Jesus and the Reign of God is a powerful and compelling evocation of the vision and reality of God's reign and its possibilities for the "transfiguration of life" in faith. Song's search for a "vision of life in God," inaugurated in his previous volume, Jesus, the Crucified People, takes him from ancient Egypt and China to modern Singapore, from Gethsemane to Tiananmen Square and always pulls him back to the Gospel stories. In its earnest and intense quest for religious integrity in a world no longer dominated or defined by Christianity, Song's theology is a startling rebuke to Christologies centered either in historical-critical searches or church doctrines. For him theology is the biography of God, and Jesus' message of God's reign is evident in the densely packed histories of strangers and outcasts: in an Egyptian Muslim who composed a Christmas carol, in a Korean woman in Japan, in an old musician in a ruined church in China. Engaged by these stories, the reader is pulled ineluctably into the reality they evince. As Song says, the reign of God in Jesus "becomes manifest through movements of people to be free from the shackles of the past, to change the status quo of the present, and to have a role to play in the arrival of the future."
C. S. Song is an internationally influential voice in Christian theology and a pioneer of Asian Christian theology and story theology. He is Professor of Theology at the Pacific School of Religion and immediate past President of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.
Preface Acknowledgments PART I: VISION A Great Banquet The Time Has Come! Jesus Proclaims God's Reign The Reign of God Is Yours The Banquet of God's Reign Gentiles in God's Reign New Heaven and New Earth Not a Homogeneous God People's Creed A Color-blind God Interdependence of Peoples Theo-logical Forces in History Epiphanies of God in the Oikumene New Heaven and New Earth PART II: REALITY The Plight of People End to Theological Innocence Frightening Reality Large Hearts in a Meager Life Culture of God's Reign Culture of Empowerment Poor and Humiliated Passive and Subservient Fear and Anxiety Unmasking Hypocrisy Culture of Empowerment PART III: WITNESS The Reign of God in Action (1) Conflict Situations Jesus the Witness of God's Reign The Hour When Darkness Reigns The Reign of God in Action (2) Many Gave False Testimony against Him Justice and Law The Grand Inquisitor The Question of Kingship From Trial Court to Witness Court PART IV: TRANSFIGURATION The Reign of the Magnificat Not the Mary in the Holy Pictures Song of God's Reign Hymn of Joy and Freedom Change of Power Relations Transfiguration of Life Metamorphosis of Human Conditions Forgiveness of Sins Exorcism of Evil Powers Transfiguration as Liberation Life in All Fullness Biblical Index General Index
