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God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now
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Average Rating:  out of 17 Reviews
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Price: $22.95
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Sale: $5.99
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Manufacturer: HarperOne
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: John Dominic Crossan
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Publisher: HarperOne
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Edition: 1
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Dewey Decimal Number: 261.7
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Publication Date: 2007-03-01
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Reading Level: 272
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Description: At the heart of the Bible is a moral and ethical call to fight unjust superpowers, whether they are Babylon, Rome, or even America. From the divine punishment and promise found in Genesis through the revolutionary messages of Jesus and Paul, John Dominic Crossan reveals what the Bible has to say about land and economy, violence and retribution, justice and peace, and, ultimately, redemption. In contrast to the oppressive Roman military occupation of the first century, he examines the meaning of the non-violent Kingdom of God prophesized by Jesus and the equality advocated by Paul to the early Christian churches. Crossan contrasts these messages of peace with the misinterpreted apocalyptic vision from the Book of Revelation, which has been misrepresented by modern right-wing theologians and televangelists to justify U.S. military actions in the Middle East. In God and Empire Crossan surveys the Bible from Genesis to Apocalypse, or the Book of Revelation, and discovers a hopeful message that cannot be ignored in these turbulent times. The first-century Pax Romana, Crossan points out, was in fact a "peace" won through violent military action. Jesus preached a different kind of peace—a peace that surpasses all understanding—and a kingdom not of Caesar but of God. The Romans executed Jesus because he preached this Kingdom of God, a kingdom based on peace and justice, over the empire of Rome, which ruled by violence and force. For Jesus and Paul, Crossan explains, peace cannot be won the Roman way, through military victory, but only through justice and fair and equal treatment of all people.
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: Crossan at his best |
Date: 2008-11-02 |
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Details: Crossan is a prolific writer--writing multiple volumes on the historical Jesus. This volume has a "political" theme. Crossan is interested in Rome empire as an imperial and culturally all-encompassing phenomenon. His interests are not merely historical; the book constantly refer to the present world situation as it might be "mirrored" in the Roman Empire. Crossan is concerned that our present situation is, in fact, just a new empirical situation albeit dressed in economic terms rather than military.
Crossan's style is always serious but light hearted as well. An easy read but a very serious theme!! |
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Review Summary: A provocative, if ideological, interpretation of Jesus's life in the Roman Empire |
Date: 2008-07-06 |
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Details: Crossan's main argument in this book rests on a distinction between civilization/violence and resistance/nonviolence. As he puts it, this is the difference between "peace through victory" and "peace through justice." He sees Jesus as part of a Jewish tradition of resistance to Babylonian, Roman, and other empires. Crossan recognizes violence in some of that tradition but he emphasizes (rightly) that Jesus stands as the fulfillment of the nonviolent strand. Resisting the violence of empire while standing for justice therefore lie at the heart of Jesus's message. Working for justice in the United States today represents the continuation of Jesus's mission.
In providing this interpretation of Jesus in the Jewish tradition, Crossan repeatedly struggles with violence in the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament book of Revelations. Like others, he sees Revelations as a critique of empires from within the Jewish tradition. He strongly rejects the millenarian interpretation that has become popular in the United States, seeing the end-time violence as a result of civilization's injustices. Christ's only coming, he maintains, has already happened, and Revelations describes the world in which we already live.
Though not fully persuasive, this interpretation is well worth reading. Crossan is certainly correct that many fundamentalists in the U.S. share a lust for violence in the end times that is not at all warranted by the text or by the life of Jesus.
Crossan does not move beyond the biblical texts to consider precivilization societies such as hunter gatherers. Though not based on the institutionalist violence of the state, intersociety relations (wars) were much bloodier per capita among hunter gatherers than modern wars are. As Crossan rightly notes, they were generally more equal than civilization is, though gender inequalities were greater among some hunter-gatherers than in modern civilizations. Any critique of civilization should confront these realities and their implications.
Finally, this book always left me with the impression that Crossan's politics determines his reading of the scriptures and the Christian tradition, instead of letting his studies determine his politics. He is ideological, not eclectic, in his positions, and he often intends to impose his worldview on Jesus rather than doing the reverse. Though I often agree with Crossen, I'm generally suspicious of his reasoning.
Nonetheless, this book provides a provocative and challenging reading of Jesus and the New Testament. If you are open to rethinking your views of the Christian tradition, I recommend reading it. |
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Review Summary: Religious questions that are matters of survival |
Date: 2008-06-24 |
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Details: In this book Crossan broadens his focus beyond Jesus to the whole surrounding Roman world, and the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation. And in comparing all this, he exposes a vast gulf between totally different visions for the world, which now compete to decide our future.
On one hand he explores the vision of peace through victory over all enemies, which was the Roman imperial dream, and the dream of all empires including that of America. But as Crossan shows, this dream of ultimate victory is also repeatedly expressed in the Bible.
Against this we have a vision of peace through converting people to justice, which was the dream of Jesus and many other prophets or apostles in the Bible.
And last we have a vision of peace through death and destruction, in which both sinners and the sinful world are destroyed in a paroxysm of divine vengeance. And even this dream is expressed in the Bible, both in the flood of Noah and the Apocalypse of Revelation. Or, as Crossan quotes Charles Jones, "Some day we may blow ourselves up with all the bombs .... But I still believe God's going to be in control. ... If he chooses to use nuclear war, then who am I to argue with that?".
Crossan deals with questions that have grown urgent for the world's survival. These visions of a final solution -- of either exterminating evil or converting sinners to justice, "... are never reconciled anywhere in the biblical tradition. They are together from one end of the book to the other. Indeed, they often coexist in the same book or even the same chapter. So again, are we to take them both and worship a God of both violence and nonviolence, or must we choose between them ...?"
--author of "Different Visions of Love" |
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Review Summary: Worth several readings |
Date: 2008-04-24 |
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Details: Briefly, this is a must read for those who wonder what the present literal/metaphorical Christian fuss is about. It's about violent Christianity versus non-violent Christianity.
Ironically, non-violence is at the core of many moral codifications, Christianity being one of them. Crossan explores the challenge and asks the question. We get to answer it or not.
The First Axial Age, circa 500 BCE, saw the concurrent formation of Socratic philosophy, Judaism (leading to Christianity), Buddhism and Confucianism. This period has been briefly examined by Karl Jaspers in The Way to Wisdom and extensively by Karen Armstrong in The Great Transformation.
Crossan's question as to how we can move from the violence of empire to the non-violence of god may be today's critical question. This is what Bob Funk called The Second Axial Age which is an improvement over the first because it includes everyone, even women and slaves, who were left out the last time.
I have read God and Empire twice with different insights both times. I am about to read it again. |
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Review Summary: Divine Caesar vs. Earthly Jesus |
Date: 2008-03-24 |
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Details: In his latest reconsideration of the relations between Judaism and Christianity on the one hand and Roman Imperialism on the other, Dr Crossan treats us to a fascinating account of the parallels as well as the contrasts between the two systems. Did you imagine, for example, that "Son of God" and "Savior of the World" were titles unique to Christian thought? Not a bit of it! Both were given to the Emperor Augustus before Jesus of Nazareth was even born! That is just one example, says Crossan, of the way in which the two competing systems, Roman Peace by Domination and Judaeo-Christian Peace by (Distributive) Justice sometimes found themselves using the same language. The danger has always been that in using the language of earthly success, Judaeo-Christianity would stray into the sphere of power politics ... and so it has - all too often. This book is a must-read for anyone who is sick of political domination by fear and greed and longs for justice and peace through non-violent action. Doesn't that mean you and me? |
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