Jesus' Upside Down Kingdom
Chris Castaldo
CPT fellow Chris Castaldo joins the podcast to discuss his recent book, The Upside Down Kingdom: Wisdom for Life from the Beatitudes. Jesus didn't offer the beatitudes as an unattainable moral example. They are his description of what disciples ought to look like in his kingdom, a kingdom that rejects the mechanisms of the world and advances instead through the meek, firm witness of its subjects. Chris encourages pastors to take up the beatitudes as their roadmap for discipleship, addressing such questions along the way as: How do the beatitudes form shepherds? How might we apply them to liturgical questions concerning preaching and worship? What do they have to say about pursuing justice? How have Christians in history applied them in the face of persecution? How do they liberate believers from the anxiety and outrage that characterize so much contemporary discourse?
Christ Castaldo is the Lead Pastor at New Covenant Church in Naperville, IL, and is a member of the St. Peter Fellowship at the Center for Pastor Theologians. He writes regularly on his personal blog and has published numerous books on the relationship between Protestantism and Catholicism. His most recent work is The Upside Down Kingdom: Wisdom for Life from the Beatitudes (Crossway, 2023).
