The Following Jesus web site is a project of the Mustard Seed School of Theology, which may be the smallest school of biblical studies and theology in the world. (We don't award degrees, so please don't ask!)
The goal of this project is to discover ways to be a faithful follower of Jesus in a postmodern world. It explores what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called "religionless Christianity"—faith as a way of life, not as a system of beliefs and doctrines or institutional rites and rituals. The Mustard Seed School hopes to share the radical social and political ideas of Jesus as an antidote to the religious orthodoxy of the church adopted under the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century.
Jesus explained that the reign of God was like a mustard plant—a fast-growing weed that invades well-cultivated and protected gardens and that spreads with chaotic growth. It is the uncontrolled spread of radical ideas like nonviolent resistence, distributive economic justice, radically inclusive community, and a situational ethics of compassion—that has the creative power to transform the world—and may even transform the church.
The content of the Following Jesus web site was created by Kurt Struckmeyer who was captivated by the world-shattering ideas of the Sermon on the Mount in his teens and has been a lifelong student and teacher of the historical Jesus and the reign of God.
Your comments, questions, suggestions and critiques are always welcome. Particularly, we would like to know what additional information about Jesus and his vision of the reign of God would be helpful to you in developing a life of faith in a postmodern world.
Kurt Struckmeyer may be contacted at kurt@followingjesus.org.
