The revered Bible scholar and author of The Historical Jesus explores the Christian culture wars-the debates over church and state-from a biblical perspective, exploring the earliest tensions evident in the New Testament, and offering a way forward for Christians today. Leading Bible scholar John Dominic Crossan, the author of the pioneering work The Historical Jesus, provides new insight into the Christian culture wars which began in the New Testament and persist strongly today. For decades, Americans have been divided on how Christians should relate to government and lawmakers, a dispute that has impacted every area of society and grown more rancorous over the past forty years. But as Crossan makes clear, this debate isn't new; it can be found in the New Testament itself, most notably in the tensions between Luke-Acts and Revelation.  In the texts of Luke-Acts, Rome is considered favorably. In the book of Revelation, Rome is seen as the embodiment of evil in the world. Yet there is an alternative to these two extremes, Crossan explains. The historical Jesus and Paul, the earliest Christian teachers, were both strongly opposed to Rome, yet neither demonized the Empire. Crossan sees in Jesus and Paul's approach a model for Christians today that can be used to cut through the acrimony and polarization roiling our society and dividing us.

Render Unto Caesar - The Struggle Over Christ and Culture in the New Testament

The acclaimed Bible scholar and author of The Historical Jesus and God & Empire-"the greatest New Testament scholar of our generation" (John Shelby Spong) -grapples with Scripture's two conflicting visions of Jesus and God, one of a loving God, and one of a vengeful God, and explains how Christians can better understand these passages in a way that enriches their faith. Many portions of the New Testament, introduce a compassionate Jesus who turns the other cheek, loves his enemies, and shows grace to all. But the Jesus we find in Revelation and some portions of the Gospels leads an army of angels bent on earthly destruction. Which is the true revelation of the Messiah-and how can both be in the same Bible?How to Read the Bible and Still be a Christian explores this question and offers guidance for the faithful conflicted over which version of the Lord to worship. John Dominic Crossan reconciles these contrasting views, revealing how different writers of the books of the Bible not only possessed different visions of God but also different purposes for writing. Often these books are explicitly competing against another, opposing vision of God from the Bible itself. Crossan explains how to navigate this debate and offers what he believes is the best central thread to what the Bible is all about. He challenges Christians to fully participate in this dialogue, thereby shaping their faith by reading deeply, reflectively, and in community with others who share their uncertainty. Only then, he advises, will Christians be able to read and understand the Bible without losing their faith.

How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian - Struggling with Divine Violence from Genesis Through Revelation

The eBook collection of four complete works by bestselling author and leading historical Jesus scholar John Dominic Crossan, including Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, The Birth of Christianity, The Power of Parable, and The Greatest Prayer.

The John Dominic Crossan Essential Set - Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, The Birth of Christianity, The Power of Parable, and The Greatest Prayer

In 1969, I was teaching at two seminaries inthe Chicago area. One of my courses wason the parables by Jesus and the other wason the resurrection stories about Jesus. I hadobserved that the parabolic stories by Jesusseemed remarkably similar to the resurrectionstories about Jesus. Were the latter intended asparables just as much as the former? Had webeen reading parable, presuming history, andmisunderstanding both?-from The Power of ParableSo begins the quest of renowned Jesus scholarJohn Dominic Crossan as he unlocks the truemeanings and purposes of parable in the Bible sothat modern Christians can respond genuinely toJesus's call to fully participate in the kingdom ofGod. In The Power of Parable, Crossan examinesJesus's parables and identifies what he calls the"challenge parable" as Jesus's chosen teaching toolfor gently urging his followers to probe, question, and debate the ideological absolutes of religiousfaith and the presuppositions of social, political, and economic traditions. Moving from parables by Jesus to parables aboutJesus, Crossan then presents the four gospels as"megaparables." By revealing how the gospels arenot reflections of the actual biography of Jesus butrather (mis)interpretations by the gospel writersthemselves, Crossan reaffirms the power of parablesto challenge and enable us to co-create withGod a world of justice, love, and peace.

