I had the opportunity (like, 12 hours of opportunity) to read Russel Rathbun's "Post-Rapture Radio: Lost Writings from a Failed Revolution" while on the plane to Seoul.
It is a fantastic book.
Basically, the entire book is written to look like Rathbun found a box of sermons and journal entries from a (fictional) pastor, the Reverend Lamblove. Using the fake character, he gives sermons, notes, short stories, etc. to describe what he calls the "Contemporary Christian Culture Conspiracy." The idea is tha Christian culture and popular culture have become the same thing, and that neither is really what Christianity should be about.
A quote:
"The personalization of salvation--the individualization of Christianity--is not the result of honest interpretation of our holy scriptures, faithful adherence to our tradition, clear application of our reason, or divine revelation from the spirit of God.
"The personalization of salvation is the result of the twisting of these things, the misrepresentation of a selection of spiritual passages taken out of context.... It is presented time and time again, surrounded by so much garbage of personal piety and manipulation that it always comes out sounding like Jesus is making individual trips from heaven to knock on the door of some poor Sunday school student's heart to see if he can get in.
"This weak, robe-wearing, door-knocking Jesus, who would be thwarted by the indecision of a twelve year-old, is no savior. This is not at all what the story is about."
and
"If I can imagine a God who is more loving and intelligent than the one I find in the Bible, then it is obviously time to get a new God."
I suggest you pick it up. It's a quick read, and you can get it for a few bucks off Amazon.
---CJ
4 comments:
Hahahaha first comment, of course since i haven't seen many comments I don't know if that's much of an achievement, but whatever. Ahem, I was wondering CJ, if you found this book on my bookshelf next year at college, what would you do? Also good luck over there and try to enjoy yourself. I'll pray for ya.
What are you doing reading books that make you think? And then leaving posts that make other people start to think too? Seriously though, sounds like good stuff...
It's a long-standing question among missionaries and missiologists... how is the Gospel received in a culture where they make decisions as a group? Particularly when the "group decision" is made by tribal elders or other recognized leaders.
"Post-Rapture Radio" sounds like an interesting book, but maybe something of a pendulum swing. A friend of mine recently is on military leave from Iraq. He was immediately struck, just coming into a US airport how self-absorbed Americans are--all wrapped up in their cell phones, their watches, their schedules, their_____________.
But the solution to narcissitic theology isn't anti-individual theology. Jesus called crowds and individuals to follow Him. And after all, a "group decision" by Constantine was hardly the conversion of an empire, let alone individuals.
Love to dialog more with you on this when you get back.
And today's word verification is "tnuddi," meaning a nudist beach in Tahiti.
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