Journal of European Baptist Studies, Volume 9, Number 2, January 2009

ich can govern a moral form of life through the practice of Jesus’ transforming initiatives. 19 Stassen, Living the Sermon, p. 78. 211 D. Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Disciple ship, translated by R. Fuller (London: SCM Press, 1959), p. 120. 21 Stassen and Gushee, Kingdom Ethics, p. 47. 22 By emphasising the centrality of the kingdom of God, Stassen adds his impetus to the growing list of scholarly works which have likewise stressed the importance of the kingdom of God in understanding the Sermon. See, for instance, D. Willard, The Divine Conspiracy (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998); and, D. Carson, The Sermon on the Mount (Carlisle: Paternoster, 1998), p. 17. 43 Is the Sermon on the Mount too unrealistic to serve as a resource for Christian Discipleship and Spiritual Formation? By bringing Jesus’ commands down to the level of specific practices, Stassen’s notion of transforming initiatives takes us beyond the misguided belief that Jesus is teaching ‘high ideals’ or ‘lovely sentiments but impossible for practical living’. 23 This ‘deceptively simple’ 24 approach avoids the traditional twin pitfalls of Christian spiritual formation: ‘cheap grace’ and legalism. It may be costly to practice such transforming initiatives as praying for one’s enemies or to turn one’s cheek to an assailant; but because it is costly does not mean that it is impossible. By taking Jesus seriously as a prophetic voice for radical moral living, Stassen has done a great service to Jesus’ contemporary followers. Despite the great advances made by Stassen, however, there are aspects of his analysis which remain undeveloped and which would profit from further probing. For instance, whilst he provides an account of how Jesus’ teachings can be individually applied to specific circumstances in terms of transforming initiatives, he does not explain how the separate practices cohere to create a vision of kingdom life. For an understanding of how the Sermon could provide such a vision, James McClendon, in his three-volume Systematic Theology, offers valuable insights. Although McClendon does not write primarily as a theologian of the spiritual life, his ideas often provoke his readers into a reflection on how such concepts such as ‘the baptist vision’ and ‘powerful practices’ could be used to provide a vision of life in the kingdom of God which would be serviceable to Christians looking for a workable model for spiritual growth from the Sermon. It is also true that whilst McClendon does not apply his methodology to the Sermon itself, he nevertheless leaves the way open for others to do so. 25 It is this challenge which I will now take on by bringing McClendon into conversation with Glen Stassen. The great merit of McClendon is his visionary approach to the recasting of theological problems away from abstract speculation to actual engagement with the embodied life of the faith community, which for McClendon is the proper starting poi