Jesus' Plan for a New World: The Sermon on the Mount (Paperback)

by Richard Rohr (Author), John Bookser Feister (Author) "I am told that there are three kinds of cultures today, each with its own "bottom line": political cultures based on the manipulation of power,..." (more)
Key Phrases: false sacred, transforming initiative, open table fellowship, New Testament, True Sacred, John the Baptist (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
When politicians today talk about a "new world order," they are actually referring to the "old world order"--the heart of the New Testament. Rohr and Feister explore the Gospel According to Matthew and delve into the Sermon on the Mount, considered the blueprint of the Christian lifestyle. They emerge with a clearer understanding of the Gospel writers, especially Matthew, who passed the sermon on to us.

Product Details

• Paperback: 175 pages
• Publisher: Saint Anthony Messenger Press; 1st edition (June 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0867162031
• ISBN-13: 978-0867162035
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #208,593 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The upside-down kingdom, January 13, 2004

By	Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I've read a lot of Rohr's books, but somehow I've only now gotten around to this one. Immersing myself in it was like jumping into an icy mountain pond: stunning, bracing, invigorating, renewing. It's a courageous book that dares to challenge "religious culture," that institutionalization of Christ's gospel that renders it meek and mild and safe, and to persuasively defend instead the original subversive character of Christ's life and teaching. Jesus, according to Rohr, was much more of a threat to the social and moral status quo than he's usually reckoned to be. In challenging the cultures of money, power, and religionism, he offered a radically counter-cultural model of right relationship that he called "God's Kingdom." This Kingdom grows not by the sword or by power (that would be to fall into the trap the prevailing cultures), but by love and powerlessness. It subverts the established order by simply ignoring it and building the shell of the new within the old. That's one of the reasons Jesus so favored the poor, the marginalized, and disenfranchised: because they fell outside the "system," they hadn't been corrupted by it and were capable of working with God to build the Kingdom.

Richard Rohr's reminder of God's great vision of justice, peace, and fulfillment, a vision preached and died for by Jesus, is a challenge to all of us who call ourselves Christians but have fallen into the habit of "loving Jesus" without acting accordingly. Highly recommended as a tonic to laypersons and clergy alike. Would that Christians would take its message to heart. Then the world might once again marvel at "how these Christians love!"

41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jesus' plan for a New World: the Sermon on the Mount, March 29, 2000

By	Patrick E. Murphy (Lacombe, Louisiana) - See all my reviews

Richard Rohr is one of the foremost spiritual writers of ourtimes. His extensive theological background and his many years ofinterpersonal experience with many different peoples (from teenagers to Native Americans) and his vast retreat master experiences gives him the wisdom to speak with authority about the Sermon on the Mount...Jesus' plan for our lives. Rohr cuts through political, cultural and religious structural facades and unmasks them for what they are...self serving units which need 'us' to keep them afloat. He shows where the core message of Jesus 'hides' within the Universal religions of the world and sometimes gets missed because of ego serving humans. Just the ones Jesus is looking for to show his compassionate mercy to. Fr. Rohr tells us that Jesus came to be with and encourage those who are suffering, those who have not, those who are regarded as marginal and not accepted in todays society. His liberal bible references helped me to see the deeper meaning in many of the Gospel pasages. He also gives the Jewish background to help me understand why Jesus said what he said and what it meant for the people of 2,000 years ago AND for all of us today in the year 2,000.

I have been with Fr. Rohr on retreats and days of prayer. I've followed his spiritual growth for some 20 years and have read his books on the Enneagram. His clear insight is pure gift from God. And he would be the first to tell you so.

44 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What was Jesus really saying?, January 7, 2004

By	Matt Benzing "Librarian" (Troy, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fundamentalists like the last reviewer may not like the fact that Jesus was as much a social as a spiritual revolutionary, but Rohr forces the reader to confront this fact. It is truly bizarre that so many modern day conservatives proclaim Jesus as "Savior" while discounting or ignoring almost everything he ever said. The Sermon on the Mount is a political and spiritual discourse that undercuts almost everything that right wing Evangelicals and Catholics stand for; todays "conservative Christian" was yesterday's Pharisee.
Rohr is a gifted teacher who knows how to get at the heart of Christ's teaching. The last time I checked he was not a member of the Jesus Seminar, but was a member and leader of several congregations that were devoted to taking Jesus at his word and living out his truth in thought and deed. As Rohr himself has pointed out, Jesus was murdered for his teaching, and anyone who dares to take up His cross and pass that teaching on will be slandered and opposed at every turn. If you just talk about being "born again" (like the current president) people will think of you as a nice religious person; if you dare to preach what Jesus actually preached you we be attacked as a "liberal". I am a teacher and preacher and have found Rohr's work to be invaluable in putting together sermons and lessons. It is unfortunate that this sort of serious Bible teaching is not as widely available in Christian bookstores and over the airwaves as is the cultic nonsense of Tim LaHaye and Pat Robertson.