Author: Shane Claiborne

ISBN:  0-310-26630-0

The following review was contributed by: Penny Watkins:   CLICK HERE  to read more of Penny's Reviews.

Shane Claiborne’s The Irresistible Revolution is a book about living for Christ.  It’s about being a Christ-follower, not a religious Christian.  It’s about reading the Bible and actually doing what Jesus said to do, which is a pretty radical concept.

Shane Claiborne is a Christian activist who has decided to change the world, by living with the poor and by fighting with them for social justice and peace.  He is one of the founders of the

In The Irresistible Revolution, Claiborne gently says that much of the Christian church in America is dead, dumb, blind and deaf.  He is not preaching hell-fire and brimstone at the church, he is just trying to get it to wake up and be resurrected.  He correctly says that the American church has lost the way of love, and become judgmental, materialistic and irrelevant to today’s world.  Claiborne shows that there is another way to be Christian, and that way is to follow Christ.

Claiborne deals with our addiction to our own comfort and our allegiance to Western culture, which collides with the Kingdom of God.  He says injustice, poverty and war are not born out of the Kingdom of God, and that Christ-followers must fight them.  He says we fight social injustice, poverty and war by loving people as Jesus does.  If we love someone, we cannot stand and watch her be mistreated, we can’t watch our brother go hungry and we can’t wage war on people Jesus loves.  Claiborne says that love is the key to following Christ fully and passionately.

Shane Claiborne reawakened my zeal for social justice and passionate Christianity.  He reminded me of the days when I read Tom Sine’s The Mustard Seed Conspiracy and Tony Campolo’s books.  He reminded me that the world can be changed, one person at a time, and that the Kingdom of God can be closer than we think; it can be right here among us. 

Shane Claiborne calls all of us who claim the name of Christ to join the Irresistible Revolution.  He calls us to join hands, laugh and dance, blow bubbles and sing with joy because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.  He calls us to love the guy next to us and to give whatever we have to make the world a little better.  He calls us to reject American consumerism because, as Ghandi said regarding world economics, “There is enough for everyone’s need but not enough for everyone’s greed.”

Claiborne calls us to a radical life, but not to a life of privation.  We are to sacrifice, yes, but the sacrifice comes from love, and brings joy with it.  Claiborne’s life is a party, a Jubilee, a circus.  And he invites us to join him, and to celebrate the Good News that Jesus has come, and that He has changed the world and continues to change the world.  And He changes us, so that being a radical revolutionary becomes the only possible way to live and love in a world full of pain, war and injustice.