Mark Van Steenwyk

Whatever we say about the Kingdom of God it is not like any other kingdom we've seen. To say Jesus is Lord is to declare Caesar is not and to sound the death knells on empires everywhere. In The Unkingdom of God: Embracing the Subversive Power of Repentance author Mark Van Steenwyk examines how the gospel is about far more than personal transformation. It exposes the lies of consumerism, the dehumanizing effects of the powers on communal life, and the myraid ways that 'empire' or 'Christendom' poison the well. The good news is that real freedom from powers and structures is possible According to Van Steenwyk, Christ's kingdom is an unkingdom where Jesus is unking (96). In Christ it is possible to live with a group of people (church) without being ruled.

If you haven't guessed from the above description, Van Steenwyk is a part of two maligned and poorly understood groups: he is a Mennonite and an anarchist. As a Mennonite and therefore stands within a tradition which strives to be a faithful witness to Christ while looking suspiciously at the Constantinian drift in the wider culture. He is also an anarchist challenging the dehumanizing structures and powers at in our society. These converge in his vocation as pastor of the Mennonite Worker in Minneapolis, his work as an editor for Jesusradicals.com and as host of the Iconoclast podcast. The themes of this book were also addressed in an earlier book, The Holy Anarchist, though this volume is better executed and crafted.

Van Steenwyk has some challenging stuff to say and he says it well, but the thing that makes this book a compelling read is how he weaves his theological and sociological reflections together with his personal narrative. He tells of his early camp conversion and the radical streak he had which was effectively exorcised by the charismatic church he grew up in.. As a young teen he was a patriotic, cowboy hat wearing Garth Brook's fan brought to tears singing 'I'm proud to be an American." Yet as his faith matured, Van Steenwyk began to question the evangelism-as-conquest approach of his Evangelical upbringing, and the highly individualistic gospel he had proclaimed. This set him on a journey to a more communal and political witness (or apolitical, though not in the apathetic, disengaged sense).

Van Steenwyk is astute at naming the insidious nature of structures and powers, controlling-myths that blind us, the false promises of consumerism, and the ways that religion, even Christianity, can be a enslaving power, rather than a wellspring of freedom in Christ. In the latter part of the book he invites us into practices which help us enter more fully into the Unkingdom of God: He invites us to encounter the feral God through experimenting with God, embracing our creaturleliness,and practicing silence (121-6); he summoned us to walk with Christ with a localized imagination, paying attention to what is in front of us, and learning from the margins (133-8). He calls us to discern the subversive spirit through open worship and consensus decision-making, the practice of naming powers and resisting, and 'arguing with Jesus' through engaging both scripture and what is rising in us in opposition as we read (145-9).

It is a testament to how good a book is, when upon finishing it, I have no desire to place it on the shelf--marked off as done and collecting dust. I've thumbed back through the pages several times already, re-reading passages I had underlined. There is so much here that causes me to examine again the way racism, unjustice to Native-Americans, the marginalization of children, the bankruptcy of political discourse on the right and left are the effects of empire and institutionalized structures. I also love how vulnerably Van Steenwyk tells his own story. Sometimes anarchists/anabaptists are dismissed as idealists who don't live in the real world. Van Steenwyk shares the ways he has struggled to move from patterns that are selfish and accommodating to the dominant culture to a lifestyle that is more communal, more radical and ultimately more faithful to the gospel.

I need books like this. There are a lot of ways where I would be out of step with Van Steenwyk. I am challenged by and enlivened by the writings of Anabaptists and Christian anarachy. The former because it is part of my heritage, the latter because I have been a part of churches with an unhealthy authority structure, and in my own role as pastor have sought to lead in ways that were non-manipulative. Still I sit somewhat outside of both camps. Van Steenwyk call is to a faithfulness to the gospel and resistance to the powers. I can get behind both objections even if I demur from his conclusions at various points (i.e. consensus leadership, his handling of Romans 13, etc). I still happily give this book 5 stars and recommend it for anyone who would like an accessible and thoughtful take on the life of radical discipleship. ★★★★★

Thank you to SpeakEasy for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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A Retelling of the Legend of St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio

(Full disclosure: I received a free electronic ARC for review through NetGalley.)

According to legend, the wolf of Gubbio was a lone wolf who terrorized the Umbrian city of Gubbio in 1220. The wolf began by attacking and eating livestock; over time the hostilities escalated, to the point that the wolf was feasting on humans as well, both hunters and innocent civilians alike. The wolf seemed invincible, or close to it, and he so frightened the people of Gubbio that they refused to leave the relative safety of their walls. When St. Francis arrived, the city was effectively under siege.

