Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire

by Rebecca Ann Parker, Rita Nakashima Brock

One of Publishers Weekly 's Best Books of the Year

A fascinating theological study of how early Christianity’s message of love and community has evolved into one of punishment and empire

During their first millennium, Christians filled their sanctuaries with images of Christ as a living presence—as a shepherd, teacher, healer, or an enthroned god. He is serene and surrounded by lush scenes, depictions of this world as paradise. Yet once he appeared as crucified, dying was virtually all Jesus seemed able to do, and paradise disappeared from the earth. 
 
Saving Paradise turns a fascinating new lens on Christianity, from its first centuries to the present day, asking how its early vision of beauty evolved into a vision of torture, and what changes in society and theology marked that evolution. It also retrieves, for today, a life-affirming Christianity that the world sorely needs.

Genres: History, Religion, Theology, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Christianity, Church History

576 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2007

Reviews

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brock and Parker embark on an international search, traveling to remote ancient churches in Italy, Turkey, or Egypt, examining the earliest Christian art, and assembling writings from the faith’s first centuries. They are gathering evidence on how the idea of “paradise” has evolved, and how the means of attaining it have changed. For one example, they ask what did Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem (ca. 305–386 CE) mean by saying that he aimed to “lead you by the hand to the brighter and more fragrant meadows of this present paradise.”

Our pair of researchers claim to find no image of Christ tortured on the cross until about 950 CE (in Germany). The earlier art shows Jesus alive, typically teaching in settings resplendent with natural beauty. Such art and preaching depicts people celebrating community, in a world seemingly transformed to a “garden of love.” In making this claim, it seems that Brock and Parker are using a very restrictive definition of “crucifix,” because crosses do appear in Christian art by the 300s CE. By “images of Christ crucified,” they mean graphic depictions of Jesus hanging dead and bloody—paying the horrific price of forgiveness for sin, which he’d claimed was already given in his story of the Prodigal Son.

Brock and Parker are passionate for compiling evidence that the earliest Christians viewed paradise as a way of living in this world. The authors pile on examples to show that the main focus of early churches was Jesus’ life and teaching. The early communal meals, as described in the second-century Didache, were modeled on Jesus’ meals of ritualized sharing and gratitude, with people offering thanks “for the life and knowledge which you have revealed to us through Jesus, your child.”

The authors claim that only later did Christians make Jesus’ execution the central focus of their religion, with teachers like Peter Damian (1007–1072 CE) urging the imitation of such sacrifice as the means for meriting paradise: “There is no need Lord, for you to order your officer to punish me. … I have laid hands on myself … I have offered myself in place of my sins. … This is the victim which is sacrificed while still alive … thus the victim of the human body is invisibly commingled with that unique sacrifice that was offered on the altar of the cross.”

This book is big and heavily documented. It raises good questions about religious goals and the means to achieve them. The authors trace a dramatic history of religious visions in competition. They ask whether we are seeking to meet qualifications for paradise in another world, and to leave the fallen behind. Are we seeking to separate the loved from the damned in this world, or trying to make a life “on earth as it is in heaven”? How would it be if we ascribed to a vision like that of Cyril of Alexandria (400s CE): “Deification is the goal of creation, and for its sake everything which came into creation was created … everything will be deified—God will be everything, and in everything.” What practice do we think that would involve?

[Carole Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saving Paradise turned my take on the Gospel upside down. The good news is Life, not Death, and so followers of Jesus lived it for the first thousand years since his birth. They adorned their sacred spaces with paintings of the Good Shepherd caring for his flock amidst hills and meadows, rocks and trees and flowing rivers. They strove to better the earthly lives of all around them.

Only after Charlesmagne turned their lives into a living hell, did the Saxon followers of Jesus carve the first crucifix,
an oaken image of Christ in agonized death, a symbol of their own suffering. Carolingian tyrants turned the love feast of thanksgiving
into an enactment of Cosmic child abuse and an religious tool to brow-beat the faithful into blaming themselves for their victimhood.
The Franks made any other interpretation of the Eucharist punishable by death.

It is no accident that at the same time they conducted a war on nature--clear cutting the Saxon forests.

Replanting the life-affirming faith of the first Millennium can nourish a love of Nature and human life that could save the paradise
that is Earth from the ravages of human greed today.

[Alan Marr · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It took Jesus a thousand years to die. Images of his corpse did not appear in churches until the tenth century."
These are the first lines in this book, which both enlightened and challenged me for the 2 years it took me to finish this book.
I decided to carry it with me as I visited ancient churches in Turkey and Italy. I didn’t find one piece of work featuring Jesus on the cross that dated before 1000CE.
In the early centuries of Christian art, Jesus was frequently portrayed as the Good Shepherd, our teacher and healer, a presence in the world… but never on the cross.
After 1000CE he appears as the crucified one, and after that, “dying was all Jesus seemed able to do”.
The book is more than an art show however. Brock and Parker trace the Church’s struggle to be authentic followers of Jesus or servants of the Empire using the cross as an implement of war and fear.
It is one of the most formative books I have read.

[Rickmi]

I am tremendously impressed by this truly extraordinary book - and author Rita Nakashima Brock. She is speaking and leading Bible study at Baptist Peace Conference in Ogden, UT, July 20-25, 2009, and we are looking forward to hearing her and learning further insights into the underlying theology.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a primary text for those promoting the incarnation as the mover of post-colonial, post- modern, eco-feminist biblical scholarship and social justice. It is my core reference source of connecting past with the future and intersitial space as a resting place.

[Jacob · Rating 2 out of 5]

"It took Jesus a thousand years to die. Images of his corpse did not appear in churches until the tenth century." Those are the first lines of the book's prologue, which continues, "Why not? This question set us off on a five-year pilgrimage that led to this book." (ix) From this and the book's back cover, I anticipated an interesting look at the church's first iconography, artwork, and what they tell us about early Christian belief. Unfortunately, only about 20% of the book's content is focused on exploration.

That fifth of the book is solid, if a bit lacking in important ways, starting with the paucity of pictures (there are only a half dozen or so throughout). Their data is all anecdotal, only mentioning a handful of ancient churches and other sites (e.g. the Roman catacombs) without demonstrating that these are representative of surviving ancient Christian artwork. It's not clear to me that firm conclusions can be drawn from surviving artwork, since, as the book explains, much was destroyed during the iconoclasm controversies of the 8th and 9th centuries.

Most of the book's content is a hasty trip through the centuries of Christian history highlighting a lot of the violence, slavery, oppression of women, and other nastiness. This is not done in a particularly skillful or revealing way. If you're looking for that, I'd suggest either Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years by Diarmaid MacCulloch or Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews–A History by James Carroll.

The authors, Brock and Parker, both Christians, come from a pastoral background, not a scholarly one. Their scholarship shows this: it is rarely very broad, never very deep, and often fails to address consensus views. For instance, they off handedly refer to "female bishops" in the early church (72), a controversial subject that they presume is already established. But you can't use the existence of female bishops to support your case if you haven't established their existence yet. Elsewhere, referring to the Albigensian Crusade, they uncritically report the quote "Kill them all. The Lord will recognize his own," without revealing that the line first appears in the record 20 years after the event in question and may not have been said by the person they credit it to. (To be fair, there is an end note that sort of indicates the truth, if you read it closely. It also indicates that the phrase appears on t-shirts and that "Google lists many suppliers of them.")

Much of the book seems to me little more than Brock and Parker reading their liberal political and theological values (many of which I'm sympathetic with) anachronistically back into the past. To take one example at random:

This ache [for lost innocence and a better future self] drives consumerism and supplies the unquenchable need for unnecessary products that have become deadly to ecosystems. We must be immediately attuned to what is here to relate ethically to actual ecosystems. Nostalgic visions of idealized nature or wilderness disconnect us from the everyday consumerism that causes us to do cumulative harm to environments. ... They inhibit careful scrutiny of our spending patterns, emotionally driven consumerism, work habits, and leisure pursuits. ... And they allow the privileged leaders of corporations and governments to ignore the way that environmental problems are the new face of racism, sexism, and poverty. (388)

They come across as ivory tower academics, even quoting Cornel West (p. 388) in a book ostensibly about early Christian artwork and what it tells us about primitive Christianity. Almost nonsensical passages like this don't help either:

Some fourth-century male leaders redefined female virginity as subservience instead of power and freedome, while keeping for themselves the older traditional idea of women's virginity as soverign power for themselves through ideals of monastic asceticism. (190)

Overall, I was disappointed with this book. It gives some interesting information and a few passages, such as the ones on Abelard and his thinking, were informative. But this book is misleadingly advertised, poorly written, and oversells its conclusions, which are based on thin evidence that they rather poorly put in context.

In addition to the two other books I recommend above, if you're interested in this topic see God and Empire by John Dominic Crossan and, really, just about any other book on early Christianity. 2/5 and not recommended for any audience.

[Kim Langley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several of us heard R. N. Brock speak, and were blown away by her ability to process mounds of history and theology into fascinating patterns that made sense to us. We bought the book and formed a book group, and every minute of reading this substantial book has been worth it...Brock is a good story teller, and a fine writer, and the truth telling...this is not the version of christian history we learned in school...feels so right and balanced as well...there's lot's here to intrigue, to rouse, and to regret, but Brock does not have an ax to grind, and has written one of the best explanations of how organized Christianity got from the joy, mutuality and spirit of hope in the resurrection that infused the early years to the crusades and the slaughter of "the other" because "God wills it" that I've ever read. I am a spiritual person myself, and a member of a church, and this solved a lot of "church history mystery" me, while making me grateful for modern movements of inclusivity that perhaps I took too much for granted. A wonderful selection for a book group, and worth chewing on!

