Openings
Quaker Reflections on Scripture
Good Books
Below are books you may enjoy for further reading about the Sermon on the Mount and related topics. Click the book's cover to purchase with popular on-line vendors.
Richard Rohr, OFM, Jesus Plan for a New World: The Sermon on the Mount. Richard Rohr is a Roman Catholic priest, a Franciscan Friar (please don't call Franciscans "monks"), and one of the most insightful, readable, contemplatively-oriented commentators on scripture I know.
John Stott, The Beatitudes: Developing Spiritual Character. A different approach from mine, but very helpful.
Glen Stassen, Living the Sermon on the Mount: A Practical Hope for Grace and Deliverance. A great, practical interpretation from a popular Anabaptist author steeped in the tradition of Christian pacifism.
Jim Forest, The Ladder of the Beatitudes. A profoundly ethical and spiritual reading of the Beatitudes from Orthodox thinker and peace activist Jim Forest, once a friend of Dorothy Day.
John Stott, The Message of the Sermon on the Mount. Stott is a highly respected evangelical apologist--meaning he writes books that make arguments for the Christian faith. While I don't agree with everything in this book, I respect it. Unlike many evangelicals and fundamentalists, Stott believes Jesus meant his words to be obeyed. Many fans of Stott also don't realize that he was a Christian pacifist, largely because of his understanding of the Sermon.
Clarence Jordan, Sermon on the Mount. An unusual, inspiring, challenging angle on the sermon from the founder of Habitat for Humanity and author of the Cottonpatch series of biblical interpretations.
Anxiety, insecurity, military power, racial prejudice, and heavy taxes—all these problems of contemporary life were also faced by those who first heard the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Author Clarence Jordan points out that this sermon presents many of the major features of the kingdom of God on earth that Jesus was proposing. Not only has the author done a masterful job of interpreting Jesus’ words; he has also demonstrated their meaning through his work at Koinonia Farm in Americus, Georgia.
R. W. Glenn, Crucifying Morality: The Gospel of the Beatitudes. A refreshingly radical reading. The Beatitudes are in constant danger of being sugar-coated with saccharine piety. Glenn argues that the Beatitudes are not pious recipies for being happy, but "profiles of people who have crucified their own morality in Jesus death, resurrection, and rule" and who are transformed by grace.