ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on the extent to which God’s agapic love, even to the extent of death on the cross, is intended as a model for Christian faithfulness. I propose as the central vision of the radical tradition the thesis that the moral character of God is revealed in Jesus’ vulnerable enemy love and renunciation of dominion. Imitation of Jesus in this regard constitutes a Christian social ethic. This core vision results in a theology somewhat different from that of mainline Protestants and Catholics, and particularly in a different view of the possibilities for human (individual and social) transformation in this life. This call to Christians to become children of the Father, who makes the rain to fall on the just and unjust alike, defines a “kenotic ethic,” an ethic of self-renunciation for the sake of the other, detachment from rights to rewards, acceptance of suffering, and, supremely, refusal to harm those who harm us-an ethic of nonviolence. I propose this ethic as one way of giving concrete content to the Christian’s calling to participate in God’s agapic love by so loving their neighbors.