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the authors tend to move towards a defense of Unitarian Universalism at the end, they make an interesting case for the transformation of early Christianity from a gospel that preached the possibility of earthly paradise and communal celebration to a religion of death, martyrdom and morbidity. I had thought that Der Heliand, a Saxon representation of Jesus as a warrior god was a reflection of brutal Germanic culture. Their take on it, that it was veiled protest against the repression of Charlemagne, was quite provocative.

[Inelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book and a must read for those interested in the development of Christian theology in the Western world. Based on solid scholarship, this book challenges us to explore our religious roots and to understand the political and personal effects of the theology of redemptive violence.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

109 Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire, Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker, Beacon Press, Boston, 2008
Prologue
XVI
We worked to understand the world of early Christianity not as the literate few knew it ut as the visually literate many knew it when they worshipped in churches and recited memorized scriptures and creeds. For them visual art and poetic and narrative literature, found in prayers, stories, psalms, and hymns, shaped Christian life and sustained it.
Beauty and art, in all its forms, engage the more holistic, emotional, and sensory-laden dimensions of experience and memory. They capture multilayered experiences of imagination, feeling, perceiving, and thinking. Through art, the aesthetic, emotional, sensory and intellectual dimensions of life can come together and be mixed in fresh ways. . . . we have sought to communicate something of the aesthetic experience of paradise.
Chapter 1 In The Beginning . . . Paradise on the Earth
5
The Sumerians, a people of mysterious origins, migrated south from the mountains in Turkey in prehistoric times and settled in the hot, flat, fertile delta between the rivers (Tigris & Euphrates). Around the fifth millennium BCE they began to master flood control and irrigation and built walled settlements. Their stories, first passed on in oral traditions, came to us as texts pressed on clay tablets that date to around 2100 BCE, near the end of their history. They recorded their myths in a phonetic script they invented, called cuneiform (edge-shaped”). One of the oldest written languages on earth, Sumerian became the scientific, sacred, ceremonial, and literary language for the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and many other surrounding cultures for centuries, despite the fact that it was related to no other language in the region and that, to become fluent, one had to master its separate dialects for men and women.
For subsequent cultures, Sumerian, the language and the culture, was the equivalent of Greek in Roman society or Latin in medieval Europe: the much admired classical language and culture of antiquity. Sumerians encouraged this view with stories of the glories of their rulers and gods. Their conquerors borrowed Sumer'’ stories in creating their own myths and used its script to write their very different languages just as, today, English is written with Latin script. The Bible itself indicates the importance of Sumer; Abram and Sarai (renamed Abraham and Sarah) trace their lineage back to UR, the last capital of Sumer, from which they migrated westward to Canaan (Gen. 11:26-13:12).
10
The Babylonians conquered [the Sumerians] for the last time around 2050 BCE . . . [they]
Sumer became the lost primordial culture of West Asia. By the time Genesis was written, the Sumerians’ myths had been adapted and edited through more than a millennium of history in Canaan, where the legendary immigrants from Sumer, Abram and Sarai, had migrated. The kingdom of Israel emerged in Canaan under Saul (1029-1000 BCE) and David (1000-961 BCE). The Davidic dynasty collapsed with the death of David’s son Solomon (961-922 BCE). The one nation Israel, composed of twelve tribes, became two kingdoms in 921. The Assyrians conquered and annexed the northern nation of ten tribes, called Israel, in 722 (2 Kings 17:5-6). The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar defeated the southern kingdom of Judah in 586 BCE and kidnapped its leaders, initiating five decades of exile for Judah’s people.
11
The Persians and Jews had a long period of contact beginning with King Cyrus the Great (ca. 576-529 BCE), who conquered Babylonia in 539, ending its domination of Mesopotamia. . . . Persian, a modern form of which is now called Farsi . . . remained a common language of the diverse peoples of India for many centuries. The word “paradise” comes into Persian through Median, paridaeza, pari (around), and daeza (wall), meaning a garden surrounded by a wall. Persian, an Indo-European language like Sanskrit and Greek, uses paridaida to refer to vineyards, orchards, forests, tree nurseries, and stables.
12
Cyrus was likely a Zoroastrian, practicing a Persian religion founded by the prophet Zorothustra (Zoraster in Greek), who lived around the beginning of the first millennium BCE. Scholars of this history of Zoroastrianism link its early roots to Hindu ideas, but it became more monotheistic. Zoroaster preached a form of monotheism with lesser spirits and demons. He also developed a postmortem dimension of paradise tied to a strong dualism of good and evil.
13
Zoroastrian apocalyptic ideas probably entered Jewish thinking in the post-exilic time of contact with Persia, since they do not appear in Jewish literature until after this time, for example, in the book of Daniel. The Hebrew Bible generally follows Sumerian traditions in imagining life after death as an underworld that is mysterious, cold and dark. It depicts the cosmos as a three-tiered universe: heavens, earth with paradise, and the underworld, united by the cosmic sacred mountain. Zoroastrian apocalypticism assuredly influenced Christianity, but a divide of the afterlife into heaven and hell is absent from Christianity’s visual world until the medieval.
15
In Genesis, humanity was instructed to be vegetarian, as were the animals, rather than rapacious or predatory.
In Genesis 2, we arrive in the beautiful garden of delight. Like Dilmun, this garden is hard to locate, but it is on the earth. It has one great river, which later tradition identified with the Jordan. Because great rivers originate in mountains, early biblical commentators often suggested a mountaintop as the location of the garden, perhaps the legendary mountain on which Noah docked his ark, the seventeen thousand-foot-high Mt. Ararat.

