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A Dangerous Dozen: Twelve Christians Who Threatened the Status Quo but Taught Us to Live Like Jesus
Rev. Canon C. K. Robertson Phd
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Description for A Dangerous Dozen: Twelve Christians Who Threatened the Status Quo but Taught Us to Live Like Jesus
Paperback. Twelve Christians Who Threatened the Status Quo But Taught Us to Live Like Jesus. 208 pages. Cateogry: (G) General (US: Trade). BIC Classification: HRC. Dimension: 230 x 162 x 14. Weight: 302.
Sometimes What We Need Most Is What We Fear Most "Times change and situations seem to change, but there is still a great need for prophets, for God's ambassadors, to stand up and be counted. Who will dare to be Paul the Apostle today, or Dorothy Day, or Francis of Assisi, or Dietrich Bonhoeffer? Who will dare, when God calls, to say, 'Here I am, Lord. Send me'?" —from the Foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu Meet twelve fascinating—at times, intimidating—Christian change agents who were unafraid to ask what God would have them do in the face of life’s ... Read morerealities—and unafraid to go ahead and do it. Their words and actions challenged the status quo, and in so doing they showed the face of Jesus to the Church and to the world. Whether calling us to live simply in the name of Jesus, showing the way to genuine peacemaking, or exemplifying the true meaning of courage, the legacies of these blessed troublemakers continue to inspire us today … if we let them. Paul of Tarsus • Mary Magdalene • Origen of Alexandria • Francis of Assisi • Hildegard of Bingen • Thomas Cranmer • Sojourner Truth • Dorothy Day • Dietrich Bonhoeffer • Janani Luwum • Oscar Romero • K. H. Ting Show Less
Product Details
Publisher
Skylight Paths Pub
Place of Publication
Woodstock, United States
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Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
About Rev. Canon C. K. Robertson Phd
The Rev. Canon C. K. Robertson, PhD, is canon to the presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, a noted scholar in the worldwide Anglican Communion and distinguished visiting professor at the General Theological Seminary in New York City. Dr. Robertson serves on several national boards and has published many books and articles (see www.ckrobertson.com), including The Book of Common Prayer: ... Read moreA Spiritual Treasure Chest—Selections Annotated & Explained; A Dangerous Dozen: 12 Christians Who Threatened the Status Quo but Taught Us to Live Like Jesus (both SkyLight Paths); Transforming Stewardship; Jesus and Paul: Global Perspectives and Conversations with Scripture: The Acts of the Apostles. He has worked extensively with the U.S. Department of Education, the White House and in the film and television industry. He is a respected speaker on leadership development and conflict management. Show Less
Reviews for A Dangerous Dozen: Twelve Christians Who Threatened the Status Quo but Taught Us to Live Like Jesus
The people we discuss, the stories we tell and the lives we admire will determine what we think is possible. I just heard a nine-year-old Christian boy saying that if he needed money he could just sue someone. What made this little boy's joke (or hope) possible was the constant flow of news stories describing individuals making millions in settlements ... Read morefrom massive corporations. To be a people formed by the story of God in Christ, rather than the stories of celebrities living the American Dream, we need to know and tell more of lives made truthful by the life of Christ. In light of this, I was eager to read C. K. Robertson's A Dangerous Dozen, which states in the subtitle that it tells the stories of lives that "[teach] us to live like Jesus." Robertson’s book collects twelve succinct biographies of Christians who, as the other half of the subtitle describes, "Threatened the Status Quo." He includes both the recognizable and the unexpected, so for most there will be some familiar faces and some brand new. His prose shines when he captures the people of his stories in their particularity. He portrays the twelfth-century nun, Hildegard of Bingen’s poetic visions vividly, “…Hildegard’s vision of paradise is shown to be lush and moist and green. The holy life is also considered to be green, a life of hope and intentional living for God.” (62) Or, as she pleads for the church to accept her writing, Robertson includes her poetic flourish as she asks “to make it green.” (63) As Robertson narrates the Civil War era abolitionist Sojourner Truth’s life he inserts her wild forthright character as well as her wit. Whether it’s her last sojourn with refugees she calls “Exodusters” or her description of her first escape from slavery in her own words (“I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right.”), he renders her life with her very own vivacity and humor. These unique turns of phrase and personal additions make each short biography colorful and easily accessible. Other highlights include Dorothy Day, Francis of Assisi, Janani Luwum and Oscar Romero. Robertson also took special care to make his cast of characters diverse. In the epilogue he describes his intentional inclusion of different ethnicities, both male and female, Reformed and Catholic, ancient, contemporary, and some in between. In his desire to present a variety of contexts he communicates the message that all are welcome to join in God’s salvation within their particular time and place. Yet, by the end of the book it is difficult to pick out a central theme across the continents, centuries and contexts which may help us to recognize those in whom God is at work. To read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s and K. H. Ting’s lives back to back, it is confusing how Christ’s life makes intelligible our subversion of or allegiance to a nation state. The lack of a cohesive, constructive theme, other than challenging the status quo, may be due to Robertson’s treatment of the life of Jesus in the preface. He writes, Although they offer different reasons for the opposition Jesus faced, all four Gospels agree that he faced strong antagonism, that it came from the religious establishment, and that it resulted from the perception of Jesus as a threat to that establishment. Jesus was the prototypical ’sent one,’ but he seemed to be sent not to stabilize the religious system but to upset it. Interpreting Jesus as one sent primarily to upset the religious authorities misconstrues and obscures his central role, to be the revelation of God as the one who not only raised Jesus from the dead, but also raised Israel out of Egypt (to paraphrase Robert Jenson). Robertson does not adequately place Jesus as a product of, as well as a threat to, his community. This results in stories that heavily emphasize individuals in conflict with community rather than God’s continued work in people through confrontation and participation with the church, which is mentioned only rarely and in passing. Robertson writes, “all the members of this dangerous dozen were salt and light in their own time and their own context.”(164) My worry is that, without a robust christology, Christians may feel justified to simply create controversy, calling it salt and light. To cultivate Christians in the practice of challenging authority without a clear vision of Christ’s community is to form a church with a battle cry but not a story. The reason we retell the stories of holy people is so we can gain a fuller vision of the story God is telling through us and through the history of the family of God, that we work toward the day when God will complete the establishment of a kingdom in which the Slaughtered Lamb sits on the throne. Any telling that compromises this vision is something less than the story God tells us in Christ. And I argue that the emphasis on individuals threatening “the establishment” is to the detriment of this eschatological vision. Despite what I believe is a fault in the framework, we can still learn much from Robertson’s book. He introduced me to several new Christian lives that will fill my imagination with possibilities of how Christ can be alive in our world, lives filled with boldness, compassion, and faith. Robertson finds unique moments of humor and grace in the lives of his holy ones and he engenders a vast and varied appreciation for the diversity church across the ages. It will do the church well to learn of Robertson’s dozen dangerous Christians and to weave them in as a part of the greater life of Christ through his church.
Seth Forwood
Englewood Review of Books
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