Abstract
There can be few readers of Transformation for whom Ron Sider is not well known, and indeed few who have not found his writings personally inspirational. For myself, the reading of his ‘Rich Christians in an age of hunger’ back in the 1970s was probably the single most important book in shaping my subsequent Christian life. It seems that I was not alone!
This book brings together 22 Christian leaders, friends, colleagues, and admirers from around the world, each of whom have written an essay to celebrate Ron’s life and work. They have written of their personal endebtedness and also explored current issues around those facets of our Christian engagement with the modern world which have been so central to, and so influenced by, his work. This collection celebrates the life and work of Ron Sider on ‘the eve of his retirement’ – though the prospect of his ‘retirement’ from the field is, I suspect, far from likely to happen.
Most of us will know of, and be grateful to, Ron’s contribution to some facets of his work; this book introduces us to many more aspects of his full and varied life. His writings were prodigious and phenomenal. The Appendix lists 36 books, 38 chapters in other books, and 82 articles, but his influence clearly goes further through his personal conversations and example to others, and his teaching and his lectures to students and public alike. He has the great gift, not always found in academics, of writing in a style which is equally comprehensible and persuasive to lay folk and academics alike – indeed the clarity and importance of his arguments have caused more controversy than most academics just because they were so lucid and coherent!
The collection does not tell a simple biographical story of his life, he was not that sort of guy, but illustrates through the eyes of others his commitment to a holistic Christianity, his total reliance and obedience to the Scriptures, his advocacy of, and example in, a simple way of life, his intellectual honesty, his insistence that his Christian faith should apply to every aspect of his life, his resolve that the Christian church should engage fully and honestly with the world too, his courage, honesty, and persistent love in confronting other Christians who disagreed with him, his ecumenical activities, his application of his perspective of life into all aspects of life, including war, racial conflict, and abortion issues. He never courted compromise, easy answers, or popularity, but argued for the truth with lucid, persuasive, and intellectually honest rigour. Organizationally, his leading role in the Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern, and his founding and leading of Evangelicals for Social Action, were probably the most significant. He was not political in the left/right sense, he was intensely political in insisting that Christianity, and Christ, were concerned with all aspects of our social, economic, financial, spiritual, personal and interpersonal lives. His was an honest, Christ-centred, holistic Christianity in practice as well as in word.
I am conscious on rereading this that I have written in the past tense, as if this was an obituary! Heaven forbid! My excuse is that I am writing of what has been written, not of Ron’s life as a whole. I trust, and expect, that Ron will continue to write for, influence, and lead Christians for many years to come.
Paul Alexander and Al Tizon have done a great job in collecting together such a varied collection of influential Christian to write about the different strands of Ron Sider’s life and his work, though I suspect that it was not difficult to persuade folk to write of such an intellectual and influential giant. If there is a fault it is that the writers are largely American, only four of the 22 are not. Ron Sider is a global figure, I would have liked to have heard more from the majority world, there was no African voice heard.
My final reaction to this book if to ask what it is that ‘makes him tick’ – what inspired and drives him. If we knew that, and could bottle it, we could change the world. Clearly his deep Christ-centred life and honest reliance on the bible for all his arguments are central (I have just checked my original copy of Rich Christians and find that there are references to bible passages 328 times!!). His support, example and exhortation from an equally Christ-like wife have also been of great value. Unfortunately, we cannot bottle the spirit of Ron Sider, he is unique. Thank you Ron for what you have done for so many of us, to make the world a better place. May your post-retirement days continue to be as fruitful.