From the cross to the kingdom

In this, the first creative comparison of Jean-Paul Sartre’s ideas and New Testament concepts, Roberta Imboden rejuvenates Christian thoughts and action. She supplies key Sartrean concepts—the fused group, scarcity, and totalization—to major New Testament concepts—the Jesus-Apostle group, the Cross, the Holy Spirit, and the Kingdom of God. With clarity and conviction, she reveals how Sartre’s dialectical view of history illuminates the gospel events, rendering them important, inspirational paradigms for modern Christianity.

“No attempts will be made to bend or twist Sartre’s ideas,” writes Imboden. “No attempt will be made to Christianize the ever militantly atheistic philosopher, or to imply that Sartre’s ideas are really only a secular version of older Christian concepts. The intention is that Sartre remain rigorously Sartre. . . . Nevertheless, the primary purpose is to reappraise some very ancient concepts of the New Testament so that these concepts can be understood in the most meaningful concrete way for those of us who live in the latter part of the twentieth century.”