Jesus and Empire PDF Download

Author: Richard A. Horsley
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 9781451416671
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
A major advance in Jesus studies and a critique of oppression. Horsley focuses his attention on how Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God relates to Roman and Herodian power politics.

Author: John Dominic Crossan
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060843233
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book 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.

Author: Seyoon Kim
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802860087
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
This title looks at what kind of responses Paul made to the Roman Empire. The author subjects the methods of current interpreters to critical scrutiny and discusses what makes an anti-imperial interpretation of Pauline writings difficult.

Author: R. S. Sugirtharajah
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521005241
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
A comprehensive history of the Bible in the Third World.

Author: Howard-Brook, Wes
Publisher: Orbis Books
ISBN: 1608336581
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages :

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Through a study of the early church, this book shows how Christianity in effect opted for the religion of empire, shifting the emphasis of Jesus's prophetic message from transforming the world to the aim of saving one's soul.

Author: Scot McKnight
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830839917
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
This volume brings together respected biblical scholars to evaluate the turn toward "empire criticism" in recent New Testament scholarship. While praising the movement for its deconstruction of Roman statecraft and ideology, the contributors also provide a salient critique of the anti-imperialist rhetoric pervading much of the current literature.

Author: Douglas Ryan Boin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1620403188
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
The supposed collapse of Roman civilization is still lamented more than 1,500 years later-and intertwined with this idea is the notion that a fledgling religion, Christianity, went from a persecuted fringe movement to an irresistible force that toppled the empire. The “intolerant zeal” of Christians, wrote Edward Gibbon, swept Rome's old gods away, and with them the structures that sustained Roman society. Not so, argues Douglas Boin. Such tales are simply untrue to history, and ignore the most important fact of all: life in Rome never came to a dramatic stop. Instead, as Boin shows, a small minority movement rose to transform society-politically, religiously, and culturally-but it was a gradual process, one that happened in fits and starts over centuries. Drawing upon a decade of recent studies in history and archaeology, and on his own research, Boin opens up a wholly new window onto a period we thought we knew. His work is the first to describe how Christians navigated the complex world of social identity in terms of “passing” and “coming out.” Many Christians lived in a dynamic middle ground. Their quiet success, as much as the clamor of martyrdom, was a powerful agent for change. With this insightful approach to the story of Christians in the Roman world, Douglas Boin rewrites, and rediscovers, the fascinating early history of a world faith.

Author: John Dominic Crossan
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 006174428X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
The bestselling author and prominent New Testament scholar draws parallels between 1st–century Roman Empire and 21st–century United States, showing how the radical messages of Jesus and Paul can lead us to peace today Using the tools of expert biblical scholarship and a keen eye for current events, bestselling author John Dominic Crossan deftly presents the tensions exhibited in the Bible between political power and God’s justice. Through the revolutionary messages of Jesus and Paul, Crossan reveals what the Bible has to say about land and economy, violence and retribution, justice and peace, and ultimately, redemption. He examines the meaning of “kingdom of God” prophesized by Jesus, and the equality recommended to Paul by his churches, contrasting these messages of peace against the misinterpreted apocalyptic vision from the book of Revelations, that has been co-opted by modern right-wing theologians and televangelists to justify the United State’s military actions in the Middle East.

Author: Don H. Compier
Publisher:
ISBN: 0800662156
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 560

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Book Description
The radically altered situation today in religion, politics, and global communication-what can broadly be characterized as postmodern and postcolonial-necessitates close rereading of Christianity's classical sources, especially its theologians. In this groundbreaking textbook anthology, twenty-nine distinguished scholars scrutinize the relationship between empire and Christianity from Paul to the liberation theologians of our time. The contributors discuss how the classical theologians in different historical periods dealt with their own contexts of empire and issues such as center and margin, divine power and social domination, war and violence, gender hierarchy, and displacement and diaspora. Each chapter provides insights and resources drawn from the classical theological tradition to address the current political situation. Book jacket.

Author: Richard A. Horsley
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9781563382178
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Over the centuries, Paul has been understood as the prototypical convert from Judaism to Christianity. At the time of Pauls conversion, however, Christianity did not yet exist. Moreover, Paul says nothing to indicate that he was abandoning Judaism or Israel. He, in fact, understood his mission as the fulfillment of the promises to Israel and of Israels own destiny. In brief, Pauls gospel and mission were set over against the Roman Empire, not Judaism.