March 2010
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Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire
By Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker
Beacon Press: Boston   $26.00  Trade Paperback

Saving Paradise restores the idea of Paradise to its rightful place at the center of Christian thought. Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker offer a fascinating new lens on the history of Christianity, from its first centuries to the present day, asking how its early vision of beauty evolved into a vision of torture, and what changes in society and theology marked that evolution. The authors suggest, firstly, that paying attention to early Christian art has the benefit of not only going beyond the confines of the literate or literary elites and tapping into the world of the (illiterate) masses but also acknowledging and experiencing a more holistic faith and life. Second, instead of Jesus' crucifixion, an earthly and this-worldly paradise—namely, one that is here and now—was the dominant image of Christian art in the first millennium of the church's existence. Third, the emphasis on Jesus' victimization and death was in many ways an European invention that not only coincided with the First Crusade of the 11th-century but also turned the crucified Christ into a judge who separates the saved from the damned and paradise into a postmortem reward of violence. This is a provocative book that is making waves in religious studies circles—find out why!

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