Brian Zahnd has written several provocative books and his latest is probably one of his best. Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God dispels the notion of an angry God image and suggests a God in the face of the loving Christ. When people read the hard texts of scripture, are they really about a wrathful God doing violence against anyone who gets in his way or are they more hidden and subversive texts that shows how the forces of evil has a way of turning back upon themselves and destroying one another? When we read the Bible in very one dimensional ways, we will often end up reading the scriptures like the atheists do. The difference is atheists reject this horrible view of God while Christians defend it as God can kill and do violence against whomever He wants to. Do we believe in a monster God or one that is revealed in the wounds of love of Christ?
It seems like Christians and skeptics and atheists have a way of projecting their own violence and immorality onto God. Good Friday is where we see more fully the suffering God sacrificing oneself for his beloved creation. When we read the Bible, do we see the face of God allowing evil to swallow itself up with evil or do we believe that the only way to overcome evil is with more evil or to overcome violence is with violence? Can we read the Bible more as the early Christians did as the self-sacrificial-love of God displayed in the enemy-loving-cross-of-Christ or do we read it as modern-American-empire-building Christians who seek vengeance on God's enemies? Maybe that is the question?
No comments:
Post a Comment