Songs of Resistance: Challenging Caesar and Empire
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Songs of Resistance: Challenging Caesar and Empire examines New Testament hymns in light of their historical and cultural contexts. Such a reading yields new insights. Rather than finding theological truths alone, one also discovers lyrics that contest and defy Rome’s “great tradition.”
The early Christ followers sang songs that opposed the empire’s worldview and offered an alternative vision for society. These songs were a first-century equivalent of modern-day protest songs. But instead of marching and singing in the streets, believers gathered in private spaces where they lifted their voices to Jesus and retold the story of his execution as an enemy of the state and how God raised him from the dead to rule over the universe. As they sang, believers were emboldened to remain faithful to Christ and withstand the temptation to comply with the sociopolitical agenda of the empire.
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- Examines New Testament hymns in light of their historical and cultural contexts.
- Helps to find theological truths.
- Guides to discover lyrics that contest and defy Rome’s “great tradition”.
- Chapter 1: New Testament Songs in Historical Context
- Chapter 2: In the Beginning Was the Song
- Chapter 3: The Exalted Christ: The Object of Praise
- Chapter 4: Mary’s Song: The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55)
- Chapter 5: A Lyrical Prologue (John 1:1-18)
- Chapter 6: A Hymn of Christ (Philippians 2:6-11)
- Chapter 7: Song of Supremacy (Colossians 1:15-20)
- Chapter 8: The Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:16)
- Chapter 9: Hymn Fragments
- Chapter 10: The Songs of Revelation
- Chapter 11: Conclusion
Alan Streett’s Songs of Resistance offers fresh and important readings of selected New Testament songs. This important study places passages that have often been read as theological statements in relation to the ideological claims and socio-political contexts of Roman imperial power. This insightful, intertextual discussion constructs the NT texts as songs of protest and hope that rejected Rome’s ‘illusionary version of reality’ and ‘extolled Jesus above Caesar and God’s kingdom above Rome’s.
—Warren Carter, Phillips Theological Seminary
For thousands of years, faith expressed in song has inspired resistance rather than compliance to the powers that be. This often-forgotten insight may come as a surprise, but it is at the heart of the good news of the gospel, and it holds momentous insights for contemporary life. Those who seek to take the biblical texts seriously will find in this book a wealth of inspiration.
—Joerg Rieger, Vanderbilt University
I love Alan Streett’s new book, Songs of Resistance. He rightly interprets the songs and hymns in the New Testament against the backdrop of the Roman imperial cult, in which Caesar was viewed as a son of the gods and savior of the realm, celebrated in song and poetry. The early following of Jesus resisted the cult of Caesarea, singing, instead, of a Savior who conquered death.
—Craig A. Evans, Houston Baptist University
- Title: Songs of Resistance: Challenging Caesar and Empire
- Author: R. Alan Streett
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Print Publication Date: 2022
- Logos Release Date: 2025
- Pages: 193
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- Subjects: Hymns in the Bible; Bible. N.T. › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Hymns, Early Christian; Rome › In the Bible; Politics in the Bible
- ISBNs: 9781725269996, 9781725270015, 1725270013, 1725269996, 9781725270008, 1725270005
- Resource ID: LLS:SNGSRSSTNCCSMPR
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-12-05T22:53:36Z
R. Alan Streett (PhD) (University of Wales, UK) is Senior Research Professor Emeritus of Biblical Theology at Criswell College (Dallas, TX), and served as Editor of Criswell Theological Review. He is author of The Effective Invitation (Kregel), Subversive Meals (Pickwick), Heaven on Earth (Harvest House), Caesar and the Sacrament (Cascade), Songs of Resistance (Cascade), and Exploring the Paranormal (Eerdmans). He has contributed chapters to several edited books. Streett is an elected member of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas.