A Nazareth Manifesto: Being with God

At the interface of critical academic reflection and faithful church theology, we have no better voice than that of Sam Wells. He invites us to rethink, from the ground up, our abiding temptation to condescending help and service to others. He compellingly renders a more excellent way toward the transformative with.
WALTER BRUEGGEMANN, Columbia Theological Seminary

This eloquent and ground–breaking book is nothing less than a call to rethink Christian witness and mission, based on a profound re–telling of our relationship with each other and God.

One of the most essential goals of contemporary Christianity is social engagement. In this thought–provoking manifesto, Samuel Wells a respected priest and renowned Christian ethicist takes as a starting point a thoughtful and impassioned proposal for re–envisioning Christianity s approach to social engagement away from working for the people to being with them. Wells argues that we are so focused on doing things for people and often find ourselves wondering why they appear resistant to or ungrateful for our intervention that we have lost sight of the importance of being with people and allowing that coexistence to inform how we learn from each other and grow together. Jesus spent 90 percent of his life simply being among the people of Nazareth, sharing their hopes and struggles and so similar emphasis must be placed on being alongside people in distress and disadvantage rather than hastening to impose solutions. What flows from this is a different way of understanding our relationships with each other and with God.

Supported by a range of historical, contemporary, exegetical, and anecdotal illustrations, A Nazareth Manifesto will prove to be a provocative and valuable contribution to the conversation surrounding Christianity s role in confronting the social challenges of today s world.

Prologue: The Most Important Word 1

Introduction: God Is With Us 7

1 Being With 11

2 A Nazareth Manifesto 20

Part I: Realignment 33

3 Reassessing the Human Predicament 35

4 Reconceiving the Divine Purpose 50

Part II: God is With Us 65

5 The Story of Jesus 67

6 The Stories of Jesus 86

7 Embodying the Story of Jesus 100

Part III: Being With 123

8 God Being With God 125

9 God Being With Us 147

10 Being With One Another in Nazareth 169

11 Being With One Another in Galilee 187

12 Being With One Another in Jerusalem 202

Part IV: Explorations 229

13 Th eological Ramifications 231

14 Social Embodiments 248

Part V: Implications 269

15 The Transcendence of Justice 271

16 The Transfiguration of Suffering 283

Epilogue: Magnificat 298

Acknowledgments 304

Afterword 305

Scriptural Index 311

Subject Index 314

Samuel Wells is the vicar of St. Martin–in–the–Fields and Visiting Professor of Christian ethics at King s College, London. He is a former Dean of Duke University Chapel in North Carolina, USA, and has published more than 20 books, including Living Without Enemies: Being Present in the Midst of Violence (2012), Be Not
Afraid: Facing Fear with Faith (2011), and Introducing Christian Ethics (with Ben Quash, Wiley–Blackwell, 2010).