“(We can) understand why the apostles were subjected to torture and imprisonment by the powers-that-be: they were ambassadors of a rival king, acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar precisely because they had pledged allegiance to another king (Acts 17:7). The gospel that Paul preached was politically subversive…“The gospel that Paul preached was not a message about some private, interior transformation of the heart. It was a message about a new allegiance to a King-in-waiting. As such, there was something radically political about the gospel—which didn't mean, of course, that Christians sided with a political party. In fact, there was a sense in which Christians, who pledge allegiance to a resurrected King, could never find themselves at home with any party of the empire.”
-James K. A. Smith
"Christian Worship as Public Disturbance" from The Devil Reads Derrida and Other Essays on the University, the Church, Politics, and the Arts, pp. 71-77
"Christian Worship as Public Disturbance" from The Devil Reads Derrida and Other Essays on the University, the Church, Politics, and the Arts, pp. 71-77
Excellent!
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Amen. Well-put.
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