Note: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review contains an affiliate link. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
I love the Sermon on the Mount, but it is a hard sell to tell people that, no, these aren’t pie-in-the-sky ideals but what we are fully capable of growing into through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Whenever I get a new chance to read a book concerning Matthew 5-7 I am generally pretty quick to jump at it. This opportunity was no different as I loved the name of the book–it perfectly describes the counter-cultural ethical demands of the Kingdom of Heaven, our here and not yet home.
Castaldo didn’t disappoint. Each chapter covers real-life concerns with and applications of the Beatitudes of Matthew 5. What does it mean to be poor in spirit and how do we practice meekness? The Upside Down Kingdom was written in a very accessible style, with nothing tedious and no big words. A high schooler could very easily read it and glean much from it, and I would actually recommend it as a family reading exercise.
It is hard to get readers interested in living according to the precepts/promises of the Beatitudes in a Christian Nationalistic society where we have been inundated with messages that we must be strong and not meek, vengeful instead of forgiving and that we must curse our enemies instead of blessing them. The Beatitudes seem as though they are a recipe for disaster and yet the oppressed people who lived according to these precepts within the Roman Empire changed the world and provided a shockingly “upside-down” witness which challenged everything everyone thought they knew about how to live life and to please God.
This was a much-needed read, and as I see more and more books of this kind, it gives me hope that perhaps there might be hope for the American church after all.
