The Myth of a Christian Religion.

Boyd, Gregory A. The Myth of a Christian Religion. Losing your religion for the beauty of a revolution. Zondervan. 2009.
G.B.- founder and senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Book Review.
Comment. Henry.
This is not a book I would be drawn to by the title. Typical of authors, Greg works from definitions and meanings that are unique to his paradigm. It becomes quite obvious what he is against and this is his approach to explain what he understands as ‘Biblical Christianity”.
Obeying what Jesus commanded and living the life that he modelled is what “Christian” is all about. There is no earthly ‘kingdom’ that remotely looks like the Kingdom of God. In fact there can be no blending of the two, e.g. Constantine’s and Christianity. “Those who had previously understood that their job was to serve the world now aspired to rule it.” (25) Deviations from Kingdom of God living are really various forms of idolatry and Jesus has provided ‘a way of escape’ from those temptations.
“The main opposition to advancing the Kingdom of God in our own day comes from contemporary guardians of the religious status quo.” (59) Religion is a form of idolatry. Individualism as championed by ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ is not characteristic of Kingdom living. “Idolatrous nationalism” (83) becomes another value that we need to ‘revolt’ against.
And so the list of those values that the author is on a crusade of revolution against is delineated. Violence in the form of violent thoughts and actions, especially war, must go. Note: Although I consider myself firmly in the camp of the pacifists, I am afraid war(s) is inevitable because of the nature of humanity. We need to revolt against social oppression, racism, poverty and greed, abuse of creation, abuse of sex, and secularism. No doubt this not an exhaustive list.
The author provides a forty two page “What can we do? An action guide.” To accommodate those who would like to use this resource as a manual for Christian living.