Sal In review BOOKS

The gospel alternative

FOR MANY PEOPLE the phrase "Paul and politics" refers to nothing more than Romans 13 and the common conclu-sion that Paul was basically a conserva-tive supporter of government as a di-vinely appointed institution. But in the last decade or so the study of Paul and his pol-itics has undergone a sea change, represented in the work of diverse scholars, including Neil Elliott, Richard Horsley and N. T. Wright.

Two assumptions have become axiomatic in Pauline studies: that the pervasive Roman imperial cult is an essen-tial aspect of Pauls con-text and that Paul's gospel is inherently both theopolitical and coun-ter imperial . A third t heme , increasingly ex-plicit among inter-pre ters , is that Paul's gospel confronts all im-perial systems, and espe-cially the new American empire of global con-sumerism and military might. In Search of Paul and Colossians Remixed three of these assumptions.

John Dominic Crossan, famous for his radical and controversial interpre-tations of Jesus, and archaeologist Jonathan Reed present a radical but not markedly controversial reading of Paul. They contend that in stark op-position to the Roman gospel of peace established through piety, war and global victory, Paul preaches an alter-native gospel of peace establ ished through covenant , nonviolence and

global justice, in which Jesus, not the emperor , reveals the t rue character and will of God. Like Crossan's Jesus, the authentic Paul of the seven gen-uine let ters p reaches "eschatology and equali ty now" in contrast to Roman hierarchy and dominat ion.

COLOSSIANS

In Search of Paul: H o w Jesus' Apostle Opposed Rome's Empire with God's Kingdom.

By John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L. Reed. Harper San Francisco, 464 pp., $29.95.

Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire . By Brian J. Walsh and Sylvia C. Keesmaat. InterVarsity, 256

pp., $22.00.

snare all (The authors argue that the remain-ing let ters2 Thessalonians, Colos-sians, Ephes ians and the pastoral epis t lesare in many ways "anti-Pauline.") Justification, they say, is the global establishment of God's nonvio-lent distributive justice.

Crossan and Reed in terpre t the various letters of Paul in light of the imperial cult that held the empire to-gether. Imperial devotion is expressed in many ways in Rome's "visual cul-ture"coinage, statues, buildings and

inscriptionsas well as in literature. As even the authors admit, the lengthy discussions of this evidence may over-whelm the reader, though they are punc tua ted with scores of pho-tographs and personal notes from the authors' travels. These discussions do

provide significant in-sights for the (often all too brief) interpretations of Paul's letters. For ex-ample, Crossan and Reed rightly suggest that the hymn of Philippians 2:6-11 reveals a "kenotic divinity" that is antitheti-cal to images of divine imperial power, and that the Corinthian letter re-veals the necessity of a corresponding "kenotic community." On the other hand, their inter-pretations of texts from the disputed letters and Acts are sometimes less than persuasive.

Most of the conclu-sions about Paul and empi r e tha t Crossan and Reed offer have b e e n p r e s e n t e d else-w h e r e , and somet imes more concisely (for ex-

ample , in Horsley's Paul and Em-pire), though not with helpful graph-ics. But two things set this book apart : negatively, a few tangent ia l and idiosyncrat ic subtheses (that Paul de l ibera te ly engaged in "con-vert poaching" at synagogues by tar-

Reviewed by Michael J. Gorman, dean of the Ecumenical Institute of Theology and professor of New Testament at St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore.

C H R I S T I A N C E N T U R Y June28,2005 36

geting primarily God-fearers, for in-stance), and positively, a willingness to specifically (though briefly) com-pare America to Rome and thus to contrast it with God's kingdom. This latter interpretive move, however, is not fully satisfying. Though the au-thors laud Paul for sharing Jesus' commitment to God's kingdom, they appear to see Paul and Jesus not as unique bearers of God's justice but as manifestations of a universal prin-ciple that can also be seen elsewhere. The book does not conclude with a political ecclesiology but with poli-tics more generally.

Nevertheless, throughout the book the authors write provocatively about the abnormal "normalcy" of civilization, built as it so often is on the twin pillars of hierarchy and power, and about the gospel's under-mining of those pillars. They also write insightfully about the standard imperial connections between piety, war and global "peace." The analo-gies between Rome and America are at times startling. For this reason, if no other, the book should be widely read.

What Crossan and Reed explicitly treat only briefly, Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat take on directly throughout Colossians Remixed, and they do so via a letter that Crossan and Reed consider anti-Pauline. In an un-usual alternative to the commentary genre, they argue creatively and per-suasively that this letter from Paul is an "explosive and subversive tract" that undermined imperial realities in the first century. Colossians, they say, should once again subvert empire as it is "remixed," or reread, in the post-modern era by those who live in the heart of the Pax Americana, the reign of global consumerism secured by so-cioeconomic and military structures. The authors, a husband and wife from the Christian Reformed tradition who minister and teach in Toronto, include themselves in this context, and like Crossan and Reed they lament that most people find empire to be normal.

Walsh and Keesmaat demonstrate that the hymn in Colossians 1:15-20 displays the worldview and master story of a community called to partici-pate in God's reconciliation of the

world through Christ. Those who are in Christ embody values that are anti-thetical to many of the basic values of empire, whether Roman or American. They are to reject the postmodern metanarrative of consumerism and to "secede" from its culture of greed and violence, not by abandoning their cul-ture but by living as a people who con-stitute an alternative to the empire's practices and who promote gospel practices within the empire. They

must spread God's salvation and peace through care for others and for the earth rather than consumerism, through acts of compassion and recon-ciliation rather than military action. They should read and perform Colos-sians (and the rest of the Bible) to dis-cern ways in which the Spirit is inspir-ing "faithful improvisation" on the text. Walsh and Keesmaat offer nu-merous concrete suggestions about such contemporary improvisation.

Christian Living AFTER BAPTISM Shaping the Christian life John P. Burgess $19.95 (Canada $27.95) 0-664-22884-4

GRACE IN A TREE STUMP Old Testament Stories of God's Love J. Ellsworth Kalas $14.95 (Canada $20.00) 0-664-22900-X

SOUL FEAST (NEW TRADE SIZE) An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life Marjorie J. Thompson Foreword by Henri J. M. Nouwen $14.95 (Canada $20.00) 0-664-22947-6

MEDITATING ON THE PSALMS John Eaton $19.95 (Canada $27.95) 0-664-22930-1

WERE YOU THERE? Finding Ourselves at the Foot of the Cross Erik Kolbell Foreword by Roger Rosenblatt Hardback $14.95 (Canada $20.00) 0-664-22778-3

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In Search of Paul can at times be a tedious read of archaeological "texts" and may not be fully theolog-ically satisfying, but Colossians Re-mixed is a lively, engaging blend of exegesis, cultural analysis and ex-plicit Christian theological interpre-tation that is an intriguing blend of Reformed and Anabaptist thought. The authors use a variety of literary forms to achieve this: creative his-torical reconstructions; imaginary conversations with their postmodern audience; and insightful "targums" (interpretive paraphrases focused on a contemporary audience) on the text of Colossians. The book is a unique, compelling and challenging read, both intellectually and spiritu-ally. Readers should be prepared to wade through one or two dense but rewarding discussions of postmod-ern theory and to rethink a wide range of issues.

These two books witness to a grow-ing consensus among theologians and others that Christian faith and Ameri-

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can empire are bound to clash and that the Christian church must be-come an alternative, counterimperial community with a prophetic voice and a different way of life. The current American agenda is seen as dangerous (if not demonic), not divine.

This conclusion is not yet shared by the average pastor or churchgoer; in fact, American Christianity still often assumes the lightness of merging em-pire with Christian piety. Even pro-gressives may conclude that these books go too far, either in their indict-ment of American empire or in their thesis that Paul wasand that we should becounterimperial. But if these four authors are on target, as I think they are, we can only hope that many people will read their books and ask, How shall we now live?

For the Sake of Heaven and Earth: The New Encounter Be-tween Judaism and Christianity.

By Irving Greenberg. Jewish Pub-lication Society, 360pp., $20.00pa-perback.

MOST CHRISTIANS and Jews remain settled in separate enclaves. They rarely step outside of their familiar domains and risk the confusion that comes from a searching encounter with the stranger next door. Given his upbringing within a tight-knit Jewish Orthodox community and his subse-quent study of the ethical and theolog-ical failures of Christians that culmi-nated in the Holocaust, Rabbi Irving Greenberg had ample reason to bolt his door and avoid contact with a tradi-tion whose bankruptcy is reflected in the fires of Auschwitz.

The odyssey that led Greenberg to venture into alien territory, where he engaged Christians in a rigorous ex-amination of their core affirmations, is chronicled in the first chapter of this remarkable book. Greenberg traces his discoveries of the Christian tradi-tion and its glories and failings, and he charts his own dramatic reassessment of the dangers and promises of the Christian-Jewish encounter, which re-sulted from his transformative friend-ships with Christian scholars such as

Roy and Alice Eckardt, Paul van Buren, Sister Rose Thering and Eva Fleishner.

These individuals embodied an uncommon spiritual courage and in-tellectual daring as they uncovered the seeds of anti-Judaism scattered across the Christian tradition and sought to cultivate theological ground that would be far more hos-pitable to creative partnerships. Their aptitude for self-critical en-gagement inspired Greenberg to ex-cavate his own tradition in search of resources with which to advance new understandings of religious plural-ism, and especially of the interplay of Judaism and Christianity.

The fruit of Greenberg s labors are here collected in nine essays that are brimming with insights that ripened between 1967 and 2004. In fluid prose that is accessible to a diverse reader-ship, Greenberg not only challenges Christians to scrutinize and reassess their theological assumptions but also presses the Jewish community to break out of its own insularity. The In-stitute for Christian and Jewish Stud-ies has used many of these essays to spark spirited exchanges among reli-gious professionals from a broad cross-section of the Jewish and Chris-tian communities, but some of Green-berg's Orthodox colleagues have re-acted with hostility to his pioneering efforts, providing a chilling, if under-stated, portrait of the personal cost of this theological project.

Christians have heralded Jesus as the Messiah, and their reading of the Hebrew Bible leads many of them to wonder why the Jewish people are un-able or unwilling to make that affirma-tion. Jews, on the other hand, have marveled at the credulity of Chris-tians, who are unable or unwilling to acknowledge that Jesus does not fit the messianic job description. Despite Jesus' coming, the world is still drenched in suffering. Global peace and justice remain an elusive prospect. Many Jews live in exile, and their return home hinges on the re-newal of a world in which Israel serves as a beacon of covenantal freedom and responsibility.

As the protagonist in the Paul New-man film Cool Hand Luke remarks,

CHRISTIAN CENTURY June28, 2005 38

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