Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire

This book cannot easily fit into any one category -- it is historical, theological, artistic, biographical, and a wonderful narrative at the same time. It probes deep into the heart of a once-vibrant, subversive faith that through time has been corrupted by Empire, thus turning from Christianity into Christendom. The core problem is really sacrificial atonement and the violence associated with this theological mistake. By reclaiming paradise and eros-love for our earth and for our generation, Brock and Parker instill hope that is not delusional, but is based (ironically enough), in "traditional" Christianity.

Images of Jesus's crucifixion did not appear in churches until the tenth century. Why not? The crucified Christ is so important to Western Christianity, how could it be that images of his suffering and death were absent from early churches? With these questions began a five year pilgrimage for the authors. They were taught that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ saved the world and that this idea was the core of Christian faith. However, during extensive searching, they found that prior to the tenth century, Christian imagery portrayed Jesus alive teaching and healing, living in the paradise that is this world. All the images were of goodness and plenty, of gentleness and love; images that reflect the belief that creation is good and blessed by God's love, especially in the person of Jesus Christ. The foundation of Christianity is grounded on love of this world and a certainty that paradise permeates all of creation. The Eucharist was a sign of paradise and celebrated in gratitude and joy with Christ. Brock and Parker take on the history of the subversion of the Christian message beginning with Charlemagne, who instituted the death penalty for conquered people who refused to convert to Christianity. After Charlemagne, the clergy introduced the dead body of Christ into the Eucharist. Killing, suffering and dying in the name of Christ began to represent the highest honor for Christians. At 550 pages (including extensive notes and index) this book is not for the faint of heart. But, just like their first book Proverbs of Ashes, it is written in an approachable, conversational style. Consider reading and talking about it in a small group with people taking responsibility for one or two chapters, or bring it into a classroom and/or church setting.

I LOVE Saving Paradise!! Brock and Parker provide a historical lens through Christian thought and practice that demonstrates that the earliest followers of Christ embraced a theology of hope, life, and living community as opposed to the emphasis on torture, suffering, and death. As a graduate student of church history, I found myself amazed in my own studies of even so-called `orthodox' Church Fathers including Justin Martyr, Ireneaus, and Origen that a theology of the cross was not highlighted. Instead, these thinkers, whose works are indicative of many early Christian communities, highlight the Incarnation of Christ as the crucial defining event--the coming of the Logos to the world as a human being. Even later thinkers (like Athanasius and Cyril) embroiled in the Christological controversies of Nicaea and later Constantinople, were concerned with the definition of the Logos-man--how God could come in the flesh. Again, it was the living incarnation of God in Christ that was the crucial defining event--that is, the LIFE that God brought to humanity through Christ, not the death and suffering of the crucifixion alone which is the pivotal event in Christology! Brock and Parker make this case convincingly by traveling through the annals of church history and showing that it was in the second millennium of Christian history, amidst the warring struggles of the tribes of Europe and later in the birth of the Holy Roman Empire, that the theology of the crucifixion rises to prominence. This book is a MUST for students of the bible, Christian thought, the history of Christianity, theology, or anyone interested in the way that Christian ideas and doctrine are transmitted through the church and other institutions! In addition, it is a DELIGHTFUL read! The text is comforting and enjoyable to peruse, and is very spiritual and healing in places, particularly in the description of early Christian rites and practices. There are portions of this text that I plan to read over and over again in the future for this reason. Persons who have questioned or even struggled with the focus of torture and suffering in the passion and crucifixion singly as the way to salvation in the Christian faith will find themselves blessed and encouraged by these authors' re-discovery of the beauty, light, community, and fellowship among early followers of Christ--paradise!!

SAVING PARADISE illuminates the origins of Christianity and the quest for human wholeness and shows how both got "hijacked" by imperial ambitions in the 9th. c., leading to the crusades and other forms of church sanctioned violence. From an Ameircan Studies studies standpoint, the last four chapters showing the connection among this dislocated Christianity, imperial ambitions, New World conquest, and the enslavement of African peoples are extremely valuable. The chapters shed suprizing light on familiar figures such as Edwards, Emerson and Thoreau by examining them within Christianity's cultural shift to redemptive violence. This is a book that calls us to struggle for justice and peace on this earth, rather than some imagined afterlife or 'new world.' For those who are willing to embrace it, this work frames a challenge to re-vision love for this world here and now as the necessary first step for creating a sustainable future. It transcends doctrine and denomination to elevate theoretical discourse and empower practical imagination, giving us both a history of how we got into our present situation and resources for finding our way out of it. A must read for intelligent persons of all persuasions in a world where truth is increasingly scarce and profound reconsiderations are imperative.

Where does new hope come from? Often from remembering what has been lost. As a work of Christian historical theology, this is one of the most important books of the current generation. It does what a great theologian once called 'epochal thinking' about how Christianity MUST, in an era of environmental crisis and religious conflict, recover the theological sensibility that marked the first thousand years of Christian faith -- when Christ was understood and depicted as opening the possibility again of human life together in an earthly paradise, and before that vision was replaced by one of Christian imperialism and salvation by violence. The prose here is sparkling. The research is thorough and well-documented. The thesis is challenging. The only weakness, in my view, is in the theological summary. When the co-authors call for us to embrace the good earth we have been given in gratitude, I'm with them. But when they emphasize present thanks by denigrating the temptations of both nostalgia and hope, I think they forget what they themselves teach about how lamentation is the necessary prelude to a resurrection, and even the very arc of their own argument. They give us hope through their active nostalgia for a once dominant form of Christian thought and practice that we desperately need to recover today.