Shane Claiborne is one of the founders of  "The Simple Way" - and a long-time partner in The Potter Street Community, an intentional community in Philadelphia that seeks to live in ways that are redemptive and beautiful. His burgeoning influence among North American Christians is largely the result of his ability to enunciate a growing sense that the gospel - as understood in contemporary American Christian culture - has been usurped by specialized interests, not the least of which is the church. His continuing articulation of that sense has resulted in a a collaboration with Chris Haw and Zondervan to produce the provocatively titled "Jesus for President".

Jesus for President, then, offers nothing less than a completely new interpretation of the scripture, from Genesis to Revelation; a re-interpretation so dramatically other than that of the rational, individual, me-centered gospel of our day that it is simply stunning. Drawing his understanding of the Kingdom of God from Narrative Theology, Claiborne divides the book into four sections offering a re-examination of the the Old Testament, the birth of Christ, the growth of the church and its eventual co-operation with (and absorption into) the Empire (Roman and American), and finally, stories of redemption living and acts of non-conformity intended to inspire and motivate change.

Claiborne and Haw's writing is alluring in many ways and  SharpSeven's graphic design is constantly intriguing - it has the look and feel of something home-made; a journal, scrapbook or zine, perhaps. The focus of their interpretation of scripture is consistently oriented towards community and justice; to live out the Kingdom of God is to engage in redemptive living, even if it means getting arrested so as to stand with the homeless. To Claiborne and Haw, Christ's re-iteration of Isaiah's call to preach the gospel to the poor, to set the captives free and proclaim the year of Jubilee is meant to be understood literally. The Kingdom of God, they tell us, is not merely different from the world but is diametrically opposed to the empire of materialism, commercialism, democracy and war. The authors show no hesitation in presenting America as a Neo-Roman empire, and understand the gospel as a message that subverts that empire and, if truly embraced by Christians now (as in the earliest days of the church) presents a clear and present danger to the empire's longevity.

As a non-American reader, however, I experienced no small amount of disconnect in reading Jesus for President.  It is, first and foremost, targeted quite specifically at American Christians. In Canada we have scant militaristic fervor and lack the history of imperial jingoism that has so brutally defined America to the world. Nor did everyone - as the opening pages ask us to recollect -  grew up in a nuclear family, attend childhood Sunday School or pledge allegiance to the flag (a uniquely American affectation). Perhaps the authors fail to grasp the fact that America may be the only nation in the world in which religious, patriotic and militaristic zeal are hopelessly confused, but the notable alternative - that they have written this book for American readers to the exclusion of all others inspires far less, though splitting hairs is not an unreasonable description of this particular concern. What does nag in the back of my mind, however, is that nowhere do the authors talk about the need for a deep and personally sustaining relationship with God. My experience at the Mission has been that one simply cannot give without possessing that which needs to be given; nothing less than the presence of Christ is the empowerment for serving others. Perhaps there is much to life in an intentional community that I don't understand, but the absence of any discussion related to an intimate and individual knowing of Christ is puzzling, if not alarming. The authors may assume their audience will read the text as if a personal, knowing experience of God is unstated but understood yet, barring that assumption (and the subsequent decoding of the text it requires), Christ appears to be reduced to a political, economic, and religious figurehead. As Claiborne and Haw recast the Advent story Christ's divinity is only obliquely mentioned - once: 

As Israel continued to break the covenant and failed to be distinctive, God came to show us in one person all that Isreael was meant to be. (Page 65)

That's it - the sum total aknowledgement of Christ's divinity. I have also read pages 107-108 a dozen times over and still don't understand what their re-interpretation of 'born again' means, much less how one becomes 'born again', a significant failing (perhaps on my part) when one considers an Evangelical Christian audience, for whom the term holds an almighty heft. The book's singular focus on community and social justice, particularly in this regard, seems sorely lacking in but one element; that being a divine, loving, personally active God who cares for the individual amidst the community and the community through the individual, to which the 'fruit of the Spirit' attest. Without this, Claiborne's social justice, community-based gospel may become yet another gospel subverted; a gospel wherein the pharisaical righteousness of legalism is replaced by the pharisaical righteousness of community: one program driven church being replaced by another. God's love can never be understood in light of God's desire for justice. God's love can only be understood through the experience of God's love, personally and individually. Without this we have nothing to offer our community, nothing to offer our world.

These concerns, however, are more of caution than alarm. What Jesus for President does offer is nothing less than a staggeringly vast re-interpretation of the bible, of the life of Christ and what all of it means for us. Claiborne and Haw give us a compelling vision for translating the life of Christ into the language of our every day activities, but the panoramic scope of it leaves me struggling to contain it's enormity. Yet by constantly returning to the values of community and the ability of individual actions to effect meaningful change, and by doing so in a tone that is consistently winsome, coy and playful, Claiborne and Haw give me a sense that I can make a difference - really and truly make a difference - in the world, right here, today, in my own neighbourhood. That's what I loved most about this book - and why I recommend it so highly to every Christ follower: Jesus for President gives me hope.