The Radical Jesus, the Bible, and the Great Transformation
Ebook
Overview
The Radical Jesus offers a companion to the author’s previous article collection Jesus and the Peasants. Even more than in Jesus and the Peasants, these eleven chapters sharpen the focus on the political-economic meaning of Jesus then and the deeper values embodied in him that perhaps are still pertinent for now. Part One considers his activities and aims within the political economy of first-century Galilee. Part Two offers perspectives on the critical hermeneutical task of linking the values of Jesus and the Bible to a world that has undergone what Karl Polanyi called the Great Transformation. Polanyi argued suasively in his 1944 book that economy in the pre-industrial age was embedded in social relations and served necessary social purposes, while society after the Great Transformation became embedded within market capitalist economy to the detriment of social relations. This book finds in sustained critical dialog with the Radical Jesus another transforming force and a guiding light toward a more humane economy and society that will serve human need rather than selfish greed.
“Oakman brokers for us many conversations. He hears and responds
to the conversations of his professional peers, who are often
monochromatic in focus: only agriculture, numismatics, pottery,
taxes, etc. Taking them honorably into account, he advances the
conversation by drawing their data together by means of overarching
social science models, thus making their data say much more. . . .
Oakman never fails to engage my settled opinions with fresh data
and unavoidable invitations to think again, to fill out the
picture, and to take seriously scholarship speaking a different
language. But Oakman is a gracious, enlightened, fair, trustworthy,
and competent conversational partner, well worthy of our close
reading. For traditional scholarship, this opens a new
dimension.”
—Jerome H. Neyrey, SJ, Professor Emeritus of New Testament Studies,
University of Notre Dame
“Doug Oakman is highly respected for his social-science studies of
Jesus as a radical critic with a vision of economic justice. With
this book, Oakman takes his studies of Jesus from the historical
past to the political present. A strong critic of parochial and
literalist Bible readings, Oakman engages in a fruitful dialogue
with contemporary philosophy and politics to make the Bible speak
to the essentially human in today’s world.”
—Halvor Moxnes, Professor Emeritus in Theology, University of
Oslo
“The Radical Jesus distills the profound wisdom of Doug
Oakman’s career-long engagement with the Bible, the Jesus tradition
in particular. It integrates his unique grasp of the material,
especially economic, dimensions of the biblical context, his
penetrating social-scientific insights, his meticulous engagement
with textual detail, and the overall framework of Lutheran
Christianity that he embodies to an exemplary degree. For
understanding what Jesus meant and what he still means, this book
merits our closest attention.”
—Philip F. Esler, Portland Chair in New Testament Studies,
University of Gloucestershire
“A powerful demonstration of why the estrangement of the Bible and
its world from modern America cannot be overcome by unconsciously
reading ourselves into its pages . . . or by removing it from the
real world of the struggling 95 percent in its own time whose
voices are never heard.”
—Richard L. Rohrbaugh, Paul S. Wright Professor of Religious
Studies Emeritus, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon
“For more than three decades Douglas Oakman has taught us how to
read the Bible using the social sciences as our guide. Always
creative and sometimes provocative, this current collection
continues in that endeavor. Both the academic guild and the faith
communities need to hear this voice.”
—David A. Fiensy, author of The Archaeology of Daily Life:
Ordinary Persons in Late Second Temple Israel
“Oakman’s sharp analysis of Jesus and Paul’s views on the economic
issues of their days is a breath of fresh air in a world dominated
by greed and profit. This book will show believers and
non-believers alike that there is a more humane way to manage the
economy.”
—Santiago Guijarro, Theology Faculty Member, Pontifical University
of Salamanca, Spain
“Douglas E. Oakman’s decades-long research on Jesus traditions in
their original Galilean social, economic, and political setting
comes to mature expression in this engaging collection of essays.
The essays represent rigorous historically oriented
social-scientific study combined with perceptive discussion of the
present relevance of biblical traditions. The author’s interest in
the meaning of Scriptures is rooted in his Lutheran background but
grows to break all doctrinal and confessional boundaries by
challenging readers, regardless of their confession or lack of it,
to ponder ‘what does it mean’ to take seriously the economic
implications of biblical traditions and especially of the original
message of Jesus.”
