God and Empire by John D. Crossan

I must be on a liberal kick. I picked up God & Empire because of a footnote in Jesus for President. Little did I know that the author, John Dominic Crossan was the co-founder of the Jesus Seminar.

Crossan is buddies with Marcus Borg, so that should give you a little hint as to where he comes from concerning Jesus.

I had to get past the horribly written first chapter to really enjoy this book. The first chapter feels like you're reading the most boring university lecture ever created. The latter chapters pick up the pace and my interest.

This book follows on the coattails of the fad of learning about the historical Jesus - the Jewish rabbi, peasant, teacher. Crossan has written a couple books detailing the past and what the historical context of Jesus' life was like.

In this book, we learn what it must have been like to live under Roman authority. Over and over again we read about Rome's "Peace through Victory" while God was is all about "Peace through Justice". Very interesting.

As with Borg, I find myself reading Crossan's thoughts and wondering, why does it have to be either/or? Why can't it be both? Why can't the things we read in the Bible be historically accurate and used for teaching like a parable?

This was another "heavy" book. Quite "high eyebrow" if you ask me. For the scholarly among you.