Rita Nakashima Brock,Rebecca Ann Parker: Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire
____________________________
Author: Rita Nakashima Brock,Rebecca Ann Parker
Number of Pages: 576 pages
Published Date: 05 Aug 2009
Publisher: Beacon Press
Publication Country: Boston, MA, United States
Language: English
ISBN: 9780807067543
Download Link: Click Here
____________________________
One of "Publishers Weekly's" Best Books of 2008 During their first millennium, Christians filled their sanctuaries with images of Christ as a living presence-as a shepherd, teacher, healer, or an enthroned god. He is serene and surrounded by lush scenes, depictions of this world as paradise. Yet once he appeared as crucified, dying was virtually all Jesus seemed able to do, and paradise disappeared from the earth. "Saving Paradise" turns a fascinating new lens on Christianity, from its first centuries to the present day, asking how its early vision of beauty evolved into a vision of torture, and what changes in society and theology marked that evolution. It also retrieves, for today, a life-affirming Christianity that the world sorely needs.