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Original
Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne was a very visually designed book. It challenges the political and economic structures of the day and is an extremely provocative book.
There is another beautiful new book on Jesus entitled "The Enlightenment, What God Told Me After One Million Prayers: A Message for Everyone," by John H. Eagan. I just finished it. It's really great and deals with Jesus' teachings and His Passion. It brought me to tears. I think the readers of Claiborne's book will really enjoy The Enlightenment. There is no politics involved, whatsoever.

Truly amazing
This book really put the Anabaptist revolution in perspective. The only knock I could have was that some of the text was hard to read due to some of the design elements.

Failed Promises
I had very high hopes for this book! And in so many ways, it did not disappoint. The readers attention is very often rewarded with a beautiful insight into the Christian walk, or just a clever turn of phrase. If I could snip out the bits in between, the book would be half as long and twice as good. The purported topic of this book _needs_ earnest, honest, and humble minds in its service; this book, and these minds, aren't them.

As often as these rewarding bits appear, the reader is punished with nonsense and spurious assertions -- many of which could have (should have) been caught well before publication, like the silly assertion that AK-47s are produced in the US, that Chris Shays is "Chairman of Congress" (whatever that is), and that any author of the Bible had sex and climaxing in mind when writing Scripture (this is particularly fatuous and offensive and really a disturbing insight into the authors place in life's cycle). These are just data points, true, but these examples are symptomatic of the lack of intellectual rigor and discipline that pervades the book.

These are two very intelligent, earnest authors whose hearts are right with God. I applaud that! But, they are far too inexperienced to be writing tomes on things beyond their grasp. They rely on folks like Noam Chompsky for their views on US international relations -- but anyone with an ounce of shoe-leather spent off-shore (or in a library) knows that the path trodden by Noam is for intellectually lazy, conspiracy prone, knee-jerk anti-Americans.

In short, while there is ample data to support a thesis of radical Christ-centeredness manifested not in the national political sphere, but at the community and family level, while there is ample scope for a lengthy work on how Christ would react and want us, his followers, to react and act, this book has a political point of view that simply smothers Christ's. It's a shame and I know these boys can and will do better.

Great for Bible history
I read this book after reading the Irresistible Revolution, and liked JFP more. I really enjoyed learning so much about the Bible and being refreshed on the stories I often forget. As most of the Bible is based on interpretation, it was also interesting to read Shane's interpretation with his co-author. This book was also much more well-written than the Irresistible Revolution, which made it more desirable to read. In a time of elections, it's incredible to remember who and what it is that truly matters in our lives.

A huge challenge
This book is a huge challenge to the status quo evangelical and fundamentalist churches in America. When Church participation in politics is at an all time high this writing gives some very sound guidance of just what it's role should be. Some of the writers points were definitely a challenge to my own beliefs and quite honestly a little hard to swallow at times.I chose to look at these issues objectively and possible opportunities for growth as opposed to threats. No one likes to admit errant thinking, but if Christians are to look Christlike to an unbelieving world it's a distinct possibility that I'm not the only one reading this book that will be challenged in their thinking.