16
The Hebrew word, adam (earthling), is not a proper name for a male individual, but a generic noun that designates a being made of ha-dama (earth). As in Genesis 1, adam was a generic human being, encompassing male and female.
When God explained to the earthling that not all the trees were safe to eat, the story suggested that Creation had boundaries that should not be crossed and that acquiring knowledge carried risks.
Somewhere, paradise remained in the world, haunting every tale of folly, injustice, or greed.
17
The actual Hebrew word pardes rarely occurs in the Bible. One place it is used is in the Song of Solomon (also called the Song of Songs), which was compiled from earlier sources, probably in the fourth century BCE. It uses pardes to capture the eros of a beautiful garden.
Phyllis Trible suggests that these references to a paradise garden harken back to Genesis and recapture the delight in the earth and human life in paradise. This celebration of love and joy provides the antidote to the banishment of Adam and Eve. This return to the garden nullified the curse of male dominance, hard work, and shame about vulnerability and sexuality.
18
Alexander the Great conquered Persia in the late fourth century BCE, after which the Hebrew Bible was translated into the Greek, called the Septuagint. Wherever the Hebrew word for garden, gan or gan-Eden, appeared, the Septuagint substituted paradesos, including in Genesis 2. This importation of the word “paradise” heightened its importance for both Jewish and Christian interpreters, since many used the Septuagint. The intermingling of Persian, North African, and West Asian cultures and ideas with Greek culture and language began in this period of apocryphal literature from the third century BCE through the third century BCE made much greater use of paradeisos. Discussion and speculation about paradise increased, as apocryphal texts such as I Enoch described journeys to paradise and heaven.
Amos, the earliest written prophet, warned the northern kingdom of Israel in the middle of the eighth century BCE that its habits of violence and greed were unjust and unsustainable.
God as Creator and judge against injustice formed the context for Amos’s outcry against the exploitation of the poor by the wealthy.
19
[Amos] promised that the gifts of paradise could be restored to them if they would “establish justice” and “seek good and not evil.”
Let justice roll down like water And righteousness like an everflowing stream. (Amos 5:24)
The poetry of Amos captures something of the gestalt of paradise in upholding the struggle for justice, mercy, and peace by anchoring them in the life-giving waters of earth.
The book of Isaiah contains many references to paradise. First Isaiah was written between 742 and 689 BCE, when the Assyrian Empire threatened Judah. It expressed hope by describing a world where animals lived in harmony, as they did with Adam and Eve in Eden.
During the Exile, after King Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem in 586 and deported its leaders to Babylonia, second Isaiah used images of paradise to promise divine deliverance.
20
Some exiles [from Israel], sent to Egypt, believed the hard, exclusivist monotheism of King Josiah caused Judah to fall.
Though Isaiah asserted a form of monotheism, it was grounded in justice, rather than in favoritism or nationalism. God cared for the suffering and oppressed, and faithful people who were committed to the welfare of all would restore and sustain paradise.
21
Hese prophetic texts [Isa. 40:8-4:14, Isa. 58:6-11, Isa. 61:1,11] are not, however, unambiguous. While they proclaimed peace, they often imagined God as a warrior who would defeat the foes of Israel and slaughter the unrighteous.
22
I Samuel 8 warned against the establishment of a kingdom. Isaiah said all rulers must answer to the ethics of justice, neither kings nor nations possessed divine rights; they were accountable to the standards of righteousness that were the will of God.
Ezekiel, the sixth-century BCE prophet, wrote in Babylon during the Exile and reflected on the conflicts among the empires that dominated his time.
The first chapter opens with a theophany, an appearance of God. In this theophany, Ezekiel, among his fellow exiles along a river, looks up to see a thunderstorm. Four living creatures emerge from the clouds and lightning, each with human form but four faces: a human, lion, ox, and eagle. Each has four wings, and hooves that shine as though bronzed. Wheels spin beside them in the midst of a rainbow. This vision likely reflected the impressive stone carvings of totem animals that decorated Babylonian palaces
23
Ezekiel likened the growth of the great empire of Egypt to a flowering tree in Eden that was nourished by abundant water. The tree became too proud and God razed it (Ezek. 31). Ezekiel contrasted the blessed garden of God with the political ambitions, environmental devastations, and carnage of kings, and he promised a renewal of paradise for the nation . . .
And they will say, “This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined towns are now inhabited and portified.” (Ezekiel 36:33-35)
In his oracles of comfort and hope to the exiles, Ezekiel pictured the restoration of paradise as abundant pasturelands tended by a shepherd.
24
Near the end of the book, Ezekiel detailed his vision of the rebuilt temple on Mt. Zion (Ezek. 40-47). He described being transported to the eastern gate, the direction of paradise . . . A great river welled up from below the threshold of the temple, flowing east and south. . . . Ezekiel said Jerusalem must be called “The Lord is there” (48:35). It was an earthly place where God drew near to human beings, and from which waters of life cascaded down to bring life to all the earth. It was not a place created after the apocalyptic destruction of this world, but it could be threatened by war and imperial domination. From his dwelling place in the temple, God announced, “Enough, O princes of Israel. Put away violence and oppression, and do what is just and right.” (Ezek. 45:9)
24-25
Some exiles, liberated by the Persian king Cyrus the Great, returned to Jerusalem and eventually built the second temple in Jerusalem under his son King Darius. They completed it in 516 BCE. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah describe the controversies with local inhabitants and difficulties that accompanied this time of restoration, as well as the modest proportions of this new temple. Some leaders began o identify the second temple and Mt. Zion as the actual location of paradise.
