
How to Have an Enemy
Righteous Anger and the Work of Peace
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Narrated by:
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Melissa Florer-Bixler
About this listen
Does Jesus’ call to love our enemies mean that we should remain silent in the face of injustice? Jesus called us to love our enemies. But to befriend an enemy, we first have to acknowledge their existence, understand who they are, and recognize the ways they are acting in opposition to God’s good news. In How to Have an Enemy: Righteous Anger and the Work of Peace, Melissa Florer-Bixler looks closely at what the Bible says about enemies—who they are, what they do, and how Jesus and his followers responded to them. The result is a theology that allows us to name our enemies as a form of truth-telling about ourselves, our communities, and the histories in which our lives are embedded. Only then can we grapple with the power of the acts of destruction carried out by our enemies, and invite them to lay down their enmity, opening a path for healing, reconciliation, and unity.
Jesus named and confronted his enemies as an essential part to loving them. In this provocative book, Florer-Bixler calls us to do the same.
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What listeners say about How to Have an Enemy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Stephen P. Colon
- 07-27-21
Simultaneously timely and timeless
Both this book and this reading of it are absolute gifts. Florer-Bixler offers an insightful story of how we got to a “gospel” that ignores the most powerful parts of Jesus’ teachings, and an instruction manual for moving from passive acceptance of injustice to peaceMAKING. The book is both timeless in its applicability to all eras of Christian history and future, and timely in that righteous anger & peacemaking are calls the church so deeply needs to answer right now. Her reading adds tonal nuance to the text, and helped me get immersed in the book (I like to read and listen at the same time). Incredibly grateful for Florer-Bixler’s work; I highly recommended.
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