RED LETTER REVOLUTION: WHAT IF JESUS REALLY MEANT WHAT HE SAID? by Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo

 












Published in 2012 by Thomas Nelson.

Very simply put, the two authors are advocates of Christians focusing their attention of the Red Letter verses in the Bible and endeavoring to live their lives by those verses. If you are not familiar, since 1899 some publishers have decided to print the words of Jesus in red ink. Claiborne and Campolo have decided to take those words very seriously - Jesus is the model of how they try to live. 

This emphasis on the Red Letters means that their version of Christianity has a lot of emphasis on verses like Matthew 25: 31-46:
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (King James Version)

When texts like this one become your guiding model, there is more emphasis on action. They are clear that the action is not what brings salvation - as Campolo says on page 11, "Being saved is trusting what Christ did for us, but being Christian is dependent on the way we respond to what he did for us." On page 17 he notes that this will always be a constant work in progress: "I'm promoting this movement, but to what extent am I actually living out those red letters? My only defense is that I'm not as unfaithful today as I was yesterday."
The authors, Claiborne (left) and Campolo (right)

The balance of the book consists of 26 dialogues between Campolo and Claiborne about three broad topics: Red Letter Theology, Red Letter Living, and Red Letter World. Topics include: On Community, On Hell, On Family, On Racism, On Being Pro-Life, On Civil Disobedience, On Politics, On War and Violence, On Reconciliation, and more.

I mostly found this book to be interesting. I was not interested in every topic of dialogue, but the discussions are all fairly short. The book was hurt by the fact that it was published in 2012 and that means it completely misses the personality that has warped the political and (often) the religious world around himself since 2015: Donald Trump. Some of the discussions simply seemed dated because there was no discussion of Trump or the MAGA movement.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: RED LETTER REVOLUTION: WHAT IF JESUS REALLY MEANT WHAT HE SAID? by Shane Claiborne and Tony Campolo.

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