Chrisitan Archy: A Book Review

Let me first start by saying kudos to Energion Publications for the Areopagus series. Please click on the two links to see who the publisher is and what the series is about.

Black, David Alan; Christian Archy. Energion Publications, 2009. Pp. 43.

Christian Archy is the first book in a series of books to be released by Energion Publications called “Areopagus Critical Christian Issues”. The books are rigorous in scholarship yet written with a practical perspective. They are 80 pages or less and this is why you will notice this book is only 43 pages long in this number is included a scriptural index and a further reading index. I will attempt to review this book in the chronological order of the chapters giving you some highlight verses and then I will conclude with my thoughts.

The book is broken down into six very concise and straight to the point chapters. In the preface Mr. Black tells us his thesis:

I argue that the economic and political necessities of our time are best served when God’s kingdom comes first. The doctrine of Christ crucified for us puts an end to religion as power. The last word in human affairs is represented by a man hanging on a cross (1 Corinthians 2:2)….. I have sought to expound the distinctive contribution of the New Testament to the theme of the kingdom of God — what it is, how to enter it, and how to walk worthily of it as its citizens.

Chapter 1 is an introduction, yet sets the tone of the book and Mr. Black never steps off the gas, because this book is so short, you won’t have to worry about sifting through any fluff to try to understand what Mr. Black is calling us to (which is one reason I really, really like this book). He is calling us to kingdom citizenship to behave, live and conduct our affairs according to this citizenship and any substitute to this citizenship redefines the kingdom he is so boldly proclaiming.  He says on page 1:

There is perhaps no clearer example of the church’s misguided appropriation of the world than the god of nationalism. Instead of simply following Jesus, whose kingdom is marked by powerless love, we have attempted to use Christianity to support worldly power… Experience has shown that once the church has become just another worldly “archy” (power), once it has allowed itself to be subverted by politics, it has achieved a “victory” at the expense of the Gospel (emphasis mine)

Mr. Black believes this works for both liberals and conservatives. Whenever we attempt to use any power outside of the Christian power of love through the Gospel are work is no longer Christian but worldly the problem today is they have been married for so long in this country that we can’t tell which is which.

As he moves into Chapter 2, he begins to detail the major tenets of Christian Archy. There are three tenets that Mr. Black identifies and they are:

1. The Gospel is only concerned with the kingdom of God.

2. God’s Archy (power/kingdom) will take place without ANY (emphasis mine) assistance or support from the efforts of human archys. He says “This tendency (any ideology that takes the place of the cross) to supplant the cross of Christ with human solutions (including “holy” ones) and to anoint them with near-divine status is called “arky faith” by Eller”

3. No worldly archy has any actual power or ultimate significance (this is huge).

A personal highlight for me was this quote found on page 7:

…God’s Archy is not of this world  – which means that, as Christians, it is unnecessary to fight th archys, compete with them, or  recognize any merit on their part. In fact, Christian Archy is completely indifferent to human archys, whether they be communists, pacifists, liberal, democratic, libertarian, revolutionary, etc. What matters is that the church be the church, refusing to sacralized earthly archys and even itself. God does not need our worldly systems (dogmatics, philosophy, science, politics) or even our “centers of cultural transformation” to bring about societal reformation. Jesus alone suffices.

In Chapter 3 Mr. Black begins to talk about some of the implications of Christian Archy. Let me start with a quote from page 16 then work back with a couple of quotes from previous pages.

What matters, then, is not that we lose ourselves in futile political or social agitation. What matters is that we recognize in the incarnation of Christ, and in his death and resurrection, that God was intervening in the course of human history to give us not only eternal life but an abundant life every day.

This quote mean a lot to me. Especially as an African American Christian, the local congregations which happen to be primarily African American lost itself in a race of president this past election. We gave Mr. Obama more allegiance than Christ. Many of Christian of African American ethnicity rejoiced at the election of Mr. Obama almost praising him as they would a messiah. Again only the incarnation can bring a life of peace and hope, every other archy will fail and has failed! Now on to to two more quotes.

On page 12 he says:

As long as the church looks for an objective outside of itself, which it tires to obtain by very great human effort, it forsakes its calling to be the instrument of God.

Then on page 15:

The Enemy of the church always seeks to turn it aside from the cross in order to make it follow its own way. At various times in its turbulenthistory, the church has been socialist or communist, liberal or fundamentalists, political or anti-political. It has espoused the social gospel, revolution (of both violent and non-violent types), egalitarianism, complementarianism, classlessness, class distinction, colonization and communism.

The next three chapters are things I am currently wrestling through in my own personal life. Chapter 4 talks about Church and the Kingdom I actually highlighted most of this chapter but will give one quote. Here he gives both the mission and the definition of the church which I think is so widely missed today and which has caused the “seeker church” the “purpose driven church” the “black church” the “cowboy church” and any other church. Read this and meditate on this quote found on page 18:

Missions is the inevitable and indispensable expression of the church’s essential nature as a fellowship of Christ’s disciples. The church is not a hierarchy or an institution but a people in community whose mission is to spread the rule of Christ. The purpose of the Body of Christ is to make Jesus visible in the world. In fact, in the present age the church is uniquely the instrument of the kingdom of God in the world. Thus service to the kingdom means service to the world through missional activity.

I think enough is said in that quote to stop this review but I want to move into the chapter 5.

In chapter 5 Mr. Black puts Christ as the model of powerlessness. We see this powerful powerlessness in the incarnation, the life Jesus chose to live during His earthly ministry and His crucifixion bearing the weight of sin, guilt, shame and condemnation. Mr Black says:

That is to say, the humility of Jesus is to be the normal disposition of the Christian (pg 28)

Mr. Black gives quite a few scriptural references that shows the humility of Christ but not only that the humility of others after Christ’s death. We are to walk in this humility as kingdom citizens. He says on page 30:

sacrifical service for others in the cause of the Gospel is the normative strategy for all Christians who inhabit the kingdom

Chapter 6 is the conclusion. On the final page Mr Black says:

It is imperative that we no longer use intellectual excuses in order to evade our responsibilities as disciples of Jesus.

Here I rest and pray for faith. My thoughts are quite simple. I wished that Energion did not put a page limit and I wished this book was longer. It is packed with things to wrestle through in my own personal life. As I read this book I said to myself I am guilty of quite a few of these charges. And I realized that I have to move beyond admitting this guilt and turning to Christ for strength. I recommend this book for those with limited time yet who really needs to understand what the kingdom is about. Mr. Black’s further reading section (especially the one most frequently quoted “The Subversion of Christianity”) will fill in all the blanks I suppose. I can’t wait for the rest of the books, but better yet I am going to reread this book and look to implement the kingdom citizenship principles defined in it. I am so grateful for Energion and Mr. Black, they have given me much to think about and pray about!