Campolo, Choose Love Not Power

Share this:

Tony Campolo, Choose Love Not Power: How to Right the World’s Wrongs From a Place of Weakness. Regal Books, 2009.

Referenced in:

LifeandLeadership.com Summary

This book encourages Christians to follow the example of Christ, who refused to establish his kingdom through economic, political, or religious power. He operates from Max Weber’s philosophy that power is “the prerogative to control what happens, to have the coercive force to make other’s yield one’s wishes, even against their will.” He distinguishes this from authority, which “is established when someone is able to elicit compliance because others want to obey” (16) and to have the right to be obeyed. Using the illustration of his own mother, whose comparatively short and frail physical stature was such that she had no “power” over him as a young man, she nonetheless had authority in his life. She had earned this authority because of the many ways in which she had demonstrated sacrificial love. As he says, “loving sacrifices always earn authority.”

From there, Campolo advocates a Christian “theology of power” based on Jesus’ example of love. He expounds on Philippians 2 which teaches that Jesus had all the power of God at his disposal, but emptied himself of power and accepted the “nature of a servant,” obeying God to the point of death, and thus saving the world through sacrificial love. Campolo contrasts this refusal on Jesus’ part to establish anything by the use of coercive power to “Christian activists on both ends of the political spectrum who see power as the primary instrument for saving the world.” (19) He argues, however, that “when the Church takes on the role of exercising political power, it no longer follows the way of Jesus and loses its authority.” (19) He proposes that Christians earn moral authority by showing radical love. In several chapters, Campolo shows through numerous examples the difference such sacrificial love (vs. power) makes in marriage, parenting, work, pastoral leadership, race relations, politics, and international relations. For the politically interested, he demonstrates how the seemingly powerless “local” choices can affect the global community’s most pressing environmental, economic, and political issues.

While one may not always agree with where Campolo lands on the issues, he makes an important contribution to understanding the importance of radical love in the establishment of God’s kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.”

About the Author

TONY CAMPOLO is professor emeritus of Sociology at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. Founder of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education (EAPE), an organizations that develops schools and social programs in various third world countries and in cities across North America, Dr. Campolo is an ordained minister and is presently recognized as an associate pastor of the Mount Carmel Baptist Church in West Philadelphia. He is a media commentator on religious, social and political matters, having guested on television programs like Nightline, Crossfire, Politically Incorrect, The Charlie Rose Show and CNN News. He cohosted his own television series, Hashing It Out, on the Odyssey Network, and presently hosts From Across the Pond, a weekly program on the Premier Radio Network in England. Dr. Campolo is the author of 33 books, including Letters to a Young Evangelical and Everybody Wants to Change the World.

***For additional information on this resource, including reviews, click the bookstore links. Check the reference at page top or the links below for resource guides on related topics.***

Related Areas

See Other Resource Guides on Christian Social Ministry:

Related Ministry Resource Guides on LifeandLeadership.com:

See Resources on Over 100 Ministry Topics:

Ministry Resource Guides Index

Social Justice, Social Ministry