Chapter 8, The Kingdom and Prestige,talks about the main value of society as social status. The society was so structured that everyone had a place on the social ladder. Nothing was every done to change any of it. Basically, whatever was in history, that was the way that things were done. Status and prestige were based upon ancestry, wealth, authority, education and virtue. Status was a much part of religion as it was of social life. People with the higher status were able to say what religion was to be value. (eg. Ponitus Pilot) Jesus came around and contradicted everything that the society valued. He basically said that the kingdom has such distinctions as social status would hold no meaning. A little child would serve as an image of the kingdom because people who have the lowest places in society are the people whom Jesus often called the little one or the least. They essentially make up the kingdom of God. Jesus' love for the poor and the oppressed was not an exclusive love; it was an indication of the fact that what he valued was humanity not status and prestige.
------Chelsea
Monday, February 23, 2009
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