Rethinking life

I finished Shane Claiborne's 'Rethinking Life: Embracing the Sacredness of Every Person' several weeks ago. I'm half way through my second book since then, and realized I haven't said much about it. So, here's a bit of an overview.

As you can imagine, if you're familiar with Shane, this book comes from his heart in addressing relevant topics in the world today. This paragraph from the intro sums it up nicely:

I began to realize that it would be more accurate for those of us who consider ourselves pro-life to call ourselves "pro-birth" or "anti-abortion." Sometimes we have been more concerned with life before birth than after birth. It is a strange thing to live in a world where we can be pro-military, pro-guns, pro-executions, and still say we are pro-life so long as we stand against abortion. But, alas, that is where we find ourselves.

He then gives us a picture using Scripture, church history, and personal stories about how we, as Christians, might actually address so many issues at hand today - war, gun ownership, the death penalty, racial injustice, abortion, poverty, and the environment. His overarching question is: What does love require of us?

The book is full of facts and figures, so it's not just an opinion piece. One other thing I liked was how he went through a list of theological and civic giants - from people like Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, John Chrysostom, and Martin Luther, to Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. - and told not only of the great things they did, but also some of their not-so-good. He had two points: 1) We need to be truth tellers, and 2) We need to learn that we can embrace the truth people speak while simultaneously rejecting the untruth they speak (rather than just "canceling" people entirely).

All in all, I really liked this book. I'd heard some of the stories before, but in true Shane fashion he forces us to face the facts and left me feeling a bit more hopeful about a way forward. 

Here's the Table of Contents:

Part 1: The Foundation for Life

1. Life is Good
2. Every Person Bears the Image of God
3. Sin Destroys Life
4. God is Like Jesus
5. Jesus Died to Save Us from Death
6. The Early Church Was a Force for Life

Part 2: Cracks in the Foundation

1. We exchanged the Cross for the Sword
2. We Spread the Gospel through Force
3. We Theologized Hate
4. We Decided Some Lives Matter More Than Others
5. We Believed America Was Exceptional
6. We Chose Pro-Birth over Pro-Life

Part 3: Repairing the Foundation

1. Be a Truth Teller
2. Practice Proximity
3. Be a Force for Life
4. Protestify
5. Give Birth to a Better World