Creation or Empire: A Choice of Religions in the Bible and Beyond

Name: Creation or Empire: A Choice of Religions in the Bible and Beyond
Brand: Orbis Books
SKU: 978-1-62698-658-9
Price: 26.00 USD
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Creation or Empire: A Choice of Religions in the Bible and Beyond

Author:Wes Howard-Brook

$26.00 USD

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SKU:978-1-62698-658-9

*Advance Praise & Reviews*

"Wes Howard-Brook has spent his life studying empire and what the Bible has to say about how we are to live as revolutionaries for love. But Wes is not just a scholar -- he is an activist, a practitioner, a provocateur... helping us all stay faithful to God rather than conform to the patterns of this world. Let his newest book stir you to action."

-Shane Claiborne, author and activist, co-founder of Red Letter Christians

“Wes Howard-Brook has long challenged us to read the Bible on its own terms—to hear its strange, ancient heartbeat beyond the distortions of what often passes for ‘Christianity’ in imperial culture. Now, with this concise and powerful volume, he distills decades of scholarship and discipleship into an urgently needed invitation.”—From the Foreword by Michael Morrell

“Wes Howard-Brook confronts our continual temptation for allegiance to Empire over God, making it clear that we cannot serve ‘two masters.’ This brief book traces the tension in the Bible and the church, particularly in the United States, resulting in endless imperial violence wrongly wrought in the name of God.”—Rev. Weldon D. Nisly, Community Peacemaker Teams

“If we study Wes’ brilliant insight to the Bible, we will not only want to join the biblical lineage of nonviolent resistance to empire with all our hearts, but discover anew the living God of universal love and peace who calls us to a new world of peace.”—Rev. John Dear, author, The Gospel of Peace

“This book is a clarion call and a summons. To choose Creation over Empire is not a moral decision. It is to decide what kind of world will live in us. The gospel is not neutral—it is a jailbreak, a holy uprising against every system that cages the imagination that belongs to God. Creation or Empire extends that vision to the whole world.”—Rev. Lynice Pinkard, UCC Philadelphia area pastor

“Creation or Empire delivers a template showing how Christians can live a religion of creation story today!” —Angela N. Parker, PhD, Mercer University

“Creation or Empire is a relentlessly researched and argued celebration of the anti-empire and, perhaps more important for this historical moment, anti-fascist message of the biblical tradition. An accessible resource for preachers, scholars, and followers on the way, who seek to live joyful resistance.”—Rev. Laurel Dykstra, Salal + Cedar Community

Wes’s brilliant volumes “Come Out My People!” and “Empire Baptized,” offer a comprehensive interpretation of the Bible and church history in terms of the struggle between a “Religion of Creation” (represented by the prophets and Jesus) and the Religion of Empire. Together, they are 800pp. This short volume, aimed at a general audience, will summarize those volumes and show their relevance for today.

Wes Howard-Brook is the author of several award-winning books, including “Come Out, My People!” God’s Call out of Empire in the Bible and Beyond and Empire Baptized: How the Church Embraced What Jesus Rejected, 2nd-5th Centuries. He collaborates in the ministry Abide in Me with his wife Sue Ferguson Johnson. His YouTube channel, Radical Bible (https://radicalbible.net), is a word-by word, video biblical commentary.

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ISBN: 978-1-62698-658-9

Cover design: Diane Mastrogiulio