The Executed God: The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America

Rating:
Summary: The Cross and Prison Reform
Review: According to Mark Lewis Taylor, the "executed God," the God who suffered not just death but execution, is, "a force of life that is greater than all imperial powers and thus can foment the resistance and hope that all suffering peoples need." Comparing contemporary America to imperial Rome, Lewis, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, argues passionately against a penal system he regards as monstrously punitive, inherently unjust, and deeply racist. Using both statistical evidence and experiences drawn from a quarter century's involvement in prison reform, Taylor describes the American prison system as a "theater of terror" that relies on the institutionalization of prison rape, excessive sentences, and executions to maintain a prison population that has tripled since 1980 to two million.

Proposing a radical Christian response to this scandal as a "theatrics of counterterror," Taylor places the Way of the Cross at its heart. To redress the agony of our prisons, he outlines a solution based in adversarial politics, dramatic action, and the building of people's movements. A God entangled in crucifixion is, in Taylor's scheme, "an antidote to pieties and theologies that would seek their God above the earth and its suffering peoples." The executed God takes believers on a journey into the pain and suffering of a broken world and proffers the power to persist and transform. The Way of the Cross finds God in the marginalized, abandoned, and despised, the people who know life through struggle.

The Executed God is an important book grappling with an important topic. Taylor himself, however, diminishes his book's effectiveness. His tone is shrill and his language polemical, perhaps too polemical for those he seeks to persuade. His arguments, especially in Part Two, often rely on emotive generalities and could be more tightly structured and detailed. References to "gulag America," the "theatrics of terror," "big house nation," "lockdown America," and the like seem pugnacious rather than passionate after reading them a few times. And his use of the plight of Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted Philadelphia police killer and cause celebre, as the centerpiece of an argument against injustice in America is bound to be controversial and alienate otherwise sympathetic readers.

Rating:
Summary: An important and unique voice to be heard
Review: Mark Taylor explores the responsibility of Christians to follow Jesus Christ's entire "way of the cross" by engaging in dramatic actions and movements to counter the oppressive, biased imperial systems in our world. This book challenged me to think differently about my faith, and to be willing to truly engage it publicly. The book is readable and thought-provoking; I would suggest it to any who seek a more just world.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: The Executed God covers an important and controversial issue, but it did not rise to the task. I expected to be challenged by the author's approach, yet his methodology left me feeling ill used. Taylor's tone and presentation hindered his message. I found many of his arguments superficial for such a weighty subject. His use of Mumia Abu-Jamal echoed the cries of too many Hollywood elite. They know little of the facts of the case as available to criminal justice professionals, and they trust what Abu-Jamal says despite evidence and conflicts in his statements. Facts don't matter, only emotional responses. I expected more from a theologian and academic from Princeton. Instead, I felt as if I was reading propaganda. References to "gulag America," the "theatrics of terror," "big house nation," "lockdown America," and the like further confirmed this. I am well aware there are many injustices in our (and any) political system, and I am open to the possibile abolition of the death penalty. Yet, his use of these terms and method of argument make me suspect the merit and academic value of his work. I wanted a thoughtful, challenging examination of the issue. Instead, I got annoid.