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	The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne
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Product Details Binding Paperback Dewey Decimal Number 277.3083092 EAN 9780310266303 ISBN 0310266300 Manufacturer Zondervan Number Of Items 1 Number Of Pages 368 Publication Date February 01, 2006 Publisher Zondervan Availability Usually ships in 24 hours Product Description Using unconventional examples from his own life, Shane Claiborne stirs up questions about the church and the world, and challenges readers to truly live out their Christian faith. Starred Review. If there is such a thing as a disarming radical, 30-year-old Claiborne is it. A former Tennessee Methodist and born-again, high school prom king, Claiborne is now a founding member of one of a growing number of radical faith communities. His is called the Simple Way, located in a destitute neighborhood of Philadelphia. It is a house of young believers, some single, some married, who live among the poor and homeless. They call themselves 'ordinary radicals' because they attempt to live like Christ and the earliest converts to Christianity, ignoring social status and unencumbered by material comforts. Claiborne's chatty and compelling narrative is magnetic—his stories (from galvanizing a student movement that saved a group of homeless families from eviction to reaching Mother Teresa herself from a dorm phone at 2 a.m.) draw the reader in with humor and intimacy, only to turn the most common ways of practicing religion upside down. He somehow skewers the insulation of suburban living and the hypocrisy of wealthy churches without any self-righteous finger pointing. 'The world,' he says, 'cannot afford the American dream.' Claiborne's conviction, personal experience and description of others like him are a clarion call to rethink the meaning of church, conversion and Christianity; no reader will go away unshaken. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Starred Review From dressing the wounds of lepers in Calcutta to living among the homeless in Philadelphia to visiting families in Iraq, social activist Claiborne strives to live an authentic Christian life. In his view, he is a radical in the truest sense of the word, returning to the roots of Christianity by living as Jesus did and doing 'small things with great love.' A partner-founder of the Philadelphia-based faith community Simple Way, he presents an evangelical Christianity gentler and more inclusive than is usually seen, especially in the mass media. He describes Simple Way as a new culture that relies on radical interdependence and consists of grassroots organizations, intentional communities, and hospitality houses. Although the book isn't an autobiography, in it Claiborne reports much about his life: growing up in the Bible Belt, becoming a Jesus freak, moving to Philadelphia despite his family's misgivings, and helping the homeless there. Then he boldly requested an internship with Mother Teresa in Calcutta. She simply responded, 'Come.' Besides illuminating his own faith journey, Claiborne is insightful on the huge U.S. cultural and economic divide: the problem isn't that wealthy Christians don't care about the poor, he says, it's that they simply don't know the poor. A moving, often humorous account of a life of faith lived to the fullest. June Sawyers Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved 'Shane dares readers to evaluate their lives and reimagine a first-century posture to following Jesus in the 21st century….If you want a comfy Christian life, this book is not for you. But if you want to be challenged, uncomfortable, and even changed, it is a must read.' — YouthWorker Journal (YouthWorker Journal ) 'Editor's Pick!…Inspiring. Fascinating. Challenging. Convicting. Loving. These are just a few of the words that describe the extraordinary story of Claiborne's journey from middle-class Christianity in east Tennessee to radical incarnational faith among the poor in inner-city Philadelphia.' — ePistle (Evangelicals for Social Action) (ePistle (Evangelicals for Social Action) ) 'This is the book that will not let me go….this book has called me, and many others, to action, to a different kind of life….if you read it seriously, it may mess with your mind, heart and even your life.' — Youthworker Journal (Youthworker Journal ) Using unconventional examples from his own life, Shane Claiborne stirs up questions about the church and the world, and challenges readers to truly live out their Christian faith. Living as an Ordinary Radical Many of us find ourselves caught somewhere between unbelieving activists and inactive believers. We can write a check to feed starving children or hold signs in the streets and feel like we’ve made a difference without ever encountering the faces of the suffering masses. In this book, Shane Claiborne describes an authentic faith rooted in belief, action, and love, inviting us into a movement of the Spirit that begins inside each of us and extends into a broken world. Shane’s faith led him to dress the wounds of lepers with Mother Teresa, visit families in Iraq amidst bombings, and dump $10,000 in coins and bills on Wall Street to redistribute wealth. Shane lives out this revolution each day in his local neighborhood, an impoverished community in North Philadelphia, by living among the homeless, helping local kids with homework, and “practicing resurrection” in the forgotten places of our world. Shane’s message will comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable . . . but will also invite us into an irresistible revolution. His is a vision for ordinary radicals ready to change the world with little acts of love. Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution (Zondervan), is a prominent activist and sought after speaker. He is one of the founding members of The Simple Way, a community in inner city Philadelphia that has helped birth and connect radical faith communities around the world. Shane serves on the board of directors for the Christian Community Development Association, and in his down-time is quite a dynamic circus performer. The Irresistible Revolution Copyright © 2006 by The Simple Way Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Claiborne, Shane, 1975 – The irresistible revolution: living as an ordinary radical / Shane Claiborne. — 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-10: 0-310-26630-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-310-26630-3 1. Claiborne, Shane, 1975 – 2. Simple Way (Religious community: Philadelphia, Pa.) — Biography. 3. Christian biography — United States. 4. Christian life — United States. 