Beacon Press: Saving Paradise
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Saving Paradise

How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire

Authors: Rita Nakashima Brock, Rebecca Ann Parker

A book that restores the idea of Paradise to its rightful place at the center of Christian thought
When Rita Brock and Rebecca Parker began traveling the Mediterranean world in search of art depicting the dead, crucified Jesus, they discovered something that traditional histories of Christianity and Christian art had underplayed or sought to explain away: it took Jesus Christ a thousand years to die.

During their first millennium, Christians filled their sanctuaries with images of Christ as a living presence in a vibrant world. He appears as a shepherd, a teacher, a healer, an enthroned god; he is an infant, a youth, and a bearded elder. But he is never dead. When he appears with the cross, he stands in front of it, serene, resurrected. The world around him is ablaze with beauty. These are images of paradise-paradise in this world, permeated and blessed by the presence of God.

But once Jesus perished, dying was virtually all he seemed able to do.

Saving Paradise offers a fascinating new lens on the history of Christianity, from its first centuries to the present day, and asks how its early vision of beauty evolved into one of torture. In tracing the changes in society and theology that marked the medieval emergence of images of Christ crucified, Saving Paradise exposes the imperial strategies embedded in theologies of redemptive violence and sheds new light on Christianity's turn to holy war. It reveals how the New World, established through Christian conquest and colonization, is haunted by the loss of a spiritual understanding of paradise here and now.

Brock and Parker reconstruct the idea that salvation is paradise in this world and in this life, and they offer a bold new theology for saving paradise. They ground justice and peace for humanity in love for the earth and open a new future for Christianity through a theology of redemptive beauty.
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"Only rarely is a single book an event. This book is such a rarity. Rita Brock and Rebecca Parker show that solid scholarship can be expressed with passion and literary grace as they recover the beauty of an earth-loving Christianity lost for a thousand years beneath dry creeds and formulae and poisonous myths of sacralized violence."
—Daniel C. Maguire, author of A Moral Creed for All Christians

"Every Christian theologian and preacher should read this book and be profoundly challenged."
—James H. Cone, author of Malcolm & Martin & America

"Saving Paradise challenges us to recover an ancient world view that is life transforming and earth affirming. It reminds us of a biblical perspective that does not reserve paradise for the dead but invites the living to find grace, justice, peace and compassion-here and now-amid the jangling discord of violence and war. It may mark the beginning of a paradigm shift in contemporary Christian understanding and interfaith dialogue."
—Reverend James A. Forbes, Jr., president and founder of the Healing of the Nations Foundation, senior minister emeritus of the Riverside Church of New York City

"How did Christianity become a religion of finitude and guilt rather than one of promise and celebration? Brock and Parker ran with the evidence, showing us the importance of art, ritual, devotional practices, and liturgical space for early Christians. This tangible past transformed their research and led them to see that paradise in this world lies at the heart of Christianity."
—Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, author of Dictionary of Christian Art

"This powerful, unprecedented, and compelling book brings real Christianity out of the shadows. It lights up the religious roots of American society at a time when progressives need to challenge conservative politicians who use Christianity as a false prop for their ideology."
—George Lakoff, author of Don't Think of an Elephant!

Reviews

Review: National Catholic Reporter - January 9, 2009
"Saving Paradise offers eye-opening explorations of the mixture of spiritual vision and myopia that marked many of the great figures of Western Christianity. Its rich text and the additional material in its notes should spur readers to examine both the darkness and the light that can be found in all of us."
Review: First Congregational United Church of Christ Blog - November 17, 2008
"Saving Paradise is an important book as we in the church begin to look at the ways that we can become transformative in our time."
Review: Christian Church: Church History Blog - November 11, 2008
"Saving Paradise offers a fascinating new lens on the history of Christianity, from its first centuries to the present day, and asks how its early vision of beauty evolved into one of torture."
Review: Vancouver Sun - September 6, 2008
"The pithy opening paragraph of Saving Paradise sets up its startling premise: 'It took Jesus a thousand years to die. Images of his corpse did not appear in churches until the tenth century.' . . . Parker and Brock reveal the early Christian community did not so much draw inspiration from suffering and the next world, but from earthly life and a vision of paradise."
Review: Godspace Blog - August 26, 2008
"I would highly recommend this book to all those who are searching for a life affirming image of the future of God and who desire to follow a Christ who defeated death and transfigured the world with the Spirit of life."
Review: Fire Dog Lake - August 24, 2008
"As detailed in a remarkable new book from theologians and historians Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker, Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire."
Review: Publisher's Weekly - May 26, 2008
". . .strong analyses reveal a powerful 'genealogy of paradise'. . .This humane and often beautiful study of faith, loss, and hope straddles the boundary between historical discovery and spiritual writing." Starred Review
Read the Table of Contents

Read the Prologue

For more information and a gallery of images, visit www.savingparadise.net

  • Read an Op-Ed in the Boston Globe by Rita which mentions Saving Paradise


  • Saving Paradise was named of the 2 best books of 2008 by beliefnet's Progressive Revival blog

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Saving Paradise

ISBN: 978-080706750-5
 Publication Date: 7/1/2008
 Pages: 576
 Size:6 x 9 Inches (US)
Price:  $34.95
Format: Cloth
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