The new world disorder

Catholic New Times, May 18, 2003 by Mario Degiglio-Bellemare

Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder, by Richard A. Horsley. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.

I can think of no other book more relevant to First World Christians in these times of military unilateralism than Jesus and Empire, written by biblical scholar Richard Horsley. A New Testament scholar from the University of Massachusetts, Horsley has an impressive list of books to his credit, many of which are on the cutting edge of biblical scholarship. Focusing on the early Markan and Q sources of the gospels, the book is an expanded version of lectures Horsley gave in 2001. It is a short and very readable text, making it accessible to a public beyond the confines of academia. But more importantly, its publication in the present post-9/11 context of U.S. military expansionism imparts a political-religious urgency to the themes discussed in ways rarely witnessed in theological or biblical research.

If you have read Ched Myers' voluminous Binding the Strong Man (1988), a politically incisive reading of Mark's gospel, Horsley's material on Mark may not seem all that new. Its newness, however, comes from the times we are living in and the parallels Horsley draws between them and the times of Jesus. And if one takes history seriously, this makes a big difference in how one reflects theologically and biblically, individually and as a community. We are living in momentous times, times of unprecedented change.

Since the U.S. seizure of the Philippines and Cuba in 1898, it has emerged as the sole superpower of the 20th century, and like Rome before it, has imposed its "peace" through a convergence of military might, economic exploitation, and other more low-intensity strategies. Horsley believes that Rome has much to teach us about the workings of empire today, especially in the post-9/11 context of unilateralism.

This is a book concerned with the relationship between religion and politics. Should religion remain a private concern divorced from the public sphere? Horsley reminds his readers that in Jesus times, these dichotomies were non-existent. No such separation between religion and politics existed in the ancient world; it is a modern liberal construct that continues to hold much sway today. Horsley attempts to demystify the depoliticized Jesus created in liberal scholarship. Liberal biblical scholars often portrayed Jesus as a figure whose sayings were directed to individuals, not to social groups or institutions. In a consumer society, where individualism prevails, and where "spirituality" has become a catchword for the self-realization of antiseptic bourgeois lifestyles, Horsley's demystification of the depoliticized Jesus, and especially the catastrophic historical context in which he lived, is urgently needed.

Moreover, we live in a society where material on the "real" Jesus sells, Such as in PBS and A&E documentaries and in the outpouring of books on the "historical Jesus." In this context we often find the domesticated Jesus of the liberal academics, now become "wisdom teacher," the Cynic who walks around giving individuals good advice through isolated sayings and parables. This is the Jesus of consumer capitalism, seeking out individuals to make this wisdom the basis for a "mindful" spirituality focused on good thoughts and positive energy, yet oblivious to the depths of empire, where one finds the rejected and disposable of the Pax Americana.

Horsley compels his readers to reject this reductionist view of Jesus that orders, controls, and isolates his individual sayings as if they were nuggets of truth divorced from historical context. He seeks to understand Jesus as part of a movement influenced by a baffling diversity of popular prophetic and messianic movements attempting to counter the horrendous reality of the Pax Romana, especially on poor labourers and peasants.

Horsley's Jesus-in-relation is a Jesus understood from the perspective of a wider picture of socio-political-religious unrest in a Palestine under Roman occupation. This wider picture includes the "little traditions," those traditions not fully revealed in the "official traditions" of the elite. What we know about popular movements and popular unrest under Roman rule is only the tip of the iceberg of what was happening on the ground in Palestine. Horsley insists on a method that incorporates the "hidden transcripts" of resistance, not usually visible to the elite and not readily incorporated into their traditions.

This wider story, Horsley insists, can help to understand why this prophet named Jesus ben Joseph was crucified, a form of execution used to intimidate potential rebels in the provinces, while another contemporary prophet, Jesus ben Hananiah, known for his wisdom sayings, was simply beaten and thrown out of Jerusalem. For Horsley, part of the answer has to do with Jesus-in-movement, namely, Jesus as an initiator of alternative communities of covenant renewal that opposed the Pax Romana through exorcisms and healings. Horsley reminds us that the Gospels have never been so relevant for Christians living under the "peace" of empire.