The Power of Parable - How Fiction by Jesus Became Fiction about Jesus

Every Sunday, the Lord's Prayer echoes in churches around the world. It is an indisputable principle of Christian faith. It is the way Jesus taught his followers to pray and distills the most essential beliefs required of every one of the world's 2.5 billion Christians. In The Greatest Prayer, our foremost Jesus scholar explores this foundational prayer line by line for the richest and fullest understanding of a prayer every Christian knows by heart. An expert on the historical Jesus, Crossan provides just the right amount of history, scholarship, and detail for us to rediscover why this seemingly simple prayer sparked a revolution. Addressing issues of God's will for us and our response, our responsibilities to one another and to the earth, the theology of our daily bread, the moral responsibilities that come with money, our nation-states, and God's kingdom, Crossan reveals the enduring meaning and universal significance of the only prayer Jesus ever taught.

The Greatest Prayer - Rediscovering the Revolutionary Message of the Lord's Prayer

In this national bestseller, John Dominic Crossan, the world's leading expert on the historical Jesus, reveals how Christianity emerged in the period following Jesus' death. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, Crossan shines new light on the theological and cultural contexts from which the Christian church arose. He argues powerfully that Christianity would have happened with or without Paul and contends that Jesus' "resurrection" meant something vastly different for his early followers than it does for many traditional Christians today--what mattered was Christina origins finally illuminates the mysterious period that set Western religious history in its decisive course.

The Birth of Christianity - Discovering What Happened In the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus

John Dominic Crossan, the eminent historical Jesus scholar, and Jonathan L. Reed, an expert in biblical archaeology, reveal through archaeology and textual scholarship that Paul, like Jesus, focused on championing the Kingdom of God--a realm of justice and equality--against the dominant, worldly powers of the Roman empire. Many theories exist about who Paul was, what he believed, and what role he played in the origins of Christianity. Using archaeological and textual evidence, and taking advantage of recent major discoveries in Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Syria, Crossan and Reed show that Paul was a fallible but dedicated successor to Jesus, carrying on Jesus's mission of inaugurating the Kingdom of God on earth in opposition to the reign of Rome. Against the concrete backdrop of first-century Grego-Roman and Jewish life, In Search of Paul reveals the work of Paul as never before, showing how and why the liberating messages and practices of equality, caring for the poor, and a just society under God's rules, not Rome's, were so appealing. Readers interested in Paul as a historical figure and his place in the development of Christianity .Readers interested in archaeology and anthropology

In Search of Paul - How Jesus' Apostle Opposed Rome's Empire with God's Kingdom

Top Jesus scholars Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan join together to reveal a radical and little-known Jesus. As both authors reacted to and responded to questions about Mel Gibson's blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, they discovered that many Christians are unclear on the details of events during the week leading up to Jesus's crucifixion. Using the gospel of Mark as their guide, Borg and Crossan present a day-by-day account of Jesus's final week of life. They begin their story on Palm Sunday with two triumphal entries into Jerusalem. The first entry, that of Roman governor Pontius Pilate leading Roman soldiers into the city, symbolized military strength. The second heralded a new kind of moral hero who was praised by the people as he rode in on a humble donkey. The Jesus introduced by Borg and Crossan is this new moral hero, a more dangerous Jesus than the one enshrined in the church's traditional teachings. The Last Week depicts Jesus giving up his life to protest power without justice and to condemn the rich who lack concern for the poor. In this vein, at the end of the week Jesus marches up Calvary, offering himself as a model for others to do the same when they are confronted by similar issues. Informed, challenged, and inspired, we not only meet the historical Jesus, but meet a new Jesus who engages us and invites us to follow him.

The Last Week - What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem

Jésus a appelé à une résistance non violente à Rome et à la simple distribution de terres et de nourriture. Il a été crucifié parce qu'il menaçait la stabilité romaine - pas comme un sacrifice à Dieu pour les péchés de l'humanité.

Il est impossible d'éviter la suspicion que la recherche historique de Jésus est un endroit très sûr pour faire la théologie et l'appeler l'histoire, pour faire l'autobiographie et l'appeler la biographie.

Mon point, une fois de plus, n'est pas que ces personnes anciennes ont raconté des histoires littérales et nous sommes maintenant assez intelligents pour les prendre symboliquement, mais qu'ils leur ont dit symboliquement et nous sommes maintenant assez stupides pour les prendre littéralement.

