Susan Schultz Huxman

If Jesus Is Lord

Theology

“Ronald J. Sider has spent a lifetime shaking up the religious establishment, blurring the lines of Right and Left with his ‘dirty fingernails’ theology about peace and social justice. If Jesus Is Lord is yet another bold burr in the ethical saddle of the evangelical world. In this provocative and invitational examination of Jesus-centered actions for peace and reconciliation, Sider implores pacifists to be responsive to the range of legitimate critiques against them (you’re naive, simplistic, utopian), challenges just war Christians to consider that there are more than two options (kill or do nothing) to defend neighbors, and suggests with bountiful biblical and historical evidence that making peace is less costly than making war. Eminently readable, Sider’s book is a biblically based exegesis and a grace-inspired ‘third-way’ anthem for affirming a justice and Jesus-centered Christianity. Be prepared to be challenged and affirmed at every turn. Sider explores eye-opening ‘if’ questions about what it means to call ourselves Christians. He begins with, ‘If Jesus is Lord, what does it mean to embrace the full, biblical, nonviolent Christ?’ He ends with the question, ‘What if most Christians became pacifists?’ This book is relevant and impactful for Jesus followers across the spectrum who want to make a difference by reconciling beauty and brokenness in our world today.”