Jesus Against Christianity: Reclaiming the Missing Jesus Book

For the last ten years scholars such as Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, and Luke Timothy Johnson have dominated the popular conversation about the nature of Jesus of Nazareth. In the process, the historical figure known as Jesus has been repeatedly separated from the Christ of faith, worshipped in the Christian tradition. This practice, however, is not new. The Gospel writers themselves sometimes misrepresented Jesus in order to further their own particular understandings or agendas. Consequently, writes Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, Christianity, both in content and actual practice, is radically disconnected from the Jesus of history. While Jesus embraced a nonviolent God and set himself against the domination system of his time, Christianity frequently sanctions violence as the servant of powerful and domineering institutions. Nelson-Pallmeyer argues that Christianity can do this specifically because it has articulated a Christ distinct from the historical Jesus. Without roots in the life and faith of Jesus, Christianity easily reconciles God and Christ with the distorted values and priorities of the dominant culture that both ignores and accelerates a global crisis of violence, injustice, and meaning. Jesus Against Christianity explores the mystery of how and why Jesus disappeared from Christianity, the troubling religious and historical consequences traceable to his disappearance, and alternative approaches that place Jesus of Nazareth and our own religious experience at the center of Christian faith.Read More