Donald B. Kraybill's The Upside-Down Kingdom

Donald B. Kraybill’s book “The Upside-Down Kingdom” reveals the kingdom of God that Jesus talks about in first century Palestine. The main point that Kraybill develops in his book is that the kingdom of God that Jesus teaches during His time on earth appears to be upside down in the sense that He focused on winning by serving and triumphed by losing. His principles were seemingly unorthodox as they disregarded the commonality of that time where the wealthy became wealthier and the poor became more impoverished. Jesus came to reverse this characterized notion and behavior and to self-demonstrate what this should actually be like. Jesus’ teachings give an “upside-down” image of how the world today has perceived them to be. Kraybill’s goal for this book was to capture basic concepts of Jesus’s life and summarize them into comprehensible and meaningful nuggets for readers to grasp a better understanding and to gain deeper insights of what the upside-down kingdom is all about. Just as Jesus did with the parables, Kraybill describes the upside-down kingdom carefully and …show more content…
He gives several examples on Jesus’ teachings. Jesus’ an “upside-down version of how we are to treat our enemies. His advice is that we are to love, forgive, and embrace those who have wronged us. The parables Jesus tells of The Prodigal Son and The Good Samaritan are just a couple of examples for us to follow. Kraybill reviews these upside-down responses concerning our enemies in depth. They are full of historical data, which adds greatly to the way we perceive the fundamental nature and significance of the Kingdom of God. Moreover, Kraybill explains that Jesus’ willingness to reach out and accept outsiders is evidence that the Kingdom of God will be greatly diverse. Kraybill provides comprehensive insights of Jesus’ interactions with people of his day. For example, Jesus validates and redefines the role of women through His treating women as