Jesus and Empire Provides Insight Into Today's Highly Charged Atmosphere of International Politics

November 5, 2002

MINNEAPOLIS – Fortress Press is proud to announce a major advance in Jesus studies and a critique of oppression in the release of Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder by Richard A. Horsley.

"A cogently argued critique of prevalent approaches to the historical Jesus that depict him as individualistic, depoliticised and that ignore the real context in which he operated. Horsley makes a very good case for his relational-contextual approach, which makes better sense of the New Testament and other evidence available. But what I found quite exhilarating was his showing the crucial relevance of proper New Testament scholarship and theology in the amazing parallels he has shown to exist between the policies of the ancient Roman Empire and those of contemporary America. In the present highly charged atmosphere of international politics, this is a very important – indeed salutary – book that should be read not just by New Testament scholars, but especially by politicians."

– Desmond Tutu, Nobel laureate and Archbishop Emeritus
Author of No Future without Forgiveness (2000)

"In this provocative new book, Richard Horsley builds on his previous work to develop further his understanding of Jesus as a resistance leader to Roman imperial domination. Horsley situates this picture of Jesus against empire in the context of the ambiguity of American identity as a people who see themselves as both liberated and liberating, New Israel and the New Rome of global empire. He shows how these two identities are on a collision course post–September 11, 2001. Americans must ultimately choose between them."

– Rosemary Radford Ruether
Author of The Wrath of Jonah: The Crisis of Religious Nationalism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (2nd ed. 2002)
and Women and Redemption: A Theological History (1998)

"Richard Horsley is one of the few writers who can draw the connections between ancient text and contemporary political meaning. At his dexterous hands we discover riches of insight and gems of interpretation that leave us all in his debt. The Roman Empire becomes the foil that exposes the American Empire. The Kingdom of God reveals the hideousness of the New World Disorder, and Jesus is discovered to be the purveyor of truths available nowhere else."

– Walter Wink, Auburn Theological Seminary, New York
Author of The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of the Man (2001)
and When the Powers Fall: Reconciliation in the Healing of the Nations (1998)

Building on his earlier studies on Jesus, Galilee, and the social upheavals in Roman Palestine, Horsley focuses his attention on how Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God relates to the Roman and Herodian power politics. In addition he examines how modern ideologies relate to Jesus' proclamation.

JESUS AND EMPIRE by Richard A. Horsley, $17.00, Paper, published by Fortress Press.
Richard A. Horsley is Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and the Study of Religion at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He is the author and co-author of numerous books, including: The Message and the Kingdom (Fortress Press, 2002); Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs (1985); Jesus and the Spiral of Violence (Fortress Press, 1992); Galilee (1995); Archaeology, History, and Society in Galilee (1996); The Message and the Kingdom (1997); 1 Corinthians (1998); and Whoever Hears You Hears Me (1999). He is also the editor of Paul and Empire (1997), and Paul and Politics (2000).