Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict

New book coming 2022

As of yesterday, my co-author James Crossley and I submitted the final author-approved manuscript of Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict to our publisher Zer0 Books.

To my knowledge, this book will be the first major contemporary biography on Jesus from a historical materialist perspective and written by respected experts in the field. Written for a broad audience, it understands the Jesus movement and rise of Christianity without resorting to the usual Great Man view of history and instead pursues a history from below. In doing so, it distils the main findings of historical Jesus research in a way that will be of interest and relevance to a wide variety of readers on the Left and in the academy.

There are more updates to come in the lead up to the book’s release next year. In the meantime, I include the book’s cover art (above), blurb, and Table of Contents to pique your interest:

What made the Jesus movement tick? This thrilling historical materialist take on the historical Jesus situates the life of Jesus of Nazareth in the turbulent troubles of first-century Palestine. Bringing a wealth of knowledge on the social, economic, and cultural conflicts of the time, Crossley and Myles uncover the emergence of a fervent and deadly serious religious organizer. His social and religious movement offered a radical end-time edict of divine reversal and judgment, as well as promising a new world order ruled in the interests of the peasantry. The popular appeal of the movement was due in part to a desire to represent the values of ordinary rural workers. The movement’s vision meant the rich would have to give up their wealth, but the poor would be afforded a life of heavenly luxury. Tensions flared up considerably when the movement marched on Jerusalem, and Jesus was willingly martyred for the cause. Crossley and Myles offer a vivid portrait of the man and his movement and uncover the material conditions that converged to make it happen.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction: A Life in Class Conflict

The Quest of the Historical Materialist Jesus

Millenarianism and Banditry

Pre-Political Agitation

What is the “Historical Jesus” and How Do We Know?

A Précis

Chapter 2 Growing Up in a Gentrifying Galilee

Jesus from Nazareth

What’s in a Name?

Growing up in Nazareth

Illiterate Peasant?

A World Turning Upside Down

Religious Organizers

Chapter 3 Ideological Training with John the Baptist

John as Religious Organizer and Wilderness Man

John, Elijah, and the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord

Baptism of Repentance

Baptizing Jesus

Fruits of Repentance

The Death of John the Baptist

Chapter 4 Becoming a Religious Organizer

Building the Vanguard

Fishing for (not so Great) Men

Tax the Rich!

Discipleship of Equals? The Vanguard Jesus Party

Crowds and Peasant Unrest

Healings, Exorcisms, and Miracles

Chapter 5 Revolutionary Millenarianism

Apokalypsis: for the Oppressed Masses, the Displaced Elites, or Both?

A Regime Change from the Heavens: The Dictatorship of the Peasantry

The Damned Rich!

Ideological Re-education: Wealthy “Sinners”

A New King of Kings and Lord of Lords?

Agrarian Realism: Is There No Alternative?

Chapter 6 Family Troubles

Rejection in Galilee

Homelessness, Itinerancy, and the Jesus Movement

The Jesus Party as Family

Men of Contradiction

Fatherly Masculinity

Butch