An Italian Catholic preacher, Saint Francis of Assisi is widely known today as the patron saint of animals and the environment. In this vein, St. Francis is said to have brokered a peace accord between the wolf and the people of Gubbio: if they agreed to feed the wolf, he would stop attacking the city. The oath was widely accepted - even considered a miracle by many - and, upon the wolf's death, he was granted an honorable burial within the city limits. This site later became home to the Church of Saint Francis of the Peace. During renovations in 1872, the skeleton of a wolf was reportedly uncovered under a slab near the church wall.

A Wolf at the Gate is a retelling of this legend from the wolf's point of view. Born into royalty, the red wolf (so named for the unusual color of her fur) assumes leadership of her pack upon the death of her parents. Taught to fear and avoid humans at all costs - "They are violent and greedy. They aren’t like any of the other beasts in the forest; they want to own it all." - the wolf stubbornly ignores her pack's insistence that they should leave their forest home in search of new lands, lands not yet spoiled by humans. The wolf's leadership is challenged and she loses. Left alone in the forest, her rage and thirst for vengeance grow.

As in the legend, she begins raiding the city of Stonebriar; her cunning and bloodthirst earns her the nickname Blood Wolf. When The Beggar King, traveling through, learns of the city's troubles, he seeks out the wolf in order to make peace between the warring parties. In exchange for a full belly, the wolf - now renamed Sister Wolf - agrees to stop the illicit killings. As she wanders amongst the humans, however, Sister Wolf despairs over the inequities that exist in her new, human pack: poverty, homelessness, and the like.

Aimed at children (the ebook is just a short 53 pages), A Wolf at the Gate is an entertaining bedtime read that also introduces kids to issues of social justice. Sister Wolf raises some important questions, but doesn't stop there; buoyed by kindness and compassion for her former tormentors, she also takes bold action to effect change.

From a vegan perspective, however, the unfairness of the bargain struck between Sister Wolf and the people of Stonebriar really cut at my heart. Sister Wolf is expected to forgive all humans, everywhere, for waging war on her people; and yet, the Stonebriar-ians are only asked to show compassion for a single wolf - the last one remaining in the surrounding forest, after they killed and dislocated all the rest.

While it's not entirely correct to say that Van Steenwyk doesn't address the issues of habitat loss and mass wolf extermination - something that's still happening today, nearly a thousand years later - they're all but abandoned in light of the peace accord. The humans are never asked to repent or even apologize for killing Sister Wolf's cousins, even as she personally apologizes to each and every farmed animal in Stonebriar. Additionally, Sister Wolf was transformed from a free-living and self-sufficient animal into a beggar, dependent on the goodwill of others; her human benefactors, meanwhile, were not required to change their destructive ways at all. Possibly the former cuts to St. Francis's veneration of poverty; but the latter certainly says nothing of humankind's stewardship of the earth.

I suppose the essence of my complaint is this: the story purports to be from the wolf's perspective; and, though it does start out this way, Sister Wolf's concerns are quickly overshadowed by those of the humans. Simply including a scene in which Sister Wolf raises this inequity with The Beggar King would have gone a long way towards restoring balance. That said, vegan-minded parents can use this as a jumping-off point for discussing these issues with their children.

Usually I don't say this of illustrated children's books, but seeing as A Wolf at the Gate is text-heavy, it's easily readable on a Kindle. The illustrations by Joel J. Hedstrom are lovely (even in gray scale), though you may want to view the book on a full-color device to get the full effect.

www.easyvegan.info/2015/04/29/a-wolf-at-the-gate-by-mark-a-van-steenwyk/… (more)

This book is wonderful tale concerning a Red Wolf and her meeting with St Francis of Assisi. It was very entertaining and I enjoyed it a lot. We first meet the Red Wolf as a pup who is raised by her loving parents teaching her how to be a good wolf. Her parents tell her to avoid the humans who live in a village near the woods, but with the humans living so near and the fact that they take food from the wolf pack, this causes conflict in the pack once the Red Wolf becomes pack leader.

As the story goes on, the red wolf becomes a most feared predator who steals livestock from the villagers. However, the Beggar King makes an appearance and changes the red wolf's life. As I mentioned earlier, this book is a wonderful book mainly written for children but I loved it! The book has a lot of life lessons in and is wonderfully touching. I would recommend this book to everybody.

I received a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.… (more)