Book Review: The Jesus Paradigm

David Alan Black. The Jesus Paradigm. Gonzalez, FL. Energion Publications, 2009

Thanks to Henry at Energion Publications for the review copy.

David Alan Black’s The Jesus Paradigm is one of those books that has you wanting to shout “Amen” at one moment, and then leaves you scratching your head the next. It certainly isn’t a boring book. The basic thesis of the book is that the American Protestant church needs to reclaim the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, and come to a true and full understanding of this as requiring the ministry of every member of the body of Christ. Then we need to simply put it into action. This is the first of the “Shouting Amen!” sections, and it’s a big “Amen”. Black, like myself, is a Southern Baptist, and much of what he observes I can relate to in my own church experience. It would honestly cheapen his message to go point by point and try and summarize it, so I won’t do that. I will simply say that it is good, powerful reading, and quite convicting on many levels. Black is seriously to be commended for what he has written here, and he pulls no punches.

After this main section on discipleship, Black devotes two chapters to the Anabaptist tradition, and to practical Ecclesiology based on the principles he has outlined. We will return to these two chapters, as this was where I was left feeling a little confused on some things. Next, he gets into politics, and it is here that I imagine that most of the controversy (at least in Southern Baptist circles) will be. It’s a hard-hitting section, and Black names names. Lots of names. Its easy for me to say the following because I agree almost 100% with what Black says in these chapters, but it is so refreshing to read a book that might fall under “Theology” speak with the clarity that Black displays here. After reading the chapter, you know exactly where Black stands, what he sees as the problem in our churches related to the issues raised, and what he suggests we can do about it including practical advice for churchgoers, both in the pulpit and the pew. I mean, really, when was the last time you read a book where you could say that?

Thus far, the “Amens”, but lets return to the middle section, where we get a look at the implications for Ecclesiology as Black sees them. On page 38, we get a list of principles for the modern church pulled from the Anabaptist tradition. I just want to push back on some of these, with what seem to me to be simply gut level reactions:

Black calls for:

“breaking down walls, rather than isolationism” – At the risk of sounding sarcastic…how can one say this based on, of all things, the Anabaptist tradition? Its almost laughable to say this about Protestantism in general. Its certainly a strange thing to say coming out of a Baptist context in the American South, where there must be 200 different denominations just within the “Baptist” context. In fact, Black himself has just spent the few pages before this showing how Anabaptism was a movement based on the idea that the reformers had not gone far enough, which essentially makes it a protest movement of a protest movement. How, in that context, does one go about breaking down walls?

Black calls for:

“biblical authority instead of ecclesiastical tradition” – Well, that will go a long way toward breaking down walls, won’t it? Respectfully, I have to ask, and I have been asking myself this question for years now, what’s so wrong with tradition? Our forefathers and mothers in the Faith just might have something to say to us that’s of use, and to ignore them is just one more capitulation of the church to the voices of our modern American context, which has no memory whatsoever. By all means, the Bible should critique our traditions, whether ancient or modern. I would say the problem is that the Bible is NOT being allowed to critique some of our modern church practices. Surely ruling “ecclesiastical tradition” out of isn’t the answer. This leads onto…

Black calls for:

“The catholicity of the true church, rather than sectarianism” – Really? I think I’ll just let this hang there.

I won’t go on, but I can say I was left confused by much of this section, although I’m willing to think on these things and possible have my mind changed. I agree with Black on the major points, but I think I differ greatly on the means of getting there. His call for community and activeness within the church is to be commended, and the last thing I would want is to allow what I think we would disagree on to eclipse the need to hear the overall message of the book.

I’m not naive enough to think that the quality of a book is based on what percentage of the book I agree with, but in any case, I found the VAST majority of the book to be incredibly helpful, clear, and engaging. The little that I want to quibble about has only stirred me to more thinking on the issues, and it would be a great book to read in a group and discuss. The chapters on ecclesiology and politics would  be particularly interesting in this setting. I commend the book to all, and particularly those who like me are in a Southern Baptist context, to really get you thinking about these things that are incredibly important to our life as the Church, and are so often neglected by so many.

David Alan Black has taught New Testament and Greek for over 30 years. Most importantly, he is a brother in Christ. He and his wife live on a 123-acre working farm in Southern Virginia and are self-supporting missionaries to Ethiopia. He also hosts the popular blog, Dave Black Online.

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