Introduction

How might one live the Christian faith within a culture that idealizes and privileges Christianity while also relativizing it and making it redundant? Arguing for a reconceptualization of the theology of the cross and radical communal practices, the author explores some pervasive dangers of America's new Christendom and provocatively imagines alternatives to conventional Christianity—ones whereby the church embodies an alternative politic, where it commits to cruciform non-violence, appreciates gifts by giving them away, and knows its boundaries well enough to learn from those on the other side.