Acclaim for THE JESUS
DRIVEN LIFE
"I scarcely know how to find words to do justice to this brilliant
study. The Jesus Driven Life is
nothing less than a magisterial synthesis of much that can be known
about Jesus and the early
centuries of Christianity and their continuing relevance for today."
Walter Wink,
United States Institute of Peace, Recipient: Martin Luther King, Jr.
Peace Prize, author of
the award winning Engaging the Powers and The Human Being
"There are so many books about finding meaning and fulfillment, secret
formulas for success and
prosperity. The Jesus Driven Life reminds us that we must be
careful amidst all the narcissistic,
self-centered prosperity preaching lest we lose the simple secret at
the heart of Jesus -- if you
want to find your life... you have to give it away. This is an
invitation to take a closer look at the
Pearl that is so precious it is worth leaving everything in the world
to pursue."
Shane Claiborne,
Activist, recovering sinner and
co-author of Jesus for President
"The Jesus Driven Life emerges out of Hardin's life struggles
on his journey toward and into
Jesus, reshaping his view of God and transforming the wayward self. His
journey encompasses a
wide range of biblical scholarship to help us understand God, Jesus,
and believers united in
redemptive solidarity (John 17:20-24). Our journeys may differ within
this broad landscape of
generous orthodoxy, but we profit from hearing Hardin's, whose
synthesis of biblical, historical,
and practical Christian wisdom is engaging."
Willard Swartley,
Author of Covenant of Peace
and Send Forth Your Light: A Vision for Peace, Mission,
and Worship, Emeritus Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary
"There is extraordinary value in The Jesus Driven Life for
any reader who is hungry for a
realistic, intelligent, and peaceful version of the Christian faith.
Michael Hardin faces directly
those Christians who imagine the Bible as "a divine telegram from a
retributive God," and offers
a more compelling alternative. Hardin is a public theologian who writes
with clarity and panache.
By putting Jesus, rather than some ideologically driven "purposes" at
the center, Hardin points us
toward a nonviolent way of trusting in grace and forging more just
civil societies."
Jon Pahl,
The Lutheran Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, author of Empire
of Sacrifice
"Michael Hardin asks a simple question in this passionate, pastoral,
and peaceable book -- what
would it mean for our life in the world were we truly to place the
Jesus of the Gospels at the
center? And Hardin's answer is pretty simple, too -- it would mean a
revolution of reconciliation
and healing. Hardin challenges the reader head on. Here's Jesus. Here's
his message. And here's
what Jesus wants from us -- trust, love responding to love, life that
reflects the mercy of God
seen in Jesus."
Ted Grimsrud,
Eastern Mennonite University, author of God's Healing Strategy
and Embodying the Way
of Jesus
"The Jesus Driven Life is a great and much needed book. Hardin
takes an earth-shattering idea
that has always been vaguely at back of our collective consciousness
and puts it out front and
center: we need to read the bible in principle and practice beginning
from the gospel narrative of
Jesus and the radically new thing he brings to the human situation.
Jesus does not fit any current
schemes of biblical interpretation, biblical literalist, literary
critical or dispensationalist, which
make the text more important than Jesus himself and thus neutralizes
the revolution of his
teaching. Rather we should see that Jesus has brought a transforming
possibility of nonviolence
and forgiveness to our way of being human, and all biblical
interpretation, including the
pathways of revelation in the Old Testament, flows from that. Hardin
has given essential
Christian reading for our time, a book that will overturn conventional
hermeneutics to date."
Tony Bartlett,
Author of Cross Purposes and Virtually Christian,
founder of Wood Hath Hope
"Michael Hardin's The Jesus Driven Life is a great new
resource in the Christian Adventure. It
bears a wonderful witness to the impact of Rene Girard's thought in
enabling us to recover a
fecund, fresh, basic Christian orthodoxy that is thoroughly ecumenical
in its scope, richly biblical
in its sourcing and gloriously Christ-centered in its excitement about
God. Here is another push
forward in the great paradigm shift that is reshaping Christianity from
within."
James Alison,
Catholic priest, theologian and author of Faith Beyond Resentment
and The Joy of Being
Wrong
"Unlike most popular and scholarly books which contain few ideas and
insights and many
illustrations and evidences, this text flashes with insight and
coruscates like a Roman candle.
We're given a detailed restatement of Synoptic, Pauline, Johannine and
Patristic theology and
interpretation. A convincing demonstration of the power of Girard's
"mimetic realism" that
shows how deftly the Christian story reveals the human world
(anthropology) and how elegantly
it deploys its therapeutic resource (forgiveness) at the precise point
of infection (vengeance).
Hardin deploys Girard's realism masterfully against the contagion of
violence we also call 'sin.'"
Robert Hamerton-Kelly,
Co-founder of Imitatio Inc, Emeritus, Stanford University, author of The
Gospel and the
Sacred and Sacred Violence.
"In this wonderful book Michael Hardin argues that the church and its
official theology
domesticated Jesus and eviscerated the Bible. Taken alone both were too
dangerous, too
powerful, to be tolerated. Loaded with qualifications and philosophical
encrustations Jesus and
the Bible ceased to unveil the world's violence. They were, in fact,
called upon to sustain the
violence of the powerful -- the very violence they intended to reveal,
critique, and destroy. The
Jesus Driven Life presents a Jesus who refuses to be silenced,
even by the theologians, and a
Bible that pulls back every shroud to reveal the marks of death upon
the victims of injustice and
scap ego ating."
John E. Phelan, Jr.
President and Dean, North Park Theological Seminary
"More and more followers of Jesus are waking up to the extent to which
western Christianity is
steeped in the idolatrous values of western (especially American)
culture. In this comprehensive,
insightful, scholarly, yet very readable work, Michael Hardin presents
a clear and compelling
vision of the original Christ-driven (not "purpose-driven") Gospel and
demonstrates how it
contrasts with the dominant Christianity of our day. This religion too
often amounts to little more
than a "Christianized" version of the nationalism, consumerism,
individualism, militarism and
triumphalism of the pagan empire we find ourselves in. Because of this,
the Christianity most of
us are familiar with is radically different from the humble,
servant-like, non-violent, self-sacrificial movement Jesus came to
establish, a movement he called "the reign of God." For all
who sense that there's something profoundly off with the westernized
Gospel they've been given,
The Jesus Driven Life is a 'must read'! And for all who don't
yet sense what's wrong with the
Gospel they've been given, it's even more of a 'must read'!"
Gregory Boyd
Pastor Woodland Hills Church, Founder, Christus Victor
Ministries, author of The Myth
of a Christian Nation and The Jesus Legend
"For those of us feeling dissatisfied with the Christianity we grew up
with or whose only
knowledge of the Bible and the story of Jesus is that they are a
collection of silly superstitions
that must either be accepted as solid fact or rejected as irrelevant,
this is the book to read. In his
engaging, conversational style, Michael Hardin offers a different way
of looking at Jesus that
shows he was far more concerned with compassion than with vengeance. The
Jesus Driven Life
is highly intellectual yet very accessible, and presents a new way of
looking at our humanity
through the Bible in a way that is relevant in the modern world."
Tyler Horst
High School Senior, Lancaster PA
"We have been told that we should imitate Jesus. I thought I did as a
Christian until I read The
Jesus Driven Life. Read this refreshing book with friends and I
guarantee that Jesus' teachings in
Scripture will inspire you to serve and love others like never before."
Jim Wiegner
Director of Development American Baptist International
Ministries, Former Missionary