Post–Rapture Radio: Lost Writings from the Failed Revolution at the End of the Last Century - Hardcover

Rathbun, Russell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0787973939 ISBN 13: 9780787973933

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 2005

Synopsis

In Post–Rapture Radio, our faithful narrator finds a mysterious box containing the sermons and journal entries of a genuine, unvarnished American character the Reverend Richard Lamblove. The little–known Lamblove tried and failed to revolutionize contemporary Christian culture. As his journal entries, cereal box scribblings, and random notes written on paper scraps reveal, Lamblove sees contemporary culture as shallow, overly individualistic, and consumed with the kind of status measured by money, power, and celebrity. And American Evangelicalism which has been integrated into the culture as a whole has similar failings. Reverend Lamblove vanished without a trace, but Russell Rathbun has compiled his papers into a compelling critique of contemporary faith an antidote to faith–as–usual and a wakeup call for Christians to genuinely respond to the gospel.

About this title

About the Author

Russell Rathbun is one of the preachers at House of Mercy Church. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with his wife, two children, and their dog, KoKo.

From the Back Cover

"Hilarious, passionate, infuriating, revealing, alarming, perplexing, illuminating. In short, apocalyptic. And definitely required reading for anyone seeking a faithful Christianity in the heart of the American Empire."
Andy Crouch, columnist, Christianity Today

"Once in a while a book reaches out from the page, grabs me by the scruff of the neck, and says something so pithy, so smart, and irreverently funny that I almost bust a gut laughing. That′s what Post–Rapture Radio did to me on several occasions. The fact is, sometimes satire is the best way for us to see our own foibles, and this book is a wonderful antidote to much that ails the church. It′s A Confederacy of Dunces for Christians."
Tony Jones, author, The Sacred Way

"Funny and thought–provoking. It challenges the way one thinks about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the church in his name."
Gordon Gano, singer and songwriter, Violent Femmes

Praise For Post–Rapture Radio

"Søren Kierkegaard said that people held in the grip of an illusion cannot be directly reasoned with. One must assault them with appealing but apparently absurd stories and even contradictions in the desperate hope that indirect communication can accomplish what direct communication cannot. Russell Rathbun may be Kierkegaard′s great–grandson or something. If you have no illusions, you don′t need to read this. Otherwise . . ."
Brian McLaren, pastor (crcc.org), author, A New Kind of Christian (anewkindofchristian.com)

"There are times when the tongue–in–cheek can become a light in the mind when ′off the wall′ becomes the plank of reality. Richard Lamblove was a driven crusader in his last–ditch stand against the shallowly fervent. I feel the fury in his futilely scribbling a final battle plan on the remnants of cereal boxes and scraps of cardboard. Alas, were it not for Russell Rathbun, we would not know of these lost writings nor feel the loss of great truth to the forces of evangelical glitz."
Calvin Miller, author, A Hunger for the Holy and Loving God Closeup; professor, Beeson Divinity School

From the Inside Flap

Post–Rapture radio

From Russell Rathbun the man who has been dubbed the "Maureen Dowd of Preaching" by the Minneapolis City Pages comes this boldly engaging fable. In this provocative and laugh–out–loud funny book, Rathbun explores the often uneasy relationship between authentic faith and its cultural trappings, which faith must try to make sense of.

In Post–Rapture Radio, our faithful narrator finds a mysterious box containing the sermons and journal entries of a genuine, unvarnished American character the Reverend Richard Lamblove. The little–known Lamblove tried and failed to revolutionize contemporary Christian culture. As his journal entries, cereal box scribblings, and random notes on paper scraps reveal, Lamblove sees contemporary culture as shallow, overly individualistic, and consumed with the kind of status measured by money, power, and celebrity. And American Evangelicalism which has been integrated into the culture as a whole has similar failings.

Reverend Lamblove vanished with–out a trace, but Russell Rathbun has "compiled" his papers into a compelling critique of contemporary faith an antidote to faith–as–usual and a wakeup call for Christians to genuinely respond to the gospel.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0787973939
• ISBN 13: 9780787973933
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208