Jesus Is Lord, Caesar Is Not: Evaluating Empire in New Testament Studies
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
The New Testament is immersed in the often hostile world of the Roman Empire, but its relationship to that world is complex.
What is meant by Jesus’ call to “render unto Caesar” his due, when Luke subversively heralds the arrival of a Savior and Lord who is not Caesar, but Christ? Is there tension between Peter’s command to “honor the emperor” and John’s apocalyptic denouncement of Rome as “Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots”?
Under the direction of editors Scot McKnight and Joseph B. Modica, respected biblical scholars have come together to investigate an increasingly popular approach in New Testament scholarship of interpreting the text through the lens of empire. The contributors praise recent insights into the New Testament’s exposé of Roman statecraft, ideology and emperor worship. But they conclude that rhetoric of anti-imperialism is often given too much sway. More than simply hearing the biblical authors in their context, it tends to govern what they must be saying about their context. The result of this collaboration, Jesus Is Lord, Caesar Is Not, is a groundbreaking yet accessible critical evaluation of empire criticism.
Contributors include:
This is a Logos Reader Edition. Learn more.
- Approaches to the issue of imperial criticism of the NT.
- Concludes that the rhetoric of anti-imperialism is often given too much sway.
- Interprets the text through the lens of empire.
These accessible studies are exemplary in their clarity, informed by excellent scholarship and highly insightful in their argumentation. Although it is acknowledged that ‘empire criticism’ has given us some valuable new insight, it is clearly shown that anti-imperial rhetoric is not a major emphasis of the NT, nor was it a key purpose of the NT authors to oppose Rome in what they wrote. These insightful essays advance our thinking on this very important topic and further our understanding of the gospel and of the relationship between God’s kingdom and the powers of this world.
--Paul Trebilco, professor of New Testament studies, University of Otago, New Zealand
A series of vigorous assessments of the question, How anti-imperial are the New Testament texts? Most of these clearly argued articles come down fairly firmly on the negative side although some, such as Bird on Romans, see the texts as posing challenges to Rome. Everyone involved in these debates will want to engage with this book.
--Peter Oakes, Greenwood Senior Lecturer in the New Testament, University of Manchester
A valuable book. Highly recommended as both a good introduction to and a sane evaluation of the currently popular anti-imperial interpretation of the New Testament. Most of the essays clearly demonstrate that that interpretation is driven more by assumptions and modern theories of postcolonial criticism than by sound exegesis.
--Seyoon Kim, professor of New Testament, Fuller Theological Seminary
- Title: Jesus Is Lord, Caesar Is Not: Evaluating Empire in New Testament Studies
- Authors: Scot McKnight, Joseph B. Modica, Andy Crouch
- Publisher: IVP Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2013
- Logos Release Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- ISBNs: 9780830864584, 083086458X
- Resource ID: LLS:9780830864584
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-06T21:07:23Z