The Irresistable Revolution--A brief review

I breezed through Shane Claiborne's The Irresistible Revolution recently. Claiborne's been getting some press online, much related to his speaking engagements and a more recent book, Jesus for President. This, I believe, was his first book. I found it readable (or at least compared to my grad school work) and engaging, but wanted to jot down a few more specific thoughts.

First, to summarize, Claiborne grew up relatively middle class, but through some experiences at Eastern College (home of Tony Campolo among other notables), became increasingly involved in social issues. Much of this book tells the story of that journey. In particular, while a student he and several others rallied to support a group of displaced families squatting in an abandoned Catholic church in urban Philadelphia--a protest that ultimately seems to have been successful. After graduation, Claiborne spent some time in Calcutta with Mother Teresa, and then jumped right into an internship with my childhood church, Willow Creek, in the posh Chicago suburbs. Most recently, he's been a part of a neighborhood focused, "emergent" church in Philadelphia, The Simple Way. They emphasize building relationships with community members and seek to model virtues one might associate with monasticism: extreme simplicity and a life of service. (That's oversimplifying, but if you want more, read the book). It's extremely NON-institutional--more on that in a sec.

Claibone's main point, which he comes back to several times, is that community is at the heart of the gospel. In America, materialism is its main obstacle. To see broader social transformation, those with material means must experience conditions for those at the political and economic margins. The relational connections formed when people really step out of their priveleged positions are transformative, releasing the hold of greed and reorienting people toward a different, much more just, form of life. There's an emphasis on a communal lifestyle--one which prizes relationships over possessions. But at the core, it's this interpersonal connection that is most important for Claiborne.

It's this that, to me, is the most recognizably evangelical element of Claiborne's writing. In contemporary America, it seems, evangelicals consistently look at interpersonal relationships as the place where the gospel works. Our personal relationship with God and others is what matters most. The immediacy of such connections is powerful--it makes for great stories. Yet it fails to consider the importance of much less personal, more structural concerns (i.e. urban housing policy, international trade patterns, etc.). Certainly, the actors involved in these systems themselves may need personal transformation, but the ways in which such atomized experience filter into systemic change isn't quite clear. There's many mentions of other "partners" in other places, but little sense of how that larger network gets mobilized. In addition, the belief that rich folks would sign on to his movement just by talking with poor people seems, well, naive. It fails to consider the various ways in which being rich itself makes such a transformation difficult to achieve or even consider, especially on a broader scale.

There's much in Claiborne's writing that is reminiscent of anarchist movements (or at least what I know of them): a disdain for governmental action, an emphasis on performative protest (at one point, they drop $10,000 in change on Wall St. for anyone to take), and the creation of small, quasi-utopian communities. While theology certainly changes thing, I would have been interested to see Claiborne think more thoroughly about the importance of such a connection. To say that communities such as his exist only in the church denies this affinity, and it's language that comes up in church conversations on justice too often in my opinion. The church may end up being the hope of the world, but that doesn't mean we've got the corner on every good idea.

Lastly, and this almost goes without saying, this book (and perhaps this movement) has an audience: people like Claiborne--relatively well off and educated. In that context, it's prophetic. But what about for the poor folks where communities like The Simple Way choose to relocate? I've seen some discussion of this on the God's Politics blog, but when a life of faith means giving up privilege, what's that mean for those who have no privilege? What's their story sound like? How might it challenge some of the assumptions and theology of Claiborne and others?

This all said, I found this an engaging and often challenging book. It represents the cutting edge of social justice within the evangelical church. And from what I've heard, Claiborne's been getting a rather large response. But no movement is without its flaws. I'll be interested to follow how this movement develops in the years ahead.

The zero inbox

As I'm getting serious about starting some research projects, I'm feeling the need to get more efficient. Or to use academic speak, I'm wanting to adopt some of the hegemonic self-management characteristic of the post-Fordist neoliberal state. To that end, I was quite inspired today by the talk below given by Merlin Mann about getting email down to zero each day. In particular, the metaphor of a deli was helpful: workers there don't just "check" orders, they act on them. The same with email. It's all about filtering things out and focusing on the important. Nothing revolutionary, but I'm revamping my email system toward this end. Check it out if you have time/interest: