A Farewell to Mars: An Evangelical Pastor's Journey Toward the Biblical Gospel of Peace by Brian Zahnd
My Goodreads rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is not about giving up Mars the chocolate bar; this is about abandoning the god of War to follow the Prince of Peace. And it is a thrilling ride.
The book was everything that I'd been led to expect by previous enthusiastic reviewers whose opinions I respect deeply. It is a tour-de-force and a great gift to everyone seeking to follow their hunch that Christianity is not a warring religion, despite centuries of warped history which suggest otherwise; in fact in Jesus it offers the distinctive way to live in a peace reliant on nothing other than love. The greatest encouragement for me (in a book in which there are encouragements on every page) was that this project of 'peace reliant on nothing other than love' – otherwise known in Jesus' terms as the Kingdom of God – is for the here and now, it is 'an alternative political vision for humanity'. I'm very grateful to Brian Zahnd for this book, it encourages me to continue to seek to follow the Jesus he celebrates so vividly here.
