Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict

Product Information

James Crossley joined MF in 2022 as Research Professor in Bible, Society and Politics. He was previously Professor of Bible, Culture, and Politics at the University of Sheffield and Professor of Bible and Society at St Mary's University, London. There are more updates to come in the lead up to the book’s release next year. In the meantime, I include the book’s cover art (above), blurb, and Table of Contents to pique your interest: From the outset, this book seeks to place the “Jesus Movement” within its wider economic and social context. In so doing, the authors speedily debunk the “Great Man” myth and demonstrate the large number of similar grouplets in a Palestine that was being convulsed by serious dislocations.

This combination produced a millenarianism that was both ideologically focused on right behaviours, and adroitly pragmatic enough to embark on a sustained “mission to the rich” to swell its numbers and financing. Others may find this is one of the work’s greatest achievements in that it shatters a number of lazy liberal assumptions about Jesus which strive anachronistically to restrict him to the role of a soixante-huitard hippy.Precise, clear, accessible, and important. I can think of no better introduction to the historical Jesus for the general reader, no clearer statement on the legacy of the Jesus movement in the sweep of subsequent history, or a more worthy challenge to contemporary scholarship on Jesus and the rise of Christianity.” – Neil Elliott, author of Liberating Paul: The Justice of God and the Politics of the Apostle This combination produced a millenarianism that was both ideologically focused on right behaviors, and adroitly pragmatic enough to embark on a sustained “mission to the rich” to swell its numbers and financing. More generally, if the Jewish historian Josephus is the chief witness for the Galilean world of “excessive taxation, discontent, banditry, warfare and violent reprisals”, his own motives for painting this picture for the Romans should be more closely examined. Without such testing, it remains unclear that the Jesus movement was a product of class-conflict and agrarian unrest. When John’s shorthand term for the Jewish authorities in the Passion narrative as “the Jews” is described as a “chilling ‘fascist-like’ tendency”, the reader may be forgiven for assuming that the authors slip too readily into a Marxist perspective.

They have found most to be wanting, if not serious distortions predicated upon the writers’ own contemporary class interests, including revered Biblical scholars such as E.P. Sanders. Precise, clear, accessible, and important. I can think of no better introduction to the historical Jesus for the general reader, no clearer statement on the legacy of the Jesus movement in the sweep of subsequent history, or a more worthy challenge to contemporary scholarship on Jesus and the rise of Christianity.' Neil Elliott, author of Liberating Paul: The Justice of God and the Politics of the Apostle Dr Robert Myles of Wollaston Theological College in the University of Divinity, together with Professor James Crossley of MF Oslo, have co-authored a new book: Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict. The book, published by Zer0 Books, was officially released on 24 th February 2023.Crossley, J. (2022). Mary Magdalene and the Life of Judith in Life of Brian, Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus, s. 156 - 169. Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus, ISSN: 1476-8690 A work of exceptional scholarship, the greatest story ever told as told from below is more compelling than ever. I was utterly engrossed. What impresses the most, though, is in how by demystifying an epic class struggle of the past lessons of strategic relevance to struggles for liberation in the present can be drawn. Essential stuff. One of the ways James connects his interest in these two periods is through his focus on how people understand and negotiate historical change. His work on political rhetoric, for instance, looks at how the social, economic, and geopolitical upheavals have led to distinctive ways of constructing what the Bible and religion "really means" Similarly, his work on first-century Palestine looks at how socio-economic changes in Galilee and Judea intersected with traditions associated with Jesus and how these were then interpreted, ignored, rethought, modified, adapted, and so on.

For many young men of the time, there were only two realistic responses: banditry or hitching themselves to a prophetic itinerant movement. Crossley and Myles have recaptured the mind-blowing excitement generated by the original quest to distinguish the Jesus of history behind the myth.” – Deane Galbraith, Lecturer in Religion, University of Otago

Other Topics

Copious and informed material information by way of well-wrought and well-written biographical narrative. The book conveys a sharp sense of the times and places, the issues and discussions, the difficulties and possibilities. A marvelous idea on the part of Crossley and Myles” – Fernando F. Segovia, Oberlin Graduate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, Vanderbilt University Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict provides an important refocusing and reprioritizing of earlier Scriptural studies as seen through the lens of historical materialist analysis. We are not neutral. Our mission is to be a voice for truth, democracy, the environment, and socialism. We believe in people before profits. So, we take sides. Yours! This account of the life of Jesus is neither a historical novel nor a scholarly monograph. It represents an excellent fusion of these approaches: copious and informed material information by way of well-wrought and well-written biographical narrative. The book conveys a sharp sense of the times and places, the issues and discussions, the difficulties and possibilities. A marvelous idea on the part of Crossley and Myles—altogether well done! But, why do I say that? Firstly, the book has a good amount of introductory materials regarding the Jesus movement (and, of course, Jesus), making it perfect for newcomers (including those familiar with historical materialism, but no good knowledge about New Testament studies). Secondly, and most importantly, the book continues an important correction (lamentably rare in NT studies) to the Great Man reading of Jesus (something that I, among others, have tried to do with Paul, even if we have been misread). Jesus is best understood within the socio-political (and, here, this is meant in a grounded, *material* way) movements operating within his context. The Jesus movement was part of wider dynamics going on; and, well, it's existence would have *been* without the singularity of the historical man seen at the centre of it. Jesus was *formed* by the social and economic forces operating in first century Galilee.