Challenge of Jesus

by John Shea

Shea, John

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

John (Jack) Shea is a theologian and storyteller who lectures nationally and internationally on storytelling in world religions, faith-based health care, contemporary spirituality, and the spirit at work movement. Formerly, he was a professor of systematic theology and the Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at the University of St. Mary of the Lake, a research professor at the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University of Chicago, and the Advocate Healthcare Senior Scholar in Residence at the Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith and Ethics. He has also taught at the University of Notre Dame and Boston College. He has published thirteen books of theology and spirituality and two books of poetry.

Reviews

[Mike DePue, OFS · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:20) According to John Shea, “this not only means he will not go away but that we cannot get rid of him. He continues to roll back the stone from the caves we entomb him in.” (p. 11) A direct result is a “flurry of Jesuses,” that threatens to become “splattered confusions, ...playthings, darlings of current concern, usable and disposable figures.” (p. 28)

Shea attempts to provide what he calls a “controlling perspective” through chapters on challenge: Jesus as challenge, and the challenge to repent, to celebrate, to trust, to forgive, to love. Shea’s ambition: “the attempt to find a middle road between unfeeling theological dissections of Christ and mindless allegiance to a fundamentalist Jesus.” (p. 12) He is especially severe on a traditional Protestant and Catholic spirituality that has “manhandled Jesus,” portraying him as “a teacher of whimpering love and a melancholic man who silently endure the lash.” (p. 18)

“In our day the reentry into the Sacred and the restructuring of the Church may well come through a renewed understanding of the challenge of Jesus.” (p.17) This book facilitates that renewed understanding.