VALLEY FORD, Calif., July 21, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- "True liberation is to know that we can make up new words, new societies, new governments, new institutions, new human beings and new relationships that transcend the anxieties and fears that lash us to the old domination system," says Peter Lawson. True to form as a politically radical man of faith, he authors Jesus Circles, the earthshaking new book that shows how we can extinguish the fire of domination systems and realize a healing, nonviolent way to justice and social abundance.
In the book, Lawson proposes a way of being together with other seekers, which has great potential for transformation because it incarnates a new social structure called the Circle. He unfolds the prevalence of the domination system in both the first and twenty-first centuries, and looks at the Way of the Itinerant Visionary Sage, Jesus, and its social impact on his own people. He suggests how we might convert his work and teachings into a Way in the twenty-first century that can help us to become new human beings -- healed, liberated, committed to distributive justice, and rejoicing in the potential of abundance of life for all.
In order to fulfill the vision, Lawson explains in Jesus Circles that we will need to sever ourselves from all the notions, assumptions, ideas, symbols, and rituals that sustain our dominating culture. We need to shrive ourselves of the givens of our culture embedded in our minds by our socialization. To be a student and follower of Jesus today will compel us systematically and nonviolently to undermine the accepted structures, codes, and the religious validations of our culture and heal its victims.
About the Author
After graduating from Brown University, Peter Lawson was off to Yale Divinity School and to the Episcopal Church. He was ordained priest in 1955 and thereby intensified what some of his best friends teasingly and rightly call his love-hate relationship with the church. Peter was captivated by Jesus when he was a young child and the love he felt from Him was mediated and validated by his parents and grandparents. He has been impaled on Jesus ever since.
Jesus Circles * Peter R. Lawson Publication Date: 7/13/2004 Trade Paperback; $20.99; 154 pages; 1-4134-4084-3 * Cloth Hardback; $30.99; 154 pages; 1-4134-4085-1
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