5. Church and the world. I. Title. BR1725.C472A3 2006 277'.3'083092 dc22 2005029961 All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, Today’s New International VersionTM. Copyright © 2001 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. The website addresses recommended throughout this book are offered as a resource to you. These websites are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the part of Zondervan, nor do we vouch for their content for the life of this book. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other — except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Interior design by Michelle Espinoza Printed in the United States of America It’s what always happens to the saints and prophets who are dangerous: we bronze them, we drain them of their passion and life and trap them in stained-glass windows and icons, confining them safely in memories of the past. St. Francis becomes a birdbath, Malcolm X is put on a stamp, and Martin Luther King gets a holiday. And Jesus gets commercialized, whether it’s the plastic night-lights or the golden crucifixes. (And now there is a bobbing-head “Buddy Jesus” for your car and the “Jesus is my homeboy” T-shirt.) It becomes hard to know who Jesus really is, much less to imagine that Jesus ever laughed, cried, or had poop that smelled. I can remember when Christianity was still safe, comfortable, trendy. I grew up in the Bible Belt, in East Tennessee, where there’s a church building on nearly every corner. I can’t remember meeting anyone Jewish or Muslim, and I distinctly remember being dissuaded from dating a Catholic girl because she “prayed to Mary.” I attended two or three different youth groups, whichever had the best entertainment and drew the largest crowd. Church was a place where there were cute girls, free junk food, and cheap snowboarding trips. I discovered a Christianity that entertained me with quirky songs and velcro walls.1 In middle school, I had a sincere “conversion” experience. We took a trip to a large Christian festival with bands, speakers, and late-night pranks. One night a short, bald preacherman named Duffy Robbins gave an invitation to “accept Jesus,” and nearly our whole youth group went forward (a new concept for most of us), crying and snotting, hugging people we didn’t know. I was born again. The next year, we went to that same festival, and most of us went forward again (it was so good the first time) and got born again, again. In fact, we looked forward to it every year. I must have gotten born again six or eight times, and it was great every time. (I highly recommend it.) But then you start to think there must be more to Christianity, more than just laying your life and sins at the foot of the cross. I came to realize that preachers were telling me to lay my life at the foot of the cross and weren’t giving me anything to pick up. A lot of us were hearing “don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t sleep around” and naturally started asking, “Okay, well, that was pretty much my life, so what do I do now?” Where were the do’s? And nobody seemed to have much to offer us. Handing out tracts at the mall just didn’t seem like the fullness of Christian discipleship, not to mention it just wasn’t as fun as making out at the movies. I was just another believer. I believed all the right stuff — that Jesus is the Son of God, died and rose again. I had become a “believer,” but I had no idea what it means to be a follower. People had taught me what Christians believe, but no one had told me how Christians live. So as we do in our culture, I thought perhaps I needed to buy more stuff, Christian stuff. Luckily, I found an entire Christian industrial complex ready to help with Christian music, bumper stickers, T-shirts, books, and even candy (“Testamints” . . . dead serious . . . mints with a Bible verse attached, candy with a Christian aftertaste). They had lists of bands and the Christian alternatives to them, so I got rid of all my old CDs. (And I must confess, I was a bit disappointed by the Christian counterfeit. Who could compare to Guns N’ Roses and Vanilla Ice?) Customers who bought this item also bought Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith (Cover Image May Vary) Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality Customer Reviews for: The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical Rating - Many Good Observations, But Many Problems Shane Claiborne has written a highly personal account of his journey as a follower of Christ and the call he feels to live radically for Christ. Much of The Irresistible Revolution is inspirational. Shane writes primarily to American evangelicals, who he calls out of their depressingly normal lives. Along the way, he levels numerous criticisms at the church, many of which seem on target. The American evangelical church is in many ways indistinguishable from secular culture -- by its materialism, marketing, ... Read More Rating - Don't go by the reviews, read it for yourself Yes, by my rating you can see that I love this book, however that's not what I intend to write about. I simply want to say that you should not rely on the reviews to form your opinion of this book. I have repeatedly recommended this book to my friends, Christian or not, and whether they liked it, or agreed with it etc, it made them think, it created dialog. For those reasons alone I recommend this book. I do not believe that simply because one reviewer claims it to be biblically grounded, or not biblically ... Read More Rating - Rated 5-stars by The Spiritual Reviewer "Christianity," says author Shane Claiborne, "often has offered little to the world, other than the hope that things will be better in heaven." This statement appears on the first page of the book, and it's a big clue that Shane isn't spinning a newer, fresher version of the same old predictable Christian party line that everyone else repeats. In fact, the whole purpose of The Irresistible Revolution is to present a radical idea of what it means to be a Christian. Even more importantly, it's about how one man, without aggrandizing ... Read More Rating - Amazing book, amazing author This guy understands what Jesus would REALLY do. This book is easy to read and hard to put down. It appeals to my idealistic side. I recommend it for Christians and people considering Christianity. Rating - "Infectious" reading for ordinary folks Definitely worth reading. Will be a 'tough' read for most of us as it lays out what being a true christian is and most of us aren't even close to living it out as it's spelled out here..and I tend to agree with this 'brothas overarching view. However, it does offer a glimpse of hope...even if we all have to take little steps everyday to achieve it and some of the stories he tells are truly uplifting. True there's not much in the way of "middle ground" offered or a step by step guide as pointied out by several reviewers...but that's ... Read More see more reviews See all books by author Shane Claiborne

Books : The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical