I’ve probably reached my limits in commenting on a book I’ve never read, so I’m off to the library to pick up McLaren’s book. In the meantime I appreciate what matthew76 identifies as the opportunity/danger of a universalist Christianity allying itself with a global imperium like Rome. Neo-Marxists Hardt & Negri proposed in their 2000 book Empire that the American-led coalition of democracy, capitalism and military strength couldn’t be overthrown or even effectively counteracted from outside. Instead, efforts to secure equality and justice should emerge from within the Empire, bubbling up from underneath — something like the early Christians did in the Roman Empire and what Jim Wallis seems to have in mind for today’s Christians.

Hardt & Negri’s premise has been hotly debated by the Left, many of whom regard the book as a "resistance is futile" justification for supporting neoliberalism. Surely other sociopolitical models are possible, and the American "coalition of the willing" doesn’t look as invincible as it did in 2000. I’d feel more comfortable with the idea of Christianity as a microcosm, as one idealistic experiment among many in a pluralistic world, if Yahweh would settle for being one god among many in the pantheon.