Brief Review: JESUS NATION by Joe Stowell [Vol. 2, #43]
A Brief Review of
Jesus Nation:
Belonging to and Becoming Part of the Greatest Nation Ever.
Joe Stowell.
Hardback: Tyndale, 2009.
Buy now: [ ChristianBook.com ]
Reviewed by Chris Smith.
Joe Stowell’s Jesus Nation: Belonging to and Becoming Part of the Greatest Nation Ever was one of the most perplexing books that I have read in recent memory. I picked up this book because of the title, eager to see what it might say about the Church as a “holy nation.” There were two things that were particularly perplexing about Jesus Nation:
1) There was little or no sense of the Church as a community
(Am I wrong in thinking that there should be some sort of social dimension to the Kingdom of God?)
2) There was little or no sense of questions about allegiance, especially about how the “Jesus Nation” relates to other nations of the world.
Stowell does well to emphasize the importance of Jesus to our identity:
“We are first and foremost followers of Jesus – followers who let Jesus make something significant of our lives, who live for far better things that transcend our own self-interests and use our careers to magnify Jesus” (93).
However, as the language of this quote implies, he does so in such an individualistic manner that seems to reflect the broader American culture rather than to be set apart (i.e., holy) from it. Jesus Nation does make some steps in the right direction, emphasizing the place of Jesus and recognizing that the New Testament language of the “Kingdom of God” should be taken seriously, but ultimately it is disappointing in not going far enough, using the language of nationality without any serious consideration of being the people of God together and with little or no sense of the holiness (set-apart-ness) in our call to be a “holy nation.”
