Jesus in an Age of Terror: Scholarly Projects for a New American Century

BibleWorld

by James G. Crossley

New Testament and Christian origins scholarship have historically been influenced by their political and social context. 'Jesus in an Age of Terror' applies the work of critical and media theorists to contemporary Christian origins and New Testament scholarship. Part one examines the influence of the mass media on the writing of contemporary biblical scholars, whose political views - as demonstrated in their 'biblio-blogging' - are shown to have striking similarity to the media s depiction of the 'war on terror' and conflict in the Middle East. Part two argues that the Anglo-American cultural mis-representation of Islam as the 'great enemy' has led New Testament and Christian origins scholarship to collude with intellectual defences of the war in Iraq. Part three examines the influence of the media's approach to Palestine and Israel on biblical studies, exploring the shift towards widespread support for Israel in contemporary scholarship.

282 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK. I struggled with this book in some ways because I am not immersed in biblical studies enough yet to recognise some of the references to people and scholarship, and at times I found it repetitive (although now I appreciate how much the author drove some of the points home). However, this book is highly important to the field, I think. I have begun in my own reading to pick up on the cultural bias of academics, and the orientalism and racism found within biblical commentry, especially anthropological reaserch. The way in which James Crossley situates biblical studies in a neoliberal context is very interesting, and his use of Noem Chomsky illuminating. It is interesting that interest in the 'Jewishness of Jesus' was picked up not after the Holocaust, but after Isreal won the six day 'war' in 1967 and became a bigger power in the middle east (aka when America suddenly took notice). I will be re-reading the chapter about how scholars intersted in the Jewishness of Jesus still manage to maintain superiority complexes about Christianity being a better form of Judaism. I am probably guilty of this in the way I have thought about Jesus as rejecting Jewish law, and so I need to understand how I might not actually be researching thoroughly enough or where I might be relying on scholars' work who have superiority complexes, and how and where to avoid using this work as source material. I am glad I read this book, I think it will do me good as a future academic in the field, and help me to challenge the racism I find there.