What do you think?
Rate this book
Jesus the Forgiving Victim: Listening for the Unheard Voice - An Introduction to Christianity for Adults
Jesus the Forgiving Victim Listening for the Unheard Voice is comprised of four books of essays.
Book One - Starting human, staying human
Every time we talk about God, we do so from a human point of view. Of course, everyone knows that, and yet it is amazing how often people jump straight into God-talk without examining what sort of animals are doing the talking – human animals, bodies run by desires, dependent, storytelling, animals, time-laden and place-sensitive. This introduction to the Christian faith starts from the assumption that as we become more aware of dimensions of being human that we in fact know already, so the life of faith which God births within us will become richer and
easier to explore and to live.
Book Two - God, not one of the gods
It can be difficult to find our way into the texts of the Scriptures because of the linguistic and cultural issues that separate us from the ancient world. We can feel as if we’ve stumbled into the middle of a heated conversation without knowing who the parties are or what they’re so worked up about. Here we approach handling the texts in a more relaxed way so as to get on the inside of some of the issues that the sacred authors were wrestling with. In short, we will be starting to read the Scriptures through the eyes of the Forgiving Victim, just as St. Luke teaches us to do. Our hope is that you will find biblical scholarship to be less frightening than it might seem and you will have acquired a bit more confidence to dabble for yourselves in these biblical texts without being scared of them.
Book Three - The difference Jesus makes
Here we try to catch some glimpses of the Master as we watch Jesus interpret the Scriptures to his own people. We look at what it means to find ourselves in the presence of the Forgiving Victim. Jesus’ protagonism causes the solid ground to shift beneath us as we become untied from the more destructive ways in which the “social other” runs us. Our old identity slowly falls away so that we can begin to tell new, more truthful stories about ourselves. As you read we hope you will discover for yourself some hints of how being forgiven enables our participation in a new unity; we will begin to discover a “social other” that is good for us, and find that we are no longer depending on keeping ourselves apart and needing others to be our fall guys. As we inhabit the texts of the New Testament we find ourselves called out to form a new people receiving our sense of self and our belonging from the Forgiving Victim in our midst.
Book Four - Unexpected Insiders
At this point in our journey we are discovering new dimensions of how we are insiders within a great shift: old patterns of belonging are being undone from within; we can no longer so easily form identities over and against victims because the Forgiving Victim has called us into a new space. As we work through our desire and our belonging, what will the new shape of community take, one in which there are no longer insiders and outsiders, only those who are being inducted into a human story in which death does not have the final say? And how will we respond to the challenges that flow from this?
Book One - Starting human, staying human
Every time we talk about God, we do so from a human point of view. Of course, everyone knows that, and yet it is amazing how often people jump straight into God-talk without examining what sort of animals are doing the talking – human animals, bodies run by desires, dependent, storytelling, animals, time-laden and place-sensitive. This introduction to the Christian faith starts from the assumption that as we become more aware of dimensions of being human that we in fact know already, so the life of faith which God births within us will become richer and
easier to explore and to live.
Book Two - God, not one of the gods
It can be difficult to find our way into the texts of the Scriptures because of the linguistic and cultural issues that separate us from the ancient world. We can feel as if we’ve stumbled into the middle of a heated conversation without knowing who the parties are or what they’re so worked up about. Here we approach handling the texts in a more relaxed way so as to get on the inside of some of the issues that the sacred authors were wrestling with. In short, we will be starting to read the Scriptures through the eyes of the Forgiving Victim, just as St. Luke teaches us to do. Our hope is that you will find biblical scholarship to be less frightening than it might seem and you will have acquired a bit more confidence to dabble for yourselves in these biblical texts without being scared of them.
Book Three - The difference Jesus makes
Here we try to catch some glimpses of the Master as we watch Jesus interpret the Scriptures to his own people. We look at what it means to find ourselves in the presence of the Forgiving Victim. Jesus’ protagonism causes the solid ground to shift beneath us as we become untied from the more destructive ways in which the “social other” runs us. Our old identity slowly falls away so that we can begin to tell new, more truthful stories about ourselves. As you read we hope you will discover for yourself some hints of how being forgiven enables our participation in a new unity; we will begin to discover a “social other” that is good for us, and find that we are no longer depending on keeping ourselves apart and needing others to be our fall guys. As we inhabit the texts of the New Testament we find ourselves called out to form a new people receiving our sense of self and our belonging from the Forgiving Victim in our midst.
