We hosted an online conversation with Jason Porterfield, author of Fight Like Jesus (2022), a book that challenges readers to embrace the radical peacemaking of Christ. In this interactive event, Jason explored how Jesus waged peace throughout Holy Week, offering insight into the events leading to the cross—and what they mean for peacemaking today. Timely, indeed.
Guiding the conversation was Michael Barram, professor of theology and longtime advocate for justice and discipleship. Drawing from Jason’s years of ministry among the urban poor and his theological study, the dialogue helped us understand how we, too, can cultivate God’s shalom in a world desperate for peace.
After discussing his book—which has been described as a compelling narrative of Holy Week and a practical guide for everyday peacemaking—we invited questions from participants. For those who long for a faith that actively pursues reconciliation and justice, this conversation offered both challenge and encouragement.
About Jason Porterfield: Jason has made his home in places abandoned by society, from Canada’s poorest neighborhood to the slums of Indonesia. He has spent years cultivating God’s shalom where it is painfully absent, working with Servants (servantsasia.org), an international network of Christian communities living among the urban poor. He holds a Master of Theology from Fuller Seminary and now writes and speaks on peacemaking and discipleship.
Book suggestions from Jason:
• Brian Zahnd’s A Farewell to Mars: An Evangelical Pastor’s Journey Toward the Biblical Gospel of Peace.
About the same length as Fight Like Jesus, Zahnd has an engaging writing style, strong storytelling, and keen biblical insights.
• Ched Myers’ Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus.
This is a commentary on Mark’s Gospel. Very well written and insightful—dense at times, and long.
• My friend Kristin Jack’s historical novel Fire and Faith: The Untold Story of Sebastian Castellio’s Epic Battle with John Calvin.
Based on real-life characters and events, this historical novel tells the story of Sebastian Castellio, a brilliant theologian and ethicist whose calls for religious tolerance and dialogue in the sixteenth century sparked a violent backlash from his one-time colleague and friend, the renowned Protestant Reformer John Calvin. It’s well researched, quite engaging, and touches on many themes covered in Fight Like Jesus. Kristin died the day after publishing his novel. His wife and I spent the past year creating an audiobook version, which should be available on Audible and other sites within the next week or two.
Jason also made available to us his shorter book
Names mentioned in this event:
Evie Telfer, John Deere, Kristen Jack, Sebastian Castellio, John Calvin, Robert Pickton, Viv Grigg, Drew Hart, Dean Taylor, The Bruderhof, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Craig Keener, John Howard Yoder, Ched Myers, Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, Erica Chenoweth, Maria Stephan, JD Vance, Charles Dickens, Aaron White, Gandhi, Oscar Romero
Books mentioned:
Liberating Scripture: An Invitation to Missional Hermeneutics (Michael Barram and John R. Frankie)
Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins (Miguel A. De La Torre)
Fire and Faith (Kristen Jack)
Fight Like Jesus (Jason Porterfield)
The Politics of Jesus (John Howard Yoder)
Binding the Strong Man (Ched Myers)
The Last Week (Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan)
Why Civil Resistance Works (Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan)