The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

This book is truly amazing, and it has really got me thinking. Shane Claiborne is part of a collective in Philadelphia that aims to live like Jesus and like early Christians. They keep their doors open and share everything with everyone. Their one goal (besides loving God) is to build community ties amongst their neighbors - poor people, homeless people, prostitutes, drug addicts in the area of Philly where they live. If Jesus were alive today, they argue, he would be loving as many poor, sick, confused and wretched people he could find. Not necessarily the people you worship with or commune with on a daily basis. He argues against charity (which maintains distance between people who give and the people who receive) and for love. Just getting to know poor people. Just acknowledging them as human and making eye contact with them. Breaking bread with them. When you love others like this, Claiborne says, you learn what God really is, the one body or whole that we are all a part of. I'm oversimplifying it and making it rosier than it is. But it's a great book and I'm going to keep thinking about it.

In Durham, we have a community that lives like this called Rutba house, named after a town in Iraq. Their website is newmonasticism.org.

This book made me feel uncomfortable and insufficient in my Christian walk. I almost stopped reading it a few chapters in mistaking the author's honesty and bluntness for arrogance and self-righteousness. However, this book is one that I most likely will end up reading again to sufficiently glean all that it has to offer - it's one of those books that I think requires more than one read to properly digest. I may not have 100% agreed with all that he had to say, but his essential message of becoming an “ordinary radical” really inspired me to find new ways to live out my life in a way that is different than I have been, to love others unconditionally and to open my eyes to the plight of poverty that so much of this world deals with each and every day. There were a lot of good quotes in the book (things the author said that I jotted down to refer to later) and I particularly enjoyed his chapters covering the time he spent with Mother Theresa ministering to the poor.

I think it's good to have someone point out a lot of the wrong that is going on in the world today and I don't want to feel comfortable about that. Reading this novel served as a good reminder to not allow myself to become desensitized to that to where I become complacent and remain blissfully ignorant and contentedly so.

Definitely would recommend, just prepare yourself to feel convicted!

I read this as an audio book and think that is the way that you should read all of Shane Claiborne and Rob Bell's works. They are both so conversational that their writing doesn't always flow right if it is not read by the author.

Many people will not like or agree with what Shane says or does, but I think that there are very few that are actually trying to live a radical Christianity like Shane is. I put him in the category of St Francis of Assisi. Many people thought he was nuts too but he did more for the long term health of the church than almost any other human. Shane will not have the kind of impact, but that doesn't keep him from trying.

Also, after reading several other's reviews I think that the main issue that people seem to have is with his economics. People keep charging that he is forcing people to redistribute money to the poor. He is not, he is suggesting that we give it away and by definition, giving it away is not forcing. You may be shamed that you are not giving, so give when you prefer not to, but that is not being forced either. One reviewer actually compared him to Stalin. But I should just ignore that.