Tag Archives: church

Book: Scot McKnight: The Jesus Creed

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Catching up on my Bedtime Reading…

Last night I finished The Jesus Creed by Scot McKnight. Briefly, its a book on spiritual formation thru the lens of the Jesus Creed.

What’s the Jesus Creed? you ask.

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart,

with all your soul,

with all your mind, and with all your strength.”

The second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

There is no commandment greater than these.

This, McKnight argues, is the summation of Jesus life and ministry and the basis of spiritual formation for the Christian. The Jesus Creed is the summation of what he did and what he calls his followers to do. This is the lens thru which everything else is filtered.

The book has five parts, each with a half dozen chapters:

Part One: The Jesus Creed

Part Two: Stories of the Jesus Creed

Part Three: The Society of the Jesus Creed

Part Four: Living the Jesus Creed

Part Five: Jesus and the Jesus Creed

For my money parts One and Three were the best. (This shouldn’t be construed to mean the other parts weren’t good.) In laying out the Jesus Creed, he gives me a clear framework to express Christianity, for example my conversation with Samantha a couple nights ago. I like this. Further, I think it addresses the Jewish origins of Christianity far more than many books of this type. Most of the time you’d barely know Jesus was a Jew. McKnight places him firmly in his context. Finally, his discussion of kingdom, the Society of the Jesus Creed, is fueling thoughts about home church.

This is a book I’d highly recommend to all.

NPR: This I Believe: Penn Jillette: There Is No God

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Agree or not, the points made deserve consideration. Here is, I think, an articulate summary of how many see the God of mainstream, American Christianity. (I dare say there are more than a couple of us who self identify as Christians and yet are skeptical about this God that Jillette describes.)

A few tidbits to tease… but I hope you’ll read the whole thing, and let me know what you think.

Believing there’s no God means I can’t really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That’s good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.

Believing there’s no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures…. “I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith…” [is] just a long-winded religious way to say, “shut up,” or another two words that the FCC likes less.

No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.

(Link to full article at NPR.org)