The Crucified God by Jurgen Moltmann
Moltmann was a well-known theologian from the 20th century. His life story shaped his professional trajectory as an academic focused on reconciliation and hope. Moltmann was drafted into World War II to fight for the Germans and fell into deep depression and disillusionment when he was captured. An Anglican priest gave him a bible in the POW camp and he soon discovered the life-changing message of Christ. After the war, he devoted his life to proclaiming this good news.
The Crucified God has one major idea: If we want to know what God looks like, we have to look at Jesus on the cross. God is not domineering or violent. Neither is God distant nor detached from worldly suffering. Instead, God’s true character is revealed by Christ as he died for humanity. Jesus on the cross was essentially God revealing to us that God loves us and wants to meet us exactly where we are.
I enjoy reading, but every once in a while I’ll come across a book that truly touches my heart. The Crucified God was one of those few ones that really summarized how I believe God to be. God loves this world so much he was willing to die for each one of us. With this understanding, the cruelty of the crucifixion transforms into something so hopeful and redemptive.
Kill All Normies by Angela Nagle
There are some truly dark things on the internet. If you’ve ever wondered why people post cruel and depraved content (dealing with rape, child molestation, genocide, and other threats of violence), then this book might provide some sort of explanation.
Angela Nagle reports on tech issues, particularly social media and its impact on our world today. Kill All Normies explores the darker side of the internet, and how so much content nowadays is pure hatred, racism, and other unsavory things. The rise of hate-content on the internet has to do with a couple of different factors. First and foremost, being anonymous allows people to hide behind a keyboard, screen, or fake profile. Additionally, there is a unique phenomenon known as trolling, where people intentionally try to provoke a negative reaction from others. This of course leads to all sorts of dark things one might find on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and 4Chan. People joke about child abuse, murdering African Americans, or assaulting women.
Kill All Normies didn’t have much to do with theology or religion, and was a sobering read, but I enjoyed it just because of how insightful was on our current media landscape. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are often incredibly divisive and toxic. For these reasons, it is important for us to be aware of our surroundings, and more importantly, as Christians we must be like Jesus in what we post and share with our online community.
Concord United Methodist Church 