For the Nations

By John Howard Yoder

Book Overview

This book is a masterwork from a master theological craftsman. John Howard Yoder is perhaps the best worker in Christian theology in America today, though his modesty (and others' presumption) still hides his accomplishment from some. Here, answering the question raised by The Politics of Jesus, Yoder addresses the major challenge facing American churches--the authentic mode of Christian existence in society today. In full command of his material, Yoder provides a powerfully stated, radically catholic answer. --James Wm. McClendon Jr. Fuller Theological Seminary It has been Yoder's vocation to proclaim a gospel of biblical realism that challenges both the biblicism of many other self-identified 'evangelicals' and the pretenses of 'political realism' of many of his theological and secular contemporaries. He has insisted on a coherent witness that is at once 'sectarian' and 'catholic, ' even while it celebrates both the diaspora of Judaism-become-Christianity and the radical New Testament theology of the cross. These essays from several decades all testify to 'the politics of Jesus' that transforms conventional assumptions about both power and weakness. They combine to offer what Yoder calls 'one holistic, Christological, paradigmatic proclamation: servanthood, enemy love, forgiveness. --Alan Geyer Wesley Theological Seminar

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1592440843
• ISBN13: 9781592440849
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers
• Length: 258 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Yoder does not disappoint

A text from the later years of JH Yoder's life, his consistent commitment to the politics of the cross reverberate throughout this volume of essays. Yoder spends time linking Old Testament themes of peace and justice with themes evident in the early Christian church in a way consistent with that of the work of Walter Brueggeman. As such, these essays do not disappoint and deepen one's appreciation for the need to trace themes throughout all of the Bible rather than just focusing on the New Testament per se. Yoder shifts seamlessly between current day issues and scriptural texts. His words are no less relevant today than they were when they were first penned--and seem in fact to directly address our modern day issues of a post-9/11 America and world. While his works and words do not always seem penetrable at first glance(I found the first chapter particularily difficult to plow through), let the reader be encouraged to remain engaged, for there is much wisdom to be embraced within these chapters. Moreover, while many have suggested that the theology of Yoder encourages followers of Christ to disengage and seperate from the world, here is a text that stands as inspiring evidence of Yoder's driving passion to engage in public conversation about life in the world, not on the world's terms but rather in the spirit of, and for the sake of Jesus Christ.