One of the mysteries of Dilmun and Eden was their precise location. Whether in the direction of the rising sun or between four great rivers, paradise confused any attempts to pin it on a map. It eluded the control, captivity, or ownership of any one nation, people, religion, or time. In direct contrast to the wars, economic exploitation, fratricidal divisions, and environmental devastations of empires, it offered experiences and visions of justice, of the goodness of ordinary life, and of a vibrant peace. Paradise was described in terms recognizable as earthly life at its best. In these descriptions, it could be experienced as real, not as a permanent state of being but as aspects of life itself. It flourished where people took responsibility for the well-being of all and respected and protected the great cycles of life that sustain human life. Many of the Psalms date from the second temple period. They praise God’s creativity, justice, and healing, using images of paradise.
26
The Psalms affirm that the gifts of paradise are tangible in this life. “O taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. 34:8) The speak of respite from weariness, pleasure in companionship, freedom from oppression, comfort in sorrow, delight in beauty, satisfaction of hunger, and protection from danger. Though these precious aspects of life can be lost or compromised, they are dimensions of human experience on the earth, not imaginary ideals. What it means to say that paradise is in this world: the actual tastes, sights, fragrances, and textures of paradise touch our lives. They call us to resist the principalities and powers that deny the goodness of ordinary life, threaten to destroy it, or seek to secure its blessings for a few at the expense of many.
The descendants of the exiles who rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem did not enjoy a long peace. The Persian Empire gave them breathing space for a time, until the Greeks conquered the region and brought them once again under oppressive imperial domination. They maintained a line of client Jewish kings who heavily taxed the people for Rome and for their own gain. Herod (c. 74-4 BCE) was notoriously profligate and violent. He massively expanded the Jerusalem temple as a monument to his dynasty and [even] put a Roman eagle over the main entrance. Many Jewish resistance movements protested Herodian and Roman abuses, often with nonviolent acts and sometimes in armed revolt. The Romans suppressed opposition by crucifying dissident leaders and burning town to the ground. Jewish opposition intensified until the Romans destroyed the second temple in 70 CE. They finally leveled Jerusalem in 139, rebuilt it as a pagan city, and renamed the region Palestine in honor of Israel’s enemies, the Philistines.
27
In Galilee, the legacy of paradise would feed a movement of resistance, led by a rabbi named Jesus of Nazareth. Like a tree planted by the water, his movement took root, moistened by the waters of paradise and shaded by its trees and vines. In the long genealogy of paradise and its call to humanity to live justly and ethically, was was yet another branch of this great, sheltering tree.
28
The Bible opens with Creation and with the Garden if Delight in Genesis 1-2 and closes with the last words of Revelation 22, “Let everyone who is thirsty, come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.”
29
Jesus shows ethical grace in action: love and generosity in community, care for all who have need, healing of the sick, appreciation for life, confrontation with powers of injustice and exploitation, and advocacy for freedom of the imprisoned.
In John’s Gospel he says, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly: (10:10), and he speaks frequently of the promise of “eternal life” to his disciples. The Gospel defines three dimensions of this eternal life: knowing God; receiving the one sent by God to proclaim abundant life to all; and loving each other as he had loved them. Eternal life, in all three meanings, relates to how life is lived on earth. The concrete acts of care Jesus has shown his disciples are the key to eternal life. By folling his example of love, the disciples enter eternal life now. Eternal life is thus much more than a hope for postmortem life: it is earthly existence grounded in ethical grace.
30-31
The most oft-told story in the Christian scriptures is the miracle of loaves and fish . . .
The Roman emperors maintained their power by distributing bread to the poor.
The early church framed its most important ritual meal as this act of feeding. They called it the Eucharist, the Great Thanksgiving, the meal that celebrated the bread of earth, blessed by heaven, and shared in community. John Dominic Crossan notes the significance of this practice: “ It is in food and drink offered equally to everyone that the presence of God and Jesus is found. But food and drink are the material bases of life, so the Lord’s Supper is political criticism and economic challenge as well as sacred rite and liturgical worship.”
31-32
The sky is the most mysterious part of the cosmos, and it is the most regular and reliable in its patterns. The sun, moon, and stars make their rhythmic courses, marking the pace of planting and harvesting and generating the flow of time within the space of the great cosmos. The heavens bring sweet water to earth in the rain and fill the mountain storehouses of snow that feed the great rivers. Thus the heavens were, for the ancients, the wellspring of spiritual power. They were not something out of this world, but were the locus of life-giving power within this world, a realm of constancy from which humanity received many blessings. Their spiritual messengers visited those who awaited them in dreams and visions, and their earthly emissaries brought illumination and life.
In the bread of heaven, God blessed ordinary food for ordinary people. 
33
He [Jesus] challenged this paternalistic system [Rome giving bread to the poor] by offering food blessed by heaven and not by Rome.
The modern world has a tendency to divide the sacred and the secular and to disconnect the spiritual from the physical.
34
In offering “that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world,” Jesus, like the Hebrew prophets, connected paradise, abundant life, to the practical needs of human beings, who require a sustainable and sustaining life free from economic exploitation and political oppression.
This is why, at the end of John’s Gospel, Jesus addresses Peter, a leader among the disciples, by saying, repeatedly, “If you love me, feed my sheep.”
34-35
In first-century understandings, the logos (Word) was a divine being who coexisted with God and who created all things in the kosmos (world). Many branches of the Israelite tree shared the concept of the divine Logos. It emerged from the Hellenization process, the mingling of Greek ideas with Hebrew and Persian cultures in West Asia and North Africa. Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE-50CE), a Jew who used Platonic philosophy to interpret the books of Moses, associated God’s acts of Creation with Logos.
In the Septuagint, the Hebrew feminine noun Hokmah (Wisdom), which was linked to Word, as the principle of Creation. John retells the Creation story found in Proverbs 8 and fleshes out the connection between Logos and Sophia as synonyms for creativity (Prov. 8:23-9:6,excerpts).
37
Without those who bring the Spirit of God into the world, in

