REVIEW OF "THE JESUS CREED"

McKnight, Scot. The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Publisher, 2004.

Ibidem KW: Christian; theology; mission; church renewal; emerging; Christology

I recently started visiting a blog, http://www.jesuscreed.org/ which is administrated by a religion professor named Scot McKnight. I really like McKnight’s blog and I like his “spirit” as well as his intellect. He brings together a variety of people and points of view, and helps them discuss divergent theologies in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount: humbly and respectfully. McKnight got his PhD at the University of Nottingham, and left a good position in a theological seminary, to teach religion to undergraduates at a more secular university where he could be engaged in mission to college kids (see why I like him?).

So…since I was visiting his blog, I decided to order his book, The Jesus Creed, and read it. I am glad I did.

On his blog, McKnight has advocated a theology that is Jesus first, but not Jesus only, in contrast to some of the more radical emerging church and 'historical Jesus' types. In The Jesus Creed, McKnight attempts to distill the essence or core of Jesus’ message of good news with a primary focus on Matthew 22:37-39. Using his knowledge of Hebrew and the Jewish culture of Jesus’ time, McKnight’s points out that Jesus would have grown up, praying the shema yisrael, the creed or liturgy of Israel, several times a day. According to McKnight, Jesus’ response to the lawyer in Matthew 22 was revolutionary: a major change in paradigm from the Jewish creed, or as Alan Hirsch would say, a new core “systems story.”

The Jewish creed, the shema, found in Deu. 6:4,5 was the “systems story” or core paradigm at the heart of Jewish religion. It was totally focused on God, entirely vertical.

In Jesus’ response to the lawyer, he took the shema and altered it adding an amendment from Lev. 19:18, “… but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.” This changed the shema by adding the horizontal, social element to the love of God.

McKnight goes on to show that Jesus often gave out a short form of the Jesus Creed…kind of like an abbreviation: “follow me.” In the author’s words, Jesus said that we were to love God with all of our hearts, minds and strength, by following Jesus, and by loving others.

This, then, is the core of the gospel according to Jesus: We are to love God by following Jesus and loving others (McKnight:237). Needless to say, this is a formulation of the gospel that I can readily use on the university campus.

McKnight studies the Lord’s Prayer and compares it to a similar Jewish prayer and shows the same alteration: it goes from being a strictly vertical concern with God’s will and rule, to being both vertical and horizontal with the addition of “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” As McKnight affirms, it is the Jesus Creed in prayer form. He quotes Tertullian who said that “In the Lord’s Prayer is comprised an epitome of the whole gospel” (McKnight:19).

He defines the kingdom of God as “the society of people in which the Jesus Creed transforms life” (McKnight:127).

He describes a spiritually formed person by the following statement:

A spiritually formed person loves God by
following Jesus and loving others.
A spiritually formed person embraces the stories
of others who love Jesus.
A spiritually formed person lives out kingdom values.
A spiritually formed person loves Jesus personally,
and participates in the life of Jesus (McKnight:237).

The book is organized into sections. The first 50 pages is focused on the Jesus Creed with its Jewish antecedents, the prayer of the Jesus Creed, the Abba of the Jesus Creed, and the Table and the Sacred Love of the Jesus Creed. McKnight often uses terms in the original Hebrew in order to draw out the Hebrew conceptual worldview behind the terms and provides a glossary at the end of the book.

In the second section, McKnight tells a variety of “Stories of the Jesus Creed” using John the Baptist, Joseph, Mary, Peter and women to illustrate Jesus’ intent with the Jesus Creed worked out in the lives of people. I especially like the one on Peter, in which McKnight’s asks us to identify the moment that Peter was converted to Christ. He effectively shows that it was not a one-time event, but rather a series of steps or decisions—a process.

McKnight addresses the concept of what we call the ecclesia in the third section titled “The Society of the Jesus Creed” in chapters about the society of transformation, mustard seeds, justice, restoration and joy. The fourth section is “Living the Jesus Creed” which deals with believing, abiding, surrendering to, restoring, forgiving and reaching out in Jesus.

The last section is “Jesus and the Jesus Creed” which has a series of reflections on Jesus at the Jordan, in the wilderness, on the mountain, at the last supper, at the cross, and at the tomb, and the significance of each of these moments for us as followers of Jesus.

In addition to Tertullian, McKnight draws stories and quotes from people like Alec Guiness (37), Anglican theologian Tom Wright (85), Henri Nouwen (112), Chesterton (131), Alexander Schmemann, Thomas Merton, Richard Foster (177), Michael Green (234), Alexis de Toqueville (243), John Bunyon (291), Federica Matthews-Green, Dorothy Sayers, Flannery O’Conner and frequently from C.S. Lewis and many, many others.

Despite the obvious scholarship and erudition that McKnight brings to his research, he consciously avoids an academic writing style, and makes his work easily readable at the undergraduate level. This is a book that one could give to any literate new believer to help them study the life of Jesus and the practical significance of his teachings for their lives. Although the book introduces a comprehensive Christology, it is not presented in a linear, systematic theology style. It is presented as a narrative, a series of stories about Jesus that invite us to his table of fellowship.

The only criticism I might make of the book was that I found it to drag a little about two-thirds of the way through. Perhaps this was because of the book’s focus on being accessible to the uninitiated. Some of the chapters in Living the Jesus Creed were already familiar ground to me, although McKnight often surprised me with a new, or fresh insight about believing, abiding and forgiving in Jesus.

Alan Hirsch, in The Forgotten Ways, in his detailed and comprehensive study of Jesus movements in history, from the early church to the Chinese church, states unequivocally that a common characteristic of every fresh missional move of God is a renewed focus on the person and teachings of Jesus (Hirsch:85).

In my opinion, Scot McKnight has opened the way for a new, emerging Christology that is fresh and culturally relevant, while at the same time congruent with classical, historic Christian faith. He has given us a core narrative for a 21st century message that is truly good news for post-modern seekers. I highly recommend the book, and even more highly recommend his on-line blog as a portal into the current reformation/revolution/renewal of Christianity. You can access Scot McKnight's excellent blog at www.jesuscreed.org.