.' On this foundation can be erected a politics, economics and social structure of equal respect and friendship.

This is the message of the New Testament story of "Holy Thursday" which finds its focus in the illustration which graces the cover of her book. The message is: when the Lord (Dominus, dominator) behaves as servant, then there is no longer any meaning to lordship or servanthood. The concepts perish together. In their place we have the saying, "I will no longer call you servants but friends."

This is all explained with many examples. In my mind, what makes the book especially attractive is Dr. Bruteau's retelling of Holy Thursday and the Revelation at Sinai. The mark of her revolution is the as individuals we are liberated from the stress of self-protection and self-promotion mandated by the deep anxiety of our existential insecurity.

Read the book to learn how she explains how we can pass from the domination paradigm to the friendship paradigm and realize the truth in the phrase, "Children of God." This life-transformation realization liberates energy to love one another as we have been loved. This shift in the basic dynamic of life constitutes the "Revolution."