People of the Way

In first-century Palestine, the countercultural Jesus movement defied the social norms of the Roman Empire by creating alternative communities of shared life and goods in service to the poor. Jesus proclaimed an unconventional society that challenged systems of male domination, social inequality, economic disparity, and violence. This way of life defined Christianity for three hundred years until the emperor Constantine invited the church to help rule an empire, and its countercultural lifestyle was replaced by a dogmatic belief system. In the postmodern secular world of the Global North, the shrinking church has lost its prophetic voice and has proven ineffectual in the face of evil and injustice. This book is a call to return to the countercultural Way of Jesus. It proposes a way forward through the creation of new communities of resistance--small cells of cultural nonconformity that conspire for justice and strive for peace in the world.