Jim Corbett (2) (1933–2001)

Elford and Corbett write with insight, wisdom, elegance, and clarity about the covenant community that enacts the reign of the Peaceable Kingdom on earth, by faithful service; this is the servant church. They note particularly that this community includes people of all faiths and also no faith; it is those who hunger and work for truth, justice, and love. They illuminate the prophetic way of Isaiah, both what it is and how to follow it. The radical nature of this covenant is brought out: show more nonviolence, allegiance only to God and not to any state or social order, turning servitude into service, poverty and sharing, radical equality and universality. Evil must be creatively transformed rather than destroyed in the prophetic faith. They also related this to Jesus' teachings. This is a radical covenant and Way. show less

This is a profound and eloquent discussion of the power and the responsibility of the community of God's people to do justice, to resist state violence, to obey human rights laws when states violate these laws. He expresses the church's prophetic role as a voice for the oppressed and against injustice. While the context lies in the 1980s, in the US sanctuary movement to protect the human rights of Central American refugees from the brutal violence of their governments and the ruthless show more deportations of the US government, the discussion of the faith community's power and responsibility is always current. show less

The authors write as a Catholic priest and a Quaker pagan whose separate paths have converged in a Jewish view of religion. For the prophetic faith, religion is about faithful service that is grounded in a covenant community's allegiance to the Peaceable Kingdom.

A Quaker goat herdsman and a Catholic priest began to see church in unexpected ways while responding to Salvadoran refugees in search of sanctuary.