—Petri Luomanen, Professor of New Testament and Early Christian
Culture and Literature, University of Helsinki
“No one better articulates the economic and cultural impact of the
Roman imperium on ancient Palestine, and no one makes a stronger
case for understanding Jesus’s message as a response to it. As he
has done in the past, Oakman once again displays mastery of both
interpretive theory and the literary and material records of
first-century Palestine. He also shows the contemporary relevance
of Jesus’s message in the building of a more just and humane
world.”
—Richard E. DeMaris, Senior Research Professor, Valparaiso
University
“This is an essential guide for anyone who is interested in the
politics of the historical Jesus and wonders how to adapt the
biblical message to times of great inequality and strife. The
clarity of his sociological method and critical attention to
textual and archaeological detail encourage readers to pursue their
own questions and discover for themselves what the Bible and
Christian tradition, including Paul and others, might mean for us
today.”
—Gildas Hamel, Senior Lecturer Emeritus in History, University of
California, Santa Cruz
“This important new collection of articles from Doug Oakman makes
accessible his provocative and stimulating insights into Jesus’s
aims and how Jesus’s kingdom message was appropriated subsequently.
For some it may come as a shock. The first-century challenge to
social, economic, and political life presented by Jesus of Nazareth
is set out sharply and with scholarly skill. The implications for
modern values that Oakman draws may well prove unsettling rather
than comforting!”
—Ronald A. Piper, Professor Emeritus of Christian Origins,
University of St Andrews
“This book is strongly commended. The Radical Jesus
is an appeal for transformation in the past and present, densely
and clearly articulated. It is a book about a call for a ‘new kind
of leadership.’ It is about Jesus, killed by imperial power long
before his crucifixion. Nowhere else have I learned more in such a
condensed way than in this book about the economical and political
context of Jesus. . . . Douglas Oakman records Jesus’s
transformative ethos of radical grace, words ‘that might be still
be taken seriously.’”
—Andries Van Aarde, Emeritus Professor, University of
Pretoria
“The Radical Jesus, a follow-up to Jesus and the
Peasants, again showcases the immense contribution Oakman has
made to understand the social meanings of the historical Jesus in
his Galilean context. Topics such as Galilee as an advanced
agrarian society, Jesus and politics, peasant values, debt and
taxes in Roman Palestine, the ancient political economy in the time
of Jesus, and many more, have become synonymous to the work and
legacy of Oakman. The Radical Jesus yet again provides
essential information to understand the world of Jesus, but also
addresses the question whether Christianity and the Bible has
something to say to a society embedded within a market capitalist
economy that is detrimental to social relations and is driven by
greed. The Radical Jesus, yet again, is Oakman at his
best.”
—Ernest van Eck, Head of Department of New Testament and Related
Literature, University of Pretoria
“In the spirit of Michael Polanyi, who demonstrated the radical
difference between pre- and post-industrial/capitalist societies,
Douglas Oakman’s studies deftly combine advanced agrarian society
models, work on Judean resistance to political/economic oppression
by the Romans and their collaborators, Galilean archaeology, gospel
criticism, and historical Jesus research. He shows that despite
societal contrasts the radical Jesus’s moral imperative is highly
relevant for present-day American society: ‘You cannot serve God
and Mammon.’ A very impressive collection!”
—Dennis Duling, Professor Emeritus, Canisius College, Buffalo, New
York
“The Radical Jesus contains the mature reflections of a
leading historical Jesus scholar. Oakman’s employment of social
theory, big history, archaeology, and careful readings of early
Christian writings crafts a convincing case for reading Jesus as a
radical, embracing a vision of humanity challenging to those who
controlled the economic resources of his time. In the second part
of this book, Oakman crafts a compelling argument for why critical
biblical scholarship matters today.”
—Eric Stewart, Associate Professor of Religion, Augustana
College
“With its careful attention to the economic dimensions of early
Christianity, as well as its deliberate use of social-scientific
modeling to better comprehend the world of Jesus’s first followers,
this book is vintage Douglas Oakman. The essays are guided by
Oakman’s longstanding interest in social justice and, as such, they
will pique the curiosity of both scholars of early Christianity and
theologians interested in using the New Testament to grapple with
the modern condition.”
—Sarah E. Rollens, R. A. Webb Assistant Professor of Religious
Studies, Rhodes College
- Title: The Radical Jesus, the Bible, and the Great Transformation
- Author: Douglas E. Oakman
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Logos Release Date: 2021
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781725286665, 9781725286641, 9781725286658, 1725286661, 1725286645, 1725286653
- Resource ID: LLS:9781725286665
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T13:29:49Z