Title:  The World is Crucifixion: Radical Christian Preaching, Year C Author:  Christopher D. Rodkey Series:  Intersections: Theology and the Church Imprint:  NoesisPress/The Davies Group, Publishers soft cover 218 pp. USD 24.00 ISBN 978-1934542545 2016 “There could be no more offensive faith to this world, or its Christian expressions, than an authentic and radical proclamation of the death of God, of radical theology.” “Radical preaching is an act of reversing the reversals, of exposing and illuminating the reversals which need to be reversed by telling stories, reciting songs and poetry, interpreting sacred texts which aid and inspire the reversal of reversals. This act of reversing reversals is not always consistent, not always intellectually clean, not always politically correct, and is never socially polite. Preaching calls forth and enacts these reversals, and hopes to inspire others to similarly de-center, sublimate, kenote, Spin, reverse.” “Why bother with Christianity? Imagine what this world would be like if we Christians who love to sing ‘Amazing Grace’ began to practice amazing grace. What would this world become if Christians practiced Christianity?” With a foreword by Katharine Sarah Moody and an afterword by Carl Raschke, The World is Crucifixion is a collection of sermons, written and preached from an American radical theology perspective, that demonstrate preaching post-Christendom.  The sermons follow the liturgical and lectionary year C, so clergy may use the book for their own preaching and easily reference it in their professional work.  Laity will also find the sermons a challenging alternative to read and live through the liturgical cycle. Contents Foreword by Katharine Sarah Moody Introduction: Preaching Christ Crucified: Not Evading Nietzsche The Seasons of Advent and Epiphany Is There a God after 9/11?  (Advent 1) The Joy of Circumcision (Advent 2) John the Baptist’s Dirty Joke (Advent 3) What to Expect When You’re Expecting (Advent 4) Palm Sunday in December (The Nativity & Christmas Eve) Come, Lord Jesus (Feast Day of St. John) Crib Notes from Bethlehem (Holy Name of Jesus) Coyote Gospel (Baptism of the Lord) When Atheists Come for Pizza (Epiphany 5) The Seasons of Lent and Eastertide Why I Should Be Pope (Lent 1) Smelling Like Pig Slop and Loose Women (Lent 4) The Resurrectionist (Lent 5) How We Kill God (Lent 5, RCL) The World is Crucifixion (Lent 6) Some Gods Must Die (Easter Vigil) Believe in the Insurrection! (Easter) Open Hearts, Open Minds, Rigor Mortis (Easter 6) Pentecost and the Season after Pentecost A History of Missing the Big Point: Is 160 Years Enough? (Pentecost) Blessed Necromancy (Proper 5) The Courage to Blaspheme  (Proper 10) Boldly Prepared for 1950?  (Proper 15) Why You Should Work on the Sabbath (Proper 16) Huge Rummage Sale! (Proper 18) Lessons from the Grocery Store (Proper 20) You Can Take It with You!  (Proper 21) Judas Priest!  (Reign of Christ) How Christian is Thanksgiving?  (Thanksgiving Day) Afterword by Carl Raschke About the Authors Notes “Over a half century ago, the gospel of the Death of God was announced.  While it has been developed and argued in philosophical and theological circles, never before has it been preached as the centerpiece of a new ecclesiology. That is, until now. And we have Chris Rodkey to thank for making its good news known.  This collection of sermons accomplishes a series of radical reversals, not the least of which is showing the practical and contemporary spiritual relevance of what had heretofore been hidden in academic jargon.” — Jeffrey W. Robbins Lebanon Valley College “In The World is Crucifixion, Chris Rodkey shows the deep impact radical theology can have from the pulpit by reversing everything that has become synonymous with the theology of complacent, sleepy mainline Protestantism, that is, what Carl Raschke calls the “Jesus industry” of right-wing American religiosity. Here the gospel of life takes the place of death, the resurrection becomes a lived reality, and the narcissism of self is replaced by a liberating concern for the other.  These sermons will make you wish you had a seat in Rodkey’s church, but more importantly they will invite and inspire you to go out into the world and enact their content.  A terrific resource for anyone who feels called beyond complacency to live out a subversive, prophetically inspired faith!” — Daniel J. Peterson Seattle University “It is too easy for the world of radical theology, all those who follow in the challenges of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, Altizer and Vahanian, to become the work of those who exist, at best, on the margins of the church. Yet radical theology, if it is to be theology, must also be able to be preached, and preached in manner that can faithfully radicalize the pews. Chris Rodkey's magnificent sermons are a most timely and faithful reminder that the Good News of the Death of God must be preached. This is the gospel of the resurrection as the gospel of insurrection: good news that challenges all of us who can too easily become complacent and self-assured, whether church or post-church, clergy or academic. In this most prophetical series of sermons, the liturgical year is recovered as a way to think and live the death of God. They confirm Rodkey as a Protestant preacher and theologian in the best tradition of the radical reformers, whereby the reformation of ourselves is central to any reformation of church and society. For these are sermons of radical protest, a protest and reminder that radical Christianity and its theology must be lived as the scandal of Good News.” — Michael Grimshaw University of Canterbury, New Zealand Author Christopher D. Rodkey is Pastor of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Dallastown, PA, and teaches at Penn State York and York College of Pennsylvania.  He is a graduate of the University of Chicago (M.Div.) and Drew University (Ph.D.).  His other books include The Synaptic Gospel and Too Good to be True; and he is Series Editor for Intersections, a new series published by Noesis Press, an imprint of The Davies Group, Publishers.