Jesus and the Reign of God

by C. S. Song

Overview

Jesus and the Reign of God is a powerful and compelling evocation of the vision and reality of God's reign and its possibilities for the "transfiguration of life" in faith.

Song's search for a "vision of life in God," inaugurated in his previous volume, Jesus, the Crucified People, takes him from ancient Egypt and China to modern Singapore, from Gethsemane to Tiananmen Square and always pulls him back to the Gospel stories.

In its earnest and intense quest for religious integrity in a world no longer dominated or defined by Christianity, Song's theology is a startling rebuke to Christologies centered either in historical-critical searches or church doctrines. For him theology is the biography of God, and Jesus' message of God's reign is evident in the densely packed histories of strangers and outcasts: in an Egyptian Muslim who composed a Christmas carol, in a Korean woman in Japan, in an old musician in a ruined church in China.

Engaged by these stories, the reader is pulled ineluctably into the reality they evince. As Song says, the reign of God in Jesus "becomes manifest through movements of people to be free from the shackles of the past, to change the status quo of the present, and to have a role to play in the arrival of the future."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800626716
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	07/01/1993
Series:	Cross in the Lotus World Series , #2
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

C. S. Song is an internationally influential voice in Christian theology and a pioneer of Asian Christian theology and story theology. He is Professor of Theology at the Pacific School of Religion and immediate past President of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

PART I: VISION

A Great Banquet

The Time Has Come!

Jesus Proclaims God's Reign

The Reign of God Is Yours

The Banquet of God's Reign

Gentiles in God's Reign

New Heaven and New Earth

Not a Homogeneous God

People's Creed

A Color-blind God

Interdependence of Peoples

Theo-logical Forces in History

Epiphanies of God in the Oikumene

New Heaven and New Earth

PART II: REALITY

The Plight of People

End to Theological Innocence

Frightening Reality

Large Hearts in a Meager Life

Culture of God's Reign

Culture of Empowerment

Poor and Humiliated

Passive and Subservient

Fear and Anxiety

Unmasking Hypocrisy

Culture of Empowerment

PART III: WITNESS

The Reign of God in Action (1)

Conflict Situations

Jesus the Witness of God's Reign

The Hour When Darkness Reigns

The Reign of God in Action (2)

Many Gave False Testimony against Him

Justice and Law

The Grand Inquisitor

The Question of Kingship

From Trial Court to Witness Court

PART IV: TRANSFIGURATION

The Reign of the Magnificat

Not the Mary in the Holy Pictures

Song of God's Reign

Hymn of Joy and Freedom

Change of Power Relations

Transfiguration of Life

Metamorphosis of Human Conditions

Forgiveness of Sins

Exorcism of Evil Powers

Transfiguration as Liberation

Life in All Fullness

Biblical Index

General Index