In his famous sermon -Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, - Puritan revivalist Jonathan Edwards shaped predominating American theology with a vision of God as angry, violent, and retributive. Three centuries later, Brian Zahnd was both mesmerized and terrified by Edwards's wrathful God. Haunted by fear that crippled his relationship with God, Zahnd spent years praying for a divine experience of hell.
What Zahnd experienced instead was the Father's love--revealed perfectly through Jesus Christ--for all prodigal sons and daughters.
In Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, Zahnd asks important questions like Is seeing God primarily as wrathful towards sinners true or biblical? Is fearing God a normal, expected behavior? And where might the natural implications of this theological framework lead us?
Thoughtfully wrestling with subjects like Old Testament genocide, the crucifixion of Jesus, eternal punishment in hell, and the final judgment in Revelation, Zanhd maintains that the summit of divine revelation for sinners is not God is wrath, but God is love.
My Review:
We all know the Angry God trope: Humans were literal pieces of trash, and God sent a flood so he could start the whole game over.
In elementary school (before we learned not to discuss religion or politics) we would have a lot of discussions about this. The Korean Christians and the Catholic Christians stood by the idea that "just because God promised never to flood again, doesn't mean he won't burn the planet to the ground if we get out of hand." The Christians Not Otherwise specified tended to debate "Okay, but we got out of hand again and instead of burning the planet God sent Jesus."
Zahnd goes through this book describing his transition from team #BurnThePlanet to team #InfiniteSecondChances (Or, you know, his thesis statement) and the bulk of this book is why he changed teams. The references and well written arguments all lead to his conclusion that Jesus is Life itself embodied by love. (Or if you want to romanticize it, the Lamb of Revelation)
Overall, a well thought out book on God's love and why the Fire and Brimstone trope doesn't necessarily work anymore. Points off for the cover, though. Just doesn't do it for me.
Notice of material connection: I received this book from Waterbrook Multnomah through the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review
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