Discussion Questions

Dean Taylor contrasts Danjiro’s test—“they would want to see whether your life corresponded with your teaching”—with later Western “might is right” assumptions; where does your own life visibly confirm (or contradict) what you say you believe about Jesus’ kingdom? JumpstartAnother way to ask: Where does your everyday life clearly match (or not match) what you say you believe about Jesus’ kingdom?

The transcript highlights Japanese believers who survived centuries underground, then were “boiled, evaporated, and carbonized” at Ground Zero by “a few young American Christians” after a prayer meeting; what does that story expose about how Christians can compartmentalize faith from national loyalty, and where do you see similar compartmentalizing as plausible in your own context? JumpstartAnother way to ask: What does this story show about how Christians can separate their faith from loyalty to their country, and where might you see the same thing happening around you?

Taylor says when “the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world mix,” pragmatism supplies “good, pragmatic justification” and “the victors write the history books”; what beliefs or narratives have shaped your moral instincts in a way that you now suspect may be more “victor-written” than kingdom-shaped? JumpstartAnother way to ask: What stories or beliefs have shaped your sense of right and wrong in ways you now suspect come more from the “winners” than from Jesus’ kingdom?

He claims Beatitudes like “Blessed are the meek” and “Blessed are the peacemakers” became decorative, while non-resistance was left to “the secular humanist and the intellectual idealist”; what would have to change in a church’s teaching and communal life for meekness and peacemaking to regain their original authority and credibility? JumpstartAnother way to ask: What would need to change in a church’s teaching and community life for meekness and peacemaking to be taken seriously again?

Taylor defines pragmatism/utilitarianism/expediency and calls them “three giants that needed to be slain”; what are the most socially respectable forms of those “giants” in your daily decisions (money, career, family security, political engagement), and how do they subtly redefine what you call “wisdom”? JumpstartAnother way to ask: In what parts of your life (money, job, family safety, politics) do “pragmatic” choices feel most normal, and how do they quietly change what you call wisdom?

Using James 4, Taylor argues wars come from “desires for pleasure” and the pursuit of personal gratification; where do you see this diagnosis landing uncomfortably close to home—not just in “society,” but in Christian institutions and personal conflicts you’ve experienced? JumpstartAnother way to ask: Where do you see James 4’s idea—that fights come from selfish desires—showing up in your own conflicts or in Christian groups you’ve been part of?

Taylor says Jesus’ kingdom goal is not happiness but that “our entire lives…are consumed” to glorify God, and he connects this to “Glory to God in the highest” and Romans 11:36; how does that reordering of purpose challenge common evangelical ways of describing the “good life,” “God’s will,” or even the point of salvation? JumpstartAnother way to ask: If the goal of Jesus’ kingdom is God’s glory more than your happiness, how does that challenge common Christian ideas about the “good life,” “God’s will,” or even salvation?

Taylor describes military justifications comparing war to “the surgeon’s knife” or “the farmer’s hoe,” yet he “could not let go” of Jesus’ words “Love your enemies”; how do you evaluate those competing moral visions, and what do you think early Christians in the first centuries would have assumed Jesus meant in practice? JumpstartAnother way to ask: How do you weigh war being called “necessary” against Jesus’ command to love your enemies, and what do you think early Christians thought Jesus meant in real life?

When Taylor and Tanya leave the Army, they lose “health insurance, retirement, college money…church, friends,” and he says God was pressing a deeper need: “security and self-sufficiency”; what concrete securities do you rely on that function like non-negotiables, and what would it look like to “take the Lord at his word” at the cost of those supports? JumpstartAnother way to ask: What things give you a sense of security that you treat as non-negotiable, and what might it look like to trust God even if you lost them?

Taylor uses Abraham’s attempt to fulfill promise through Hagar as a warning that “human means” produce long-term damage, and he ties it to God opposing “the end justifies the means”; where are you most tempted to pursue “a better good” through questionable means, and how does the Abraham/Ishmael outcome reshape what you consider “responsible” versus “faithful”? JumpstartAnother way to ask: Where are you tempted to get a “good” result through questionable methods, and how does Abraham and Hagar/Ishmael change your view of being responsible versus being faithful?