La mort de Jésus par la crucifixion sous Ponde Pilate est aussi sûre que tout ce qui peut être historique. Car si aucun adepte de Jésus n'avait écrit quoi que ce soit pendant cent ans après sa crucifixition, nous le saurions toujours de deux auteurs pas parmi ses partisans. Leurs noms sont Flavius Josephus et Cornelius Tacite.

Je parle du point de vue des États, nous avons tendance à assassiner des gens comme Jésus, ou si nous ne le faisons pas, nous les marginalisons simplement. Oprah aurait tous ceux qui pensent qu'ils sont le Messie dans son émission, et nous aurions six personnes qui prétendaient toutes être le Messie, et nous nous serions débarrassés de Jésus et que nous lui avons ri de la ville. Donc, tant que Jésus que j'entends est là, je ne le trouve pas très à l'aise.

Maintenant, quand vous obtenez quelque chose comme l'apocalypse de Jean, quand ce Dieu vengeant va avoir du sang dans les morceaux de bride sur 200 miles, je pense que c'est veineux, je ne pense pas que ce soit la justice, je ne pense pas que ce soit Jésus, et Je ne pense pas que ce soit le Dieu de Jésus. C'est le dieu tueur, et le problème avec le dieu tueur est qu'il nous justifie de faire de même, et en fait cela nous invite peut-être à commencer un peu.

Je trouve que l'anthropologie est une merveilleuse discipline pour me choquer de mon propre monde dans un autre monde.

Jésus est ce à quoi Dieu ressemble dans les sandales

Jésus a dit aux paraboles. Quand il voulait dire quelque chose de vraiment profond à propos de Dieu, il est entré en parabole. Je ne trouve pas surprenant alors que lorsque le premier christianisme voulait dire quelque chose de profond à propos de Jésus, ils sont également allés en parabole. Cela ne signifie pas que tout est une parabole. Quand il dit que Jésus était à Nazareth, je ne pense pas que ce soit une parabole, je pense que Jésus était à Nazareth. Quand il parle de Jésus marchant sur l'eau, je ne pense pas que ce soit le point du tout, je pense que le fait est que l'église sans Jésus coule.

Si quelqu'un dit, vous savez, pour aimer vos ennemis, vous pourriez dire: «Eh bien, je vais les aimer à mort. Nous avons fait ce genre de choses pour que cela puisse être fait. Mais si vous commencez vraiment par aimez vos ennemis, et si vous regardez la tradition des premiers siècles chrétiens, personne ne semble jamais suggérer bien s'ils viennent après nous pour nous persécuter, est-ce que c'est bien d'en tuer quelques-uns? Défensivement, bien sûr.

Le ... défi de Noël est le suivant: la justice est ce qui se passe lorsque tous reçoivent une juste part du monde de Dieu et seule une telle justice distributive peut établir la paix sur Terre.

Ce que je remarque, en tant qu'historien lisant des histoires sur les miracles dits de la nature, la marche sur l'eau ou la capture miraculeuse des poissons, ils sont faits spécialement pour les initiés, pour les disciples. Habituellement, les guérisons et les exorcismes sont effectués pour les personnes le long de la route, pour ainsi dire. Jésus ne vient pas sur l'eau pour sauver la flotte de pêche de Capernaum, il vient sur l'eau pour sauver les disciples. C'est une parabole, mannequin, c'est une parabole, tu ne comprends pas? Si la direction de l'Église décolle dans un bateau sans Jésus, elle coulera, elle n'aura nulle part.

Je peux être absolument à l'aise avec un Jésus apocalyptique parce qu'il avait tout simplement tort. Tant qu'il a tort, je ne m'inquiète pas pour lui, et essentiellement tous ceux qui annonçaient en l'an 2000 à minuit, la fin du monde arrive, je m'attends à ce qu'ils se trompent. Maintenant, s'ils ont raison bien sûr, je serai très mal à l'aise cette nuit-là. Mais tant que tout le monde depuis 2000 ans a eu tort sur l'apocalypse, je peux être assez à l'aise avec cela. C'est la fiction spatiale.

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