Restoring the Vision: The Kingdom of God, the Church of the Future

A.J. Pell is rector of Christ Church in Hope, B.C., and lecturer in the
Anglican Studies Programme at Regent College in Vancouver.

Restoring the Vision is a natural successor to the author’s two
previous books, It’s Your Life: Create a Christian Lifestyle (1977)
and The Faith–Work Connection (1987). Here too Tucker attempts to
connect the Gospel of Christ to practical living in Canadian society. He
seeks to emulate the ancient Celtic Christians who used the vision of
the Kingdom of God as the foundation for a holistic approach to creation
and to life. Following C.H. Dodd, Tucker thinks of the Kingdom not as an
after-death sphere of existence but as something realized in the present
life of each succeeding generation of Christians.

Tucker identifies in the New Testament era a change of focus, from
Jesus’ emphasis on the Kingdom to Paul’s emphasis on the church. It
was a change that robbed Christianity of its immediacy and practical
application. To restore these characteristics, Tucker proposes that we
recover two key Kingdom values: a loving relationship to God, his
creation, and all people; and a responsible stewardship in work,
politics, and the environment.

Although Tucker’s text is accessible and full of good ideas and
nimble insights, he doesn’t quite succeed in making his concerns
immediate and applicable to personal living. However, the questions
“For Individual Reflection or Group Discussion” at the end of each
chapter are thoughtful and probing, and raise issues of connection to
daily work and life. For those readers who spend time pondering these
questions, Restoring the Vision is indeed a healthy aid to building a
Christian life.