The editors of this magnificent anthology begin their preface with this claim: "The Gospel of Jesus Christ, announcing the arrival of the kingdom or reign of God, offered a radical and subversive challenge to the world, its powers and authorities." Over the last two thousand years, Christians have willfully ignored or indifferently forgotten the subversive character of Christianity. The writings collected here are from the pens of those few who have retained the ideal of liberation offered by Christ. They are truly "radical," in that they return to the roots of the Jesus movement to remind the rest of us of its nature.

Authors excerpted in the anthology range from Justin Martyr in the second century to contemporary authors from the developing countries. The pages have small print and wide margins, so there's an entire library of source materials crammed into this single volume. Representative authors include Pelagius, Marguerite Porete, Joachim of Fiore, John Ball, Lollards, Levellers, and Anabaptists, Bunyan, John Woolman, the French worker-priests, Steve Biko, William Stringfellow, Sara Maitland, Kenneth Leech, and Daniel Berrigan. There are many authors here, particularly from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, who are quite likely to be new names for most readers (at least they were for me!), and their writings are utterly fascinating.

All in all, an incredible reminder to all of us that a good part of the Christian lifestyle is bucking the powers and principalities so that justice can roll down like water. Alas! Like all Blackwell books, this one is overpriced. But if you can afford it, Bradstock and Rowland's book is a keeper!

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