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just too much special pleading.

[Zrinka · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, this was recommended to me by goodreads, and I was really surprised at how much I liked it. Be careful goodreads, my expectations are up!
To mention all the ideas that interested and intrigued me would be like writing this book anew, so I'm just going to note some things that caught my attention.
I loved gluing together bits and pieces of sometimes incoherent fragments of history from I got textbook and novels, following the authors "alternate" take on the history of Western Christianity. Also, it was a refreshing view of Christianity, by authors who speak of feminism, racism, global social and economic justice and the environmental pollution in a way I rarely hear from Christians. I also liked their conclusion: another Christianity is possible.

The search begins with the art in the Christian culture, changing from depictions of a serene paradise to the torture of Crucifixion. (There's a lot to do with visual literacy, which I am not competent to write about.) The narrative unfolds describing the changes in the philosophy of Christianity over centuries, from the early Christians' need for a paradise on Earth because of the prosecutions, and the importance of community, to the institutionalized Church's need to maintain control and position leading to self-sacrificing love sanctioning violence and war - pain and misery in the image of Jesus; next comes the first crucifix depiction with the Saxons, that had one century earlier been mass baptized at the point of sword, along with Church's turn towards violence and the crusades and the inquisition, and the medieval theology of atonement; and finally to the New World and the transformation of religion into a weapon of enslavement and subjugation.
Of course it's much more complicated than this, but it's a long way the authors thread from the Sumerians to Martin Luther King Jr.

The gender view was the bonus for me. There is a lot about gender equality among early Christians - supposedly a tool against the Roman patriarchal system. The authors point out that gospels challenge systems of domination, including gender relationships. (There's also a lot of context that was missing in my religion classes on the teachings of Jesus as resistance to the Roman empire.) They mention also Eve's sin in connection with the humans lowly condition, and discuss all the evil released on women based on the story from the Genesis. There's a mention one interpretation that has been bugging me for a while: acquiring knowledge leads to risks. But that's just an observation, don't have time to go into it right now. I thing this part of the narrative might be a little too simplified to be the truth, but I really appreciate the effort Rita and Rebecca put into their research.