Book Four - Unexpected Insiders
At this point in our journey we are discovering new dimensions of how we are insiders within a great shift: old patterns of belonging are being undone from within; we can no longer so easily form identities over and against victims because the Forgiving Victim has called us into a new space. As we work through our desire and our belonging, what will the new shape of community take, one in which there are no longer insiders and outsiders, only those who are being inducted into a human story in which death does not have the final say? And how will we respond to the challenges that flow from this?
572 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2013
64 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
James Alison
31 books55 followersJames Alison (b. 1959) is a Catholic theologian, priest and author. He grew up in an evangelical family in England and converted to Catholicism as a teenager. Alison studied at Oxford and earned his doctorate in theology from the Jesuit Faculty in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He was a member of the Dominican order from 1981-1995.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 20, 2013
James Alison is one of the most vital and imaginative theologians I know. "Raising Abel" is one of my favorite theology books of all time. After publishing several books of provocative and powerful essays and papers, he now gives us a systematic catechesis of Christian thought and life. Please do not be alarmed at the thought of a catechetical book! It's like nothing you have read unless you've read some of Alison's other books. Strongly influenced by the thought of René Girard, he takes us through the ramifications of living with the inescapable reality of mimetic desire, both the ways we are pulled in often undesirable directions by others and how we are pulled in a direction of a great good by God who likes us without reservation and without scandal over the things we do. Alison discusses several passages of scripture, some of them such as the stoning of Achan in Joshua being troubling stories, in unforgettable ways that tilt our minds and hearts to odd angles that help us see scripture with new eyes, eyes moved by the Holy Spirit. The presentations are also available on DVD at http://www.forgivingvictim.com/store Recommended in excelsis!
May 4, 2014
This is an excellent, accessible, frequently entertaining book that pulls together and re-presents much of what Alison has been working through over the past ten years. Readers familiar with his earlier work will appreciate the further development, integration, or smoother presentation of familiar themes; newcomers will have the pleasure of encountering the material in a systematically developed manner.
There are also accompanying DVDs available; the books indicate which chapters go with which lectures. James is a very engaging speaker and I can confidently recommend these lectures even without having seen them.
There are also accompanying DVDs available; the books indicate which chapters go with which lectures. James is a very engaging speaker and I can confidently recommend these lectures even without having seen them.
March 28, 2021
You know that scene in "The Matrix" where the spoon bends? Reading this book is like that, but with your perspective on God and the World and Christianity.
July 31, 2015
Nearly finished re-reading this and thus, needed to revisit my *review* here.
This is a brilliant book|set of books (4 individual books that tally up to a nearly ~600 page book.
Much better consumed in book(let) form than on the Kindle -- perhaps because I frequently flipped back to previous essays (the book is comprised of 12 essays that masterfully build on each other). James Alison lays out a way of seeing Scripture through Jesus cruciform lens, and brilliantly illustrates in each essay, linking together what hitherto would have struck Bible readers as unrelated disparate passages.
The author's writing style takes a little bit to get used to but the text is very accessible. And the other slight negative is that there are a few spots that are muddled, most significantly, the opening in essay 1. But it's well worth it to slog through those few paragraphs for the gems embedded in here.
This is a brilliant book|set of books (4 individual books that tally up to a nearly ~600 page book.
Much better consumed in book(let) form than on the Kindle -- perhaps because I frequently flipped back to previous essays (the book is comprised of 12 essays that masterfully build on each other). James Alison lays out a way of seeing Scripture through Jesus cruciform lens, and brilliantly illustrates in each essay, linking together what hitherto would have struck Bible readers as unrelated disparate passages.
The author's writing style takes a little bit to get used to but the text is very accessible. And the other slight negative is that there are a few spots that are muddled, most significantly, the opening in essay 1. But it's well worth it to slog through those few paragraphs for the gems embedded in here.
April 19, 2022
Like all of James Alison's works, this varies between "I need to read that again" and 'Wow! That speaks straight to my heart ... I have goosebumps." Both are compliments, of course. There are so many brilliant facets of this collection that it is hard to pick out favourites. I am just glad that I have another of his books waiting for me ... before I re-read this one.
January 25, 2015
This appears to be an edited transcript of lectures Alison gave. It is therefore a less formal but no less valuable presentation of his interpretation of Scripture and doctrine than his other books.
Read
December 20, 2014Great theology from the perspective of society's victims. (Alison is a gay Catholic priest.) I saw some of the Bible stories in a new way.
November 21, 2016
Sometimes a bit all over the place, but all in all challenging and insightful reading.
January 12, 2017
This is a kind of study series but I read it as a collection of short books. Lots of great insights from Alison's reading of Rene Girard.
July 5, 2016
Fresh, positive theology
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews