THE POLITICAL TEACHINGS OF JESUS by Tod Lindberg: HarperCollins, 2007, Pp. 272 (Call Nmber TBD)

Current press attention to candidates for presidential nominations may prompt some voters to ponder which politician is closest to the politics of Jesus. Has the heritage of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, where Tod Lindberg is a research fellow, impacted the author's understanding of Jesus? Although not a theologian, Lindberg dives deeply into the Sermon on the Mount and the parables of Jesus. These passages teach us much about the political Jesus, or the Jesusian teachings of the Gospels, to use a favorite word of the author.

Lindberg believes the political teachings of Jesus are foundational to both sides of the aisle. He believes the words of Jesus have played a role in the "formation of the modern democratic ideal, demonstrating how the basic principles both liberal and conservative thought find common roots in the Christian messiah's words." (Jacket).

"Dead set against politics based on the rule of the strong, or of an elite, or of a mob, Jesus proposed instead a political order organized on the principle of shared recognition of freedom and equality - a community of goodwill. This basic question of how people should organize worldly affairs to settle their disagreements is the 'political question' at issue in the Jesusian teaching - and our subject." (P. x). If we structure our relations with others properly, a gain for me is a gain for you.

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