This has also been an eye opener about the USA - it made some contemporary politics and philosophy more connected with their tradition, and showed me how the Puritan legacy poisoned USA to this day. It was also interesting to compare Romans' habit of crucifixion to the relatively recent USA lynching.

What I must object to is the apparent progress from east to west, to America (to be exact, USA); but also progress in general - as the story unfolds, Mediterranean, Europe, Asia and Africa get left behind and there is no more mention of them. Another annoying bit: The pristine beginning is followed by corruption of the truth of differing degrees, with the hope that future brings the salvation. The authors actually write: "However, this [Protestant] tendency forces us to view the past selectively and impose purity upon it rather than to see its fullness, which is as complex, ambiguous, and diverse as any human endeavor ever is." Although they tried to avoid it, I don't think they were successful. Nevertheless, they told an interesting story that kept me engrossed with the book. In all honesty, there were some boring passages/chapters, but the overall felling after reading this is that I've learned a lot and my perspective has shifted, and that's what I appreciate in a book.

Here are some quotes that I remembered:
"There are worse things than dying. One is having to live with the knowledge that you, by your own choice, have surrendered to forces you abhor and been complicit in the destruction of what you most love."
"Whether and how Christians can memorialize Jesus’s crucifixion without fomenting hostility to those who hold to a different faith remains a moral issue for those who participate in such rituals."
"Early Christian teachers condemned private wealth as a basis of exploitation. They insisted that material blessings were gifts of God and must be shared."
"The contemporary Roman Catholic prohibition against women’s ordination is based in the assertion that women cannot reflect the image of Christ."

[Barbm1020 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 300 pages are fascinating, presenting a history of Christian religious art from the earliest surviving examples up to the age of the Crusades. Theologian Rita Nakashima Brock and her co-author, college professor Rebecca Ann Parker, published their book in 2008. Much of the change they suggested has already occurred in mainstream Christian thinking, but the benefits of leaving behind the imaginary model of How Things Used To Be and the old pie-in-the-sky excuses for prolonging injustice and human suffering cannot be overstated. Paradise, as portrayed in the ancient mosaics they describe, a garden of beauty where the Risen Christ greets living believers, is worth reclaiming after centuries of guilt trips, abusive man-made rules, imperialist wars and the devaluing of People Not Like Us. The image of the dead body of a Jewish teacher, used to inspire fear and guilt since Rome created its franchise on worship, has no place in this paradise. As the authors tell us in the last 400 pages, the old cruelties are no longer relevant and cannot be accepted after so many have given so much to make American society humane. Their paradise is found in the beauty of nature, the simple non-destructive pleasures which life on earth provides, and the non-violent supportive, sustainable communities growing out of the actual teachings of Jesus and the Peace and Justice movement.

[Walt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully detailed exploration of what Christianity has been and could be. Focusing on religion's relationship to joy, suffering, and community, the first half of the book traces the development of the earliest forms of Christianity; their commitment to experiencing and creating communities of paradise among us and to putting justice and resurrection rather than crucifixion and salvation at the center of faith. The second half then shows how the colonialism and crusades of the Holy Roman Empire justified the glorification of suffering and violence, and how this mindset has permeated itself into the cultures of western Europe and North America. By finding elements of Christianity from all times that are life-sustaining, rather than identifying one pristine moment, the authors also propose steps forward to creating a religion of paradise again.

[Elsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

After their first collaborative writing, I was eager to read this book and though it took me 6 months to finish it was rather enjoyable. Through the theological evolution of Paradise from the early to modern church, Brock and Parker offer a charge to Christians that is compelling and empowering. Each chapter marks a particular time in history -- though I wish that each chapter linked more closely to the previous themes on Paradise. I wanted it to be more cohesive which it may have been had I not taken so long to read it. All in all, an excellent read for any progressive Christian willing to be challenged in their faith assumptions.

[Marc Schelske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. An incredible exposition of Christian history and the ways that violence have been a part of this long story.

Motivated by the stunning revelation that Christians didn’t feature crucifixes in their art and church iconography until the tenth century, the authors explore the development of the churches’ view of paradise, Eucharist, salvation and the church’s role in society.

Well worth the time and mental effort needed to work through the often dense material.

[Mikecook2158 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must-read for every Christian! Beginning with the simple observation that the crucifix does not show up in any Christian art before 900 AD, these two brilliant scholars unfold a story of two Christianities, one which affirms and celebrates the presence of God in the midst of paradise, the other which centers on death and guilt. Brilliant!

[Jeannine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Images of Jesus' crucifixion did not appear in churches until the tenth century. Why not? The crucified Christ is so important to Western Christianity, how could it be that images of his suffering and death were absent from early churches? With these questions began a five year pilgrimage for the authors.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brock and Parker do the same thing for Christian history as Howard Zinn did for American history. The version of Christianity they have resurrected deconstructs 1500 years of imperial crap that the Christian tradition has become polluted with. Read this book. Everyone. Now.

[Chris Weakley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. It was a very illuminating read and how art reflects transformations in Christian world view and how our focus changed by various external forces. It has its dense moments and I will probably come back to it and get more from another reading, but I found it fascinating.

[Harry Allagree · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a real eye-opener for me, and has given a whole new slant to understanding what is celebrated in Lent & Easter in the Christian Church. Excellent research and rich insight into the early Church's understanding vs. some of the "shlock" that got passed down through the centuries.

[Rhonda White · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been eye opening for me. I have recently defined by self as post-evangelical. As I have allowed myself to open up to a broader view of Jesus and his role in the world, this book has allowed me to explore early Christian traditions beyond what is available in written text alone.

[Margie Dorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredibly powerful book. Published ten years ago, it needs to be read and re-read today, and I plan to re-read it myself, and to figure out how to use it in my study groups.

[Ros]

I am near the end of this book and it has sent me to other Church History books in my possession to understand whether or not the author's critique of Church History is sustainable. ie are there others who point out a similar viewpoint.

No church is perfect - and there is a sense that in every generation Christian believers need to re-present the gospel in a way that communicates meaningfully with the current context. However some of what they point out in their critique suggests that the re-interpretation is not necessarily aimed to bring life and wholeness to a new generation or a new people group but to keep them subservient.

This book is challenging and I think needs to be read and assessed in comparison with other writers and primary sources.

[Kent Sylvis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well worth the effort. Lots to think about. I'll have to let it sit then read it again.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still thinking about this, amongst many other things: “The reality of lynching testifies to how deeply Christian notions of redemptive violence are inscribed in the American psyche. As Hosea Ballou said, those who believe that God redeems the world through violence become cruel themselves.”

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. An essential history of the church through the lens of paradise.

[Kiwi Comiendo Kiwi · Rating 5 out of 5]

La premisa de este libro no es más que una simple pregunta: ¿por qué, durante los primeros mil años de historia cristiana, eran escasas las representaciones de la muerte de Jesús? Cuando el cristianismo apareció en escena hace dos mil años, su arte no tardó en anunciar cómo se veía la figura que adoraban: un joven sin barba, un pastor de ovejas, un pavo real con plumas inmortales, una tumba vacía, un rescatista cósmico, el vencedor del infierno y el obrador de milagros. De esto nace una imagen de Jesús triunfante, victorioso, gozoso, una persona que porta un maravilloso heroísmo. Pero algo que no era común en estos retratos es la crucifixión, y las autoras quieren saber por qué.

Este libro, por tanto, asume la apariencia de una indagación histórica. Al lector no le costará, sin embargo, darse cuenta de que es mucho más que eso. Más allá del sucinto análisis de fuentes arqueológicas y registros textuales, el libro es un manifesto de filosofía moral. Su principal postulado es que el amor no es pasivo, sino que requiere poder, acción, trabajo y comunidad. Después de mil años de escasear, la imagen de Jesús crucificado, exornado con heridas, sangre, clavos, y otros emblemas de dolor, humiliation y violencia, va a representar una visión ética que, según las autoras, es profundamente distorsionada: un amor que busca el sufrimiento, que odia al cuerpo, al placer y al mundo, que se contenta con someterse ante sistemas tiránicos de violencia, y cuyos débiles sentimientos de esperanza son encerrados en la promesa de un paraíso más allá. Y será este paraíso el que dará la clave para la idea competidora, al recordar los tiempos en que el evangelio anunciaba el paraíso en la tierra, el amor por el mundo, la lucha por la justicia y la bondad generosa de Dios recuperarán su lugar en el evangelio.

[Richard Fitzgerald · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a sprawling mess. The central thesis, backed up by the investigation of Christian artwork, is compelling and challenges great swaths of theology. But, the thesis is only supported by anecdotal evidence. It is not evident that they can make the point they want to make since there is so little artwork remaining from the early centuries of the church. Further, the argument is lost in the meandering through random historical diatribes, weird biographical side-trips, and a seeming attempt to push some diverse theological points unrelated to the central thesis. If the authors had written a tight argument based on the history of Christian art and given us a book of around 100 pages, it could have been brilliant. As it is, the book makes a better doorstop than anything (and it's bulky enough to do that job well).

[Bob Fabre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, but the main thesis, that early Christianity was not interested in the Crucifixion, but more interested in living in Paradise, was not proved. Early Christians were interested in both the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Also, the idea that one can find no redemptive value in violence, is oversimplistic. While violence can never be given a positive value, violence exists and cannot be avoided. Therefore, finding redemptive value from violence is a necessity. As stated in a hymn by William Blake, “Man was made for joy and woe. Then when this we rightly know. Through the world we safely go."