Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography
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"Jesus is a magisterial distillation of Crossan's lifelong work on the gospels and Jesus. It deserves careful and extended consideration by everyone seriously interested in the enigmatic sage from Galilee. With his work on Jesus, Crossan joins the ranks of the truly great biblical scholars of the twentieth century. His 'revolutionary biography' is the biography of a revolutionary: the book and its subject are rebels in the cause of truth."-- Robert W. Funk, editor of "The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus" and cofounder of the Jesus Seminar"Crossan paints his Jesus with great warmth and power. He achieves a portrait that both takes in the contemporary background yet accounts for Jesus' distinctiveness...This Jesus is a Jewish peasant, with a direct sense of God's immediacy, who shatters all social restraints." -- "New York Times Book Review""This is an extremely interesting, erudite, informative, must-read for anyone interested in the New Testament...Read it." -- "National Catholic Reporter"
Product Description
John Dominic Crossan is widely regarded as the leading authority on the words and life of Jesus Christ. His classic national bestseller, Jesus, is a powerful and controversial portrait of a courageous revolutionary, philosopher, and political agitator who challenged the prevailing rules of the social order. Bold, moving, and provocative, a book that will affect every Christian reader deeply and profoundly, Jesus is a remarkable work that presents a very different view of a saviour and king of peace who proclaimed - in thought and action - that all may participate in the rule of God.
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Crossman is obviously an accomplished scholar and a brilliant writer. However, I do not find his portrait of Jesus as a societal rebel very convincing. His description seems to be based on too many shaky assumptions. Crossan is more successful in showing just how elusive the historical Jesus can be for any New Testament critics bold enough to join the search. The book is definitely not intended to make the reader feel comfortable but I highly recommend it.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Open and free healing. A Jewish cynic. History remembered and prophecy historicised. Such has been the impact of John Dominic Crossan on the study of the historical Jesus that phrases like those - which more or less define his conclusions about the life of Jesus and what happened to him later - have passed into common currency among New Testament scholars and interested lay theologians. Books like this one (the popularised version of `Jesus: the Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant') give us that view of Jesus in relatively short order.
And what a view. It's impossible not to be - almost simultaneously - unsettled at how much of the New Testament he sweeps away (no Joseph of Arimathea, probably no encounter with Pilate); and inspired at the revolutionary assessment of the likely impact of his boundary-breaking choice of eating companions, category-defying approach to healing of social exclusion (`illness') and egalitarianism - the latter eclipsed by a later `writing-in' of leaders such as Paul, Peter and James. But for all the sweeping grandeur of some of its conclusions, this is also an often nuanced book: Crossan's espousal of Jesus as Cynic philosopher is well-known but, on the evidence of this book, slightly over-simplified in the popular imagination. There are similarities to the Cynic school in Jesus' approach, but also differences - he is rural, they urban; he organising a communal movement, they pursuing an individualist philosophy. A Cynic philosopher perhaps, but a very peasant, very Jewish one.
Lots to enjoy here, then and I did thoroughly enjoy the read, which is demanding without being abstruse, iconoclastic without being sensationalist. The problem the book leaves, though, is the gap between Crossan's Jesus - very credible because socially situated, albeit sometimes rather narrowly conceived in 19th-century Marxist `class' terms - and the Christ of faith. Such a large gap, though, that it looks pretty unbridgeable in the time and space available before he becomes that object of faith in Paul's letters and the gospels, even allowing for the possibility of skilled exegetes among Jesus followers that Crossan posits. Different understandings of his passion (as historical, as a narrative, as fulfilment of prophecy) would seem to demand competing - or perhaps complementary - Jesus groups, but Crossan never really explains how this variety of interpretations might have originated, given the Jesus he depicts. Crossan's intriguing - and valuable - account of myth-making about Jesus aside, there's definitely a sense that there must have been more to Jesus than the author allows, for him to have become so attractive to so many so quickly after his death. Not wholly convincing, then, but should definitely be read by anyone wanting to keep up with current debate on the historical Jesus.
And what a view. It's impossible not to be - almost simultaneously - unsettled at how much of the New Testament he sweeps away (no Joseph of Arimathea, probably no encounter with Pilate); and inspired at the revolutionary assessment of the likely impact of his boundary-breaking choice of eating companions, category-defying approach to healing of social exclusion (`illness') and egalitarianism - the latter eclipsed by a later `writing-in' of leaders such as Paul, Peter and James. But for all the sweeping grandeur of some of its conclusions, this is also an often nuanced book: Crossan's espousal of Jesus as Cynic philosopher is well-known but, on the evidence of this book, slightly over-simplified in the popular imagination. There are similarities to the Cynic school in Jesus' approach, but also differences - he is rural, they urban; he organising a communal movement, they pursuing an individualist philosophy. A Cynic philosopher perhaps, but a very peasant, very Jewish one.
Lots to enjoy here, then and I did thoroughly enjoy the read, which is demanding without being abstruse, iconoclastic without being sensationalist. The problem the book leaves, though, is the gap between Crossan's Jesus - very credible because socially situated, albeit sometimes rather narrowly conceived in 19th-century Marxist `class' terms - and the Christ of faith. Such a large gap, though, that it looks pretty unbridgeable in the time and space available before he becomes that object of faith in Paul's letters and the gospels, even allowing for the possibility of skilled exegetes among Jesus followers that Crossan posits. Different understandings of his passion (as historical, as a narrative, as fulfilment of prophecy) would seem to demand competing - or perhaps complementary - Jesus groups, but Crossan never really explains how this variety of interpretations might have originated, given the Jesus he depicts. Crossan's intriguing - and valuable - account of myth-making about Jesus aside, there's definitely a sense that there must have been more to Jesus than the author allows, for him to have become so attractive to so many so quickly after his death. Not wholly convincing, then, but should definitely be read by anyone wanting to keep up with current debate on the historical Jesus.
16 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was an exceptionally informative read. Crossan manages to raise some compelling questions without forcing his own interpretation on the reader. Yes, there is much here that will unnerve both the theologian and those of rigid faith, but nothing that isn't explored with reasoned and compassionate insight. As to the Kirkus review above, it falls prey to its own criticism - telling us more about the critic than the book itself. Read Crossan. He will open yours eyes.
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