For the Nation

"A bravura performance by a promising young scholar, For the Nation challenges my own and other work in Christian ethics for not taking seriously Israel's land when speaking of God's kingdom as proclaimed by Israel's Messiah, Jesus. The work moves on from there to consider the ethical issues raised by territoriality in human existence. Strongly recommended." 

--David P. Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics, Director, Center for Theology & Public Life, Mercer University; Vice President, American Academy of Religion; Columnist, Religion News Service; President-Elect, Society of Christian Ethics



"Nicholas Brown here offers a powerful challenge to the reigning scholarly consensus regarding the territorial implications of Jesus' message of the kingdom. Skillfully integrating the disciplines of historical Jesus scholarship and Christian theological and ethical reflection, Brown presents a compelling vision of Jesus as a figure committed to Israel's territorial restoration but just as concerned about the ethical conditions and consequences of Israel's restored national life."

--Mark S. Kinzer, President Emeritus, Messianic Jewish Theological Institute



"We are a long way from recovering the landed nature of Jesus' life and work as the Christ. In For the Nation, Nick Brown points us in the right direction. He exposes how influential Christian interpretation of the Gospels has been dismissive of land and place, and he offers a welcome plea for Christians to scrutinize our ethics of land by attending to Jesus' commitment to the land of Israel."

--Tommy Givens, author of We the People: Israel and the Catholicity of Jesus



"With an impressive command of New Testament scholarship regarding the historical Jesus, ethicist Nicholas Brown works to dismantle Christian anti-materialism to show that Jesus' preaching of the kingdom was deeply concerned with the theological and territorial significance of Israel. This book will be the basis for a whole new theo-political discourse about structural supersessionism and the moral legitimacy of states and state-building."

--Love L. Sechrest, Ph.D., Associate Professor of New Testament, Co-chair, SBL African American Biblical Hermeneutics Section, Fuller Theological Seminary