Wrestling Until the Dawn: The Fight for Biblical Justice in a Postmodern World,
by John R. Preston  (Spiritbook Press, 2006, $19.95).

a review by Gene TeSelle   [4-17-06]

The author began as an engineer, went through Yale Divinity School, served several parish ministries, and then went into family therapy. He continues to be involved in a rural ministry in upstate New York.

The image of Jacob wrestling with the strange figure (an angel? God? or Esau, as some have suggested?) has fascinated us all. Preston resonates with it as an image of the struggles of faith in our own time, and specifically the struggle over Christians' all too frequent collusion with oppression and suffering in human life.

The opening section surveys the many issues of our time; Preston sums them up in this way (245):

1. The continued gap between very wealthy and very impoverished nations that signifies economic injustice.

2. The continued strain upon Mother Earth as the world-wide economic system continues to chew up more natural resources and spit out more pollution.

3. The use of violence to redress injustice, when what this offers is only an escalation of violence and warfare.

Even beyond the damage that is being done, there is another problem: we ourselves can all too easily become "collaborators" with this system of domination and suffering. American individualism, and its corollary, the freedom to be a consumer, seem pervasive. People are so caught up in the culture that they are not really free not to be consumers, employees, or employers. To be spiritually free, Preston suggests, is to be liberated from this ordinary freedom of choice and to be free for gratitude and sacred collaboration (33).

Most congregations are not of much help. When they voice their concerns, they are usually restricted to the health of members of the congregation, not reaching out to wider and more public issues. Most ministers, if the truth be told, function as "chaplains" serving a select flock, concentrating on priestly and pastoral roles (42). In the U.S. today, the tradition of prophetic concern for the common good has been lost; the cross is wrapped in the flag; and "traditional religion" becomes a major support for "civil religion," probably for the reason that "civil religion is the least doctrinal, the most emotional, and the most widespread" (193).

Seeking a better approach, Preston looks at Jesus and the early "Jesus movement," set in the context of the earlier history of Israel and especially its key moments of exodus and return from exile. Non-specialists are likely to find in these chapters a helpful summary of recent scholarship. Authors often cited include Robert W. Funk, John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, and Bernard Brandon Scott.

The chief result is a fresh emphasis on Jesus' proclamation of the Reign of God — perhaps better called, to suggest the contrast with what was so apparent in the world of the time, the Empire of God. While the Hebrew Bible often spoke of God as Ruler, it did not often use the language of Reign or Empire. There is, then, a new emphasis on this shared "realm" or "commonwealth." This reign or realm is a present and everyday reality that comes not with "observation," not with exercise of power, not even with theocracy administered by priests and rabbis, but with a Spirit-based "subversive resistance to Powers that no longer play a proper role in the ecology of divine justice and love" (157).

This new emphasis leads, quite naturally, to a theological reconstruction, in the course of which there is much mention of Douglas John Hall, Gordon Kaufman, Sallie McFague, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, and Walter Wink. The last two of these are especially concerned to exorcise the spirit of "redemptive violence" that breathes in much of the biblical tradition, portraying God as either commanding or doing violence. There is also a critique of what is called the "rescue system" (193), whose effect is to infantilize believers, telling them to wait for deliverance by God.

What is the alternative? To act non-violently even in the face of the harsh realities of life, a stance that can be called "realized hope" (208), bringing out the hidden yet "graceful" aspects of everyday reality. The shift from "collaborating with the Powers" to "collaborating with the Spirit" begins with resistance, a refusal to join the prevailing idolatries (249). Its emphasis is not on the "triumphant individual" but on "faithful collaboration," guided by the stories, metaphors, and parables of the faith. These are not forgotten, for they sustain a resistance, often an explicit conflict, that often sounds like the struggles evoked so frequently by the apostle Paul.

This book can be purchased via the web site www.lulu.com/Spiritbrookpress, or through Amazon