The rise of Christian nationalism has exposed how our imagination as Americans has been shaped by stories of conflict and conquest: might makes right. But what if our patterns of life were shaped instead by the whole of Scripture? What if we confronted evil with peaceable means to make peace? Scot McKnight's insightful book takes us into the heart of God's agenda in Scripture as it propels us along the path of living out a peaceful imagination.
The Bible Is Not Enough: Imagination and Making Peace in the Modern World
The Bible offers a beginning. But the Bible itself has become another tool of the "humane." The audaciousness of the Bible has been tamed--tamed and then co-opted. All too often the Bible is weighed against itself, allowing extreme to mitigate extreme. But that is not how the Bible works. The Bible takes a stand by pressing for one end of the extreme, sometimes even pushing the other end off stage. The Bible did so in the past because the times called for it. And that is exactly what the Bible does today, regarding peace. The Bible imagines a peaceful world and then insists upon improvisation to realize that peace.
- Publisher Fortress Press
- Format Hardcover
- ISBN 9781506488042
- eBook ISBN 9781506488059
- Dimensions 5.25 x 7.25
- Pages 91
- Publication Date September 12, 2023
Endorsements
Joel B. Green, Senior Professor of New Testament Interpretation, Fuller Theological Seminary
Scot McKnight is gentle, but he insists on peace as a Christian essential. Having baptized us in the ocean of the Bible's peace message, he raises us to a peaceful imagination that transcends narrow proof-texting. McKnight's pressing logic, gracious disposition, and passionate advocacy place us "aspiring" pacifists under gospel conviction.
Greg Carey, professor of New Testament, Lancaster Theological Seminary
McKnight teases out a vision from Scripture in which the peace of the world to come is breaking through in the present, and one which we are called to join. It is a world in which the peace of God brings neighbors and nations together in the peace of Christ. And it's the kind of world I want for all Christians to take part in.
Myles Werntz, associate professor of theology, Abilene Christian University, and coauthor of A Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence
A theological missive against White Christian nationalism and the ways that Christians of all political parties have sanitized the killing of their enemies. The Bible Is Not Enough is a wake-up call--an invitation for the church to expand its theological imagination and to improvise God's disruption of political violence through Jesus's way of peace.
Drew Strait, assistant professor of New Testament and Christian origins, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary