"Creedal messianism" is Stephen Rose's original term for the belief system that the church, including original witnesses, created to obscure Jesus' iconoclastic understanding of the gospel.

Rose argues that messianism is a cruel virus which eats away at the very essence of selfhood.

In "Beyond Creed" he shows how messianism has hampered the veryprogress Jesus sought to bring about on earth.

The time: The 1980s.

The city: Boston.

The protagonist: Adam Panflick, preppie, iconoclast, sensualist, gambler and failed theologian.

The antagonist: Boston's certifiable commitment to the automobile.

The result: Mayhem and then some.

In "Abba's Way, " Jesus returns to set the world's religions straight.

Abba is the shockingly-familiar Aramaic name for God that Jesus uses in the Lord's Prayer. Jesus argues that this very Abba is within each of us, ready to change our lives for the better. If we only have eyes to see.

In 70 brief poetic essays, Jesus explains how we can move the world from its present violent precipice to a global society built around negotiation, individual achievement and openness to the presence of Abba in each person.

On the occasion of the publication of Stephen C. Rose's 'The Grass Roots Church," "The New York Times" called the author a new Martin Luther whose theses might change today's world.

In "Abba's Way," Jesus returns to set the world's religions straight.

Abba is the shockingly-familiar Aramaic name for God that Jesus uses in the Lord's Prayer. Jesus argues that this very Abba is within each of us, ready to change our lives for the better. If we only have eyes to see.

In 70 brief poetic essays, Jesus explains how we can move the world from its present violent precipice to a global society built around negotiation, individual achievement and openness to the presence of Abba in each person.

On the occasion of the publication of Stephen C. Rose's 'The Grass Roots Church," "The New York Times" called the author a new Martin Luther whose theses might change today's world.