Can faith be an idol? Can the state grant freedom? What about wealth? No King but God takes up the revolutionary cry found on the lips of Jesus and his contemporaries in the first century to argue that we need the same desire to see God as King in all areas of our lives. From the marginal and prophetic perspective of the Isle of Man, and informed by a decade of pioneering work among the homeless, five contemporary idols are unmasked. The church is given a provocative challenge to embody an alternative. The response to the idols of faith, freedom, the state, wealth, and the individual is not right belief or special prayers, but the humble path of walking as Jesus walked. Soaked in scripture and hope, this is a wooing invitation into true humanity, painting a vision of a kingdom of peace and justice founded on the self-giving love of Jesus. It is a call towards, and a glimpse of, lives and a world where there is no King but God.

Michael Manning is a coordinator with Graih, a charity serving the homeless in the Isle of Man. He lives with his family in a shared household.