Dry Bones and Holy Wars: A Call for Social and Spiritual Renewal

by Brandan Robertson

Overview

These reflections by an activist and pastor Rolling Stone recently named to its “Hot List” of artists, creatives, and influencers “giving us reason to be excited about the future”—come at a divisive moment. Robertson uses Christian scripture to call us to wake up and take action for the collective good in the ways of Jesus—challenging and inspiring all to believe that a just world is on the horizon.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626984974
Publisher:	Orbis Books
Publication date:	10/06/2022
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.25(h) x 5.38(d)
Age Range:	17 - 18 Years

About the Author

Brandan Robertson is a millennial author, Christian minister, activist, and public theologian working at the intersections of spirituality, sexuality, and social renewal. He is the author of eight books and has bylines in TIME, San Diego Union Tribune, NBC, and The Washington Post. He’s been interviewed for National Public Radio, The Independent UK, The New York Times, and POLITICO. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Moody Bible Institute, he earned his Master of Theological Studies from Iliff School of Theology, and an MA in Political Science and Public Administration. He lives in Washington, DC.

Read an Excerpt

Preface

When I entered seminary in 2015, it was clear that there were seismic shifts happening in our world, shifts that would inevitably require clergy of all traditions to lean deeper into our calling to be both prophets and healers throughout the coming decades. Polarization was on the rise and existential threats like climate change were becoming more dire. From where I sat as a young, wide-eyed optimist with quite a bit of privilege, I felt like we were making progress as a nation and as a species. But by the time I graduated in 2017, my perspective shifted dramatically.

The US presidential campaigns of 2016–17 began to unearth a startling reality for many citizens—that despite the superficial progress we seemed to have made, much of the deep-seated prejudice, hatred, and apathy toward injustice that we often spoke of as a bygone era had been flourishing just beneath the surface of our nation’s collective consciousness. White supremacy, antisemitism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, nationalism—all of this reared its ugly head not just in the speeches of Donald Trump but in the millions of people who supported him, including a stunning number of Christian religious leaders.


As I contemplated what it meant for me to step into the role of a Christian pastor in this era, I admit that I was quite timid. I knew that wherever I ended up, I would need to draw on my faith tradition to speak hard truths about our collective sins and our need for repentance and transformation. I knew that throughout the Trump presidency, I would be challenged to encourage Christian resistance to the often-backward ethics and xenophobic policies of the Trump administration, which would likely result in a lot of pushback from those who wanted to keep their faith and politics separate. In short, as I accepted my first call, I knew that the first few years of my ministry would be challenging to say the least.

I had no clue just how challenging they would turn out to be. Nearly every month from 2017 to 2020, there was some major tragedy or moment of reckoning. From the murder of George Floyd to a global pandemic to the January 6 insurrection, my role as a pastor began to look more like that of a community organizer. I would spend large portions of my days working with local coalitions to mobilize my congregation to participate in tangible action to demand justice and bring healing to the world. Our Sunday worship services began to seem like organizing meetings, with my sermon being a moment where I would remind the congregation of our moral responsibility as disciples of Jesus and then point to individual and collective actions we could all take to transform the brokenness around us through subversive acts of truth telling and love. My counseling sessions were often focused on helping people process their bewilderment and fear about the state of the world. And I found myself spending a lot of time wrestling with my own perspective and beliefs through writing.

What you are holding is a series of reflections I have written to help myself and fellow Christians process the moment we are living in and how we should respond to it. Each reflection is rooted in the ancient biblical tradition and tied to a pressing modern concern, inviting us to individual and communal introspection about how we have arrived here and how we can move forward as a people. While the events that provoked these reflections are now past, we are still living in the ongoing impact of these realities, and, thus, continued faithful reflection and response is merited.

These words are offered not as answers to our society’s many ills but as provocations to new ways of seeing and being in the world. It is my hope that these words will serve to inspire innovative ways of thinking about how modern disciples of Jesus might embody our faith in the world and ultimately bring you some encouragement and hope that a more just world is not only possible but is well within our reach.

Table of Contents

Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1. Tear Down Those Walls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2. The Subversive Karma of God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3. Let’s Talk about Inner Reformation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4. The Jesus You Never Knew. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

5. Love Kindness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

6. Playing Favorites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

7. The Fourth Man in the Fire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

8. Rhythms of Abundance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

9. The Battle Within. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

10. The End of the World as We Know It. . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

11. The Shame Paradox. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

12. God of the Ordinary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

13. The Call of God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

14. Divided We Fall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

15. Diving into Doubt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

16. Dry Bones. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

17. Holy Wars and Hypocrisy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

18. Truth Doesn’t Need Defending. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

19. A Light in Our Darkness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

About the Author. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Editorial Reviews

Robertson offers readers deft theological reflections on the biggest sources of our current cultural angst—social polarization, political corruption, spiritual abuse, ecological disaster—leveraging the wisdom of the Christian tradition to fuel subversive hope.” —Jonathan Merritt, contributing writer, The Atlantic; author, Learning to Speak God from Scratch

“Brandan Robertson is one of the most astute young Christian writers. His compelling new book, deeply rooted in the Bible, shows how Scripture can inform the most contemporary of questions, and help us lead the most spiritual of lives.”—James Martin, SJ, author, Jesus: A Pilgrimage

“Dry Bones and Holy Wars offers a challenging biblical call for followers of Jesus to embrace the prophetic nature of our tradition and lean into this moment with radical compassion and subversive hope for creating a more just and equal world.” —Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Lewis, senior minister, Middle Church; author, Fierce Love

“As millennials and Gen Z are turning away from the church, Robertson’s message invites them to consider again the wisdom of the Bible stories interpreted with new eyes and heard with new ears and all coming from the same eternal source of love.”—Rev. Rich Tafel, pastor, Church of the Holy City, Washington, DC

“Brandan Robertson has written a forceful and insightful book about the enormous challenges that confront us all—people of faith, and people who have lost faith in faith. Each chapter can be read almost like a daily devotional, but at a level so much deeper than spiritual fast-food. He writes with a pastor's heart and a prophet's courage. Take, read, and then hope against hope.”—Rev. Dr. Robin Meyers, pastor of First Congregational Church, Norman, Oklahoma; Distinguished Professor of Social Justice, Oklahoma City University; author, Saving God from Religion

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