In this book Adam Hearlson argues that Christians can say a holy “no”
to oppression and injustice through the church’s worship practices. “To
speak the holy no,” Hearlson says, “is to refuse to be complicit in the
oppression and violence of the ruling power. It is the courageous
critique of the present and its claims of immutability.”
Hearlson
draws widely from Christian history to uncover ways the church has used
its traditional practices—preaching, music, sacrament, and art—to
sabotage oppressive structures of the world for the sake of the gospel.
He tells the stories of particular subversive strategies both past and
present, including radical hospitality, genre bending, coded speech, and
apocalyptic visions.
Blending history, theory, and practice, The Holy No is
both a testament to the courage of Christians who came before and an
encouragement to take up their mantle of faithful subversion.
