Shane Claiborne
Encyclopedia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
. This community was featured on the cover of Christianity Today
Christianity Today
Christianity Today is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, Illinois. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming circulation figures of 140,000 and readership of 290,000...
as a pioneer in the New Monasticism
New Monasticism
New Monasticism, or Neomonasticism, can refer either to a modern movement within Evangelical Protestant Christianity modelled on a monastic way of life in a contemporary context or a movement within Roman Catholicism to expand the way of life of traditional monastic communities to lay...
movement. Claiborne is also a prominent activist for nonviolence
Nonviolence
Nonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...
and service to the poor.
Biography
Claiborne grew up in east Tennessee. His dad, who was a Vietnam War veteran, died when Shane was 9 years old. A graduate of Eastern University, where he studied sociologySociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
and youth ministry, Claiborne did his final academic work for Eastern University at Wheaton College
Wheaton College (Illinois)
Wheaton College is a private, evangelical Protestant liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago in the United States...
in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. While at Wheaton, Claiborne did an internship at Willow Creek Community Church
Willow Creek Community Church
Willow Creek Community Church is a non-denominational, multi-generational Evangelical Christian megachurch located in the Chicago suburb of South Barrington, Illinois. It was founded on October 12, 1975 by Bill Hybels, who is currently the senior pastor...
. He has done some graduate work at Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton Theological Seminary is a theological seminary of the Presbyterian Church located in the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey in the United States...
, but took a leave of absence, and now is a part of The Alternative Seminary in Philadelphia.
Claiborne's outlook on ministry to the poor is often compared to Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
, whom he worked alongside during a 10-week term in Calcutta. He spent 3 weeks in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
with the Iraq Peace Team (a project of Voices in the Wilderness and Christian Peacemaker Teams
Christian Peacemaker Teams
Christian Peacemaker Teams is an international organization set up to support teams of peace workers in conflict areas around the world. These teams believe that they can lower the levels of violence through nonviolent direct action, human rights documentation, and nonviolence training. CPT sums...
). He was witness to the military bombardment of Baghdad as well as the militarized areas between Baghdad and Amman
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...
. As a member of IPT, Claiborne took daily trips to sites where there had been bombings, visited hospitals and families, and attended worship services during the war. He also continues to serve as a board member for the nation-wide Christian Community Development Association which was founded by the authors and community developers, John Perkins
John M. Perkins
John M. Perkins is an American civil rights activist. He is founder and president of the John M. Perkins Foundation in Jackson, Mississippi.-Biography:Born June 16, 1930, he grew up on a plantation as a sharecropper in the 1940s...
and Wayne Gordon.
On Wednesday, June 20, 2007, a seven-alarm fire at the abandoned warehouse across the street destroyed The Simple Way Community Center where Claiborne lived. He lost all of his possessions in the fire. The Simple Way immediately set up funds to accept donations to help those who lost their homes in the fire.
In October of 2010, Shane proposed to longtime love Katie Jo Brotherton in Philadelphia's Love Park. They were joined in marriage on May 7th, 2011, at Saint Edward's Cathedral in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Claiborne is featured in the documentary The Ordinary Radicals
The Ordinary Radicals
The Ordinary Radicals is the 2008 documentary film directed by Philadelphia filmmaker Jamie Moffett.-Background:The film follows authors Chris Haw and Shane Claiborne, co-founder of the Potter Street Community of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on their Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary...
, and co-directed the three volume Another World is Possible DVD series. Claiborne wrote the foreword to Ben Lowe's 2009 book Green Revolution: Coming Together to Care for Creation.
In 2011 he has appeared as both a guest and co-host of the TV show "Red Letter Christians" with Tony Campolo
Tony Campolo
Dr. Anthony "Tony" Campolo is an American pastor, author, sociologist, and public speaker known for challenging evangelical Christians by illustrating how their faith can offer solutions in a world of complexity. With his liberal political and social attitudes, he has been a major proponent for...
.
He also was a featured in 2011 as a keynote speaker at Cedarville University
Cedarville University
Cedarville University is a private, co-educational liberal arts university located in Cedarville, Ohio.At its founding, the school was affiliated with the conservative General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America. Today, Cedarville is a Southern Baptist school known for its...
for their "G92 Immigration Conference."
Authorship
- Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Enuma Okoro (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010) ISBN 0310326192
- "What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff?" (Esquire Magazine, November 18, 2009)
- Follow Me To Freedom: Leading and Following as an Ordinary Radical, with John PerkinsJohn M. PerkinsJohn M. Perkins is an American civil rights activist. He is founder and president of the John M. Perkins Foundation in Jackson, Mississippi.-Biography:Born June 16, 1930, he grew up on a plantation as a sharecropper in the 1940s...
(Regal Books, 2009) ISBN 0830751203 - Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals, with Chris Haw (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008) ISBN 0310278422
- Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers: Prayer for Ordinary Radicals, with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove (InterVarsity, 2008) ISBN 0830836225
- The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary RadicalThe Irresistible RevolutionThe Irresistible Revolution is a book by Shane Claiborne published in 2006. This work, subtitled "Living as an Ordinary Radical", describes and advocates what the author argues to be a truly Christian lifestyle...
(Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006) ISBN 0310266300 - Iraq Journal 2003 (Doulos Christou, 2006) ISBN 0974479675