Here I finish our discussion of God Who Looks Like Jesus; A Renewed Approach to Understanding God by Gregory A. Boyd (with M. Scott Boren) (Herald Press). The last chapter is entitled The Blessed Hope. If you have read the chapter, feel free to offer a comment. If not, you may only ask a question.
In this chapter Greg affirms that “Jesus’ appearance at the end of the age is central to the good news of the New Testament.” (118) He offers a quick summary of classical biblical and Christian eschatology including language pointing to a millennial and earthly rain of Christ on a “new earth.” (119)
Greg: “Living with the expectation that Jesus will soon appear has filled me with hope and peace. And at a time when it seems like the world is unraveling, this hope and peace couldn’t be more precious.” (121)
I know conservative evangelical Christians who think Greg is unorthodox if not heretical. I know Greg personally and worked alongside him and had many valuable conversations with him. Greg is deeply devoted to Christ and even if some of his views are non-traditional, he is not a heretic or a radical revisionist. That he believes in Christ’s literal return shows that he is no “liberal” or advocate of process theology, as some critics have claimed.
Greg goes on to describe a world in crisis. He calls it a “polycrisis” because of its many aspects. He chooses to focus on one such crisis facing planet earth—the ecological one. He criticizes the modern West’s “perpetual growth narrative” and urges Christians to adopt “a kingdom response” by reducing the damage we [humans] have done to “our shared biological home.” (124) But he goes on quickly to argue for a posture of hope by which he means confident expectation that God will intervene even if we do not succeed.
Greg’s overall message is this: “Far from hoping to be raptured out of our hurting world, imitating Jesus requires us to live in solidarity with it. … We are God’s designated stewards over his incredible earth. We are called to love and cherish the earth, which means we must be willing to minimize whatever negative impact our lifestyle is having on its well-being.” (126)
I agree whole-heartedly with everything Greg says in this chapter while admitting some truth to the critique, which I have heard, that he goes a bit over the top in urging Christians to place ecological concern and activism “at the top” of their priorities.
The one thing that bothers me the most in God Looks Like Jesus is Greg’s claim that God never coerces anyone because love does not coerce. It seems to me that God did coerce some people in the salvation history narrated in the Bible. And it seems to me that a loving parent will, in extreme circumstances, coerce a self-destructive son or daughter.
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