Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict

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Crossley, J. (2022). Towards a Vulgar Marxist Reading of Christian Origins Today, Critical Theory and Early Christianity,, s. 252 - 267. Equinox Publishing, ISBN: 9781781794135 Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader supported. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all. 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.

As of yesterday, my co-author James Crossley and I submitted the final author-approved manuscript of Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict to our publisher Zer0 Books .

JESUS: A Life in Class Conflict provides an important refocusing and reprioritising of earlier Scriptural studies as seen through the lens of historical materialist analysis. 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. James is one of the academic directors of the Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CenSAMM). 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.

Two of our most capable Marxist biblical interpreters offer a historical materialist life of Jesus, grounded in the social and material forces of Jesus’ age rather than on efforts to read Jesus’ mind. 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. 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 We are part of the pro-democracy media contesting the vast right-wing media propaganda ecosystem brainwashing tens of millions and putting democracy at risk. Although containing little original research, authors James Crossley and Robert J Myles have painstakingly examined many of the mainstream interpretations of the life, teachings and execution of Jesus.James Crossley (MF Norwegian School of Theology and Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements) will present his new book co-authored with Robert J. Myles (Wollaston Theological College, Perth, Australia) 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 EP Sanders. Sometimes, Crossley and Myles try too hard in their debunking mission. The claims of hyper or “servant” masculinity and the downgrading of the Movement’s radical inclusion of women needs far more substance to stand up than they provide here. 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 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.

With Crossley and Myles, the difficulty is that too often supposition turns into certainty. There is too much of “it is not out of the question to suppose . . .”. To mention just two detailed points: the presentation of the movement as “tough, muscular, hard, and manly” hardly fits Peter’s reaction to Caiaphas’s servant-girl. Nor does the “preferential option for death” accord well with the persistent and emphasised failure of the disciples to accept the message of suffering. His research and teaching interests can be put into two broad categories: historical Jesus, Christian origins and Judaism in the first century; politics, religion, and reception history. He has supervised and welcomes PhD students in both areas. Crossley, J. (2022). John Ball and the 1381 English Uprising: From Rebellion to Revolutions, Religion in Rebellions, Revolutions, and Social Movements,, s. 71 - 88. Routledge, ISBN: 9781003177821 At a time when Marxists and people of faith continue to treat each other’s core texts with contempt or suspicion, Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict is a timely and welcome study. May it be the first of a revived genre.The authors maintain that Jesus’s actions and teachings, even after being given a considerable makeover by the Gospel writers, were informed as much by this agrarian realism, as by the prevailing Jewish religious expectations and practices. 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 hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, please support great working-class and pro-people journalism by donating to People’s World. I will admit to being inordinately skeptical, so there are of course lots of points where I simply don't think much (read 99%) of the Gospels are historical (sorry, not even John the Baptist's baptism of Jesus). I also don't think Q existed or similar. So, of course, Crossley and Myles come to rather radically different conclusions than I would, but that is irrelevant to the quality of the volume ultimately. Even where I firmly disagree with them, their cases are still well argued and entirely plausible. I have always been partial to historical materialist understandings of Jesus, and this one as a millenarian prophet, and a failed revolution (which did not bring about the theocratic dictatorship of God, or the systemic economic changes it wished) is, I will say, the most convincing I have read.