NT Wright, Counter-Imperial Righteousness

Dude, that article rocks! I'm printing that out and keeping it for potential thesis references! Thanks. I'm excited by the affirmations I'm getting in my studies about the role of righteousness for community development. I just started a book on the side called "Righteousness and Society" that is discussing the history of the concept of righteousness in Christian faith and how it's been displayed actively by the church in society. Ah, Billy! I do have to point out my wariness at the terminology "counter-imperial", though. I don't think I would argue with his line of thinking, because NT Wright is so demonstrative of the fact that Paul didn't reduce the concept of God's kingdom to the level of a "conceptually equal contradiction" with Caeser's empire. He clearly portrays Paul as saying, God's kingdom is built on the Righteousness of Christ and Caeser's kingdom is just plain false (a parody). And so the way NT Wright says that is not reductionistic as the classic dialectical model would insinuate. It's instead building on what's real (righteousness) so that when contrasted to "competing options" for reality, the truths and falstities of those options are exposed so as to be redeemed. But I think that's a redemption-model, not counter-action. The concept of "counter" inspires in me a vision of revolution and enmity. But the concept of "redemption" inspire visions of grace and proactive responsibility. I'm starting to be careful to use the word, "contrast" for looking at tension wholistically, instead of things like, "counter-", or "contradiction", or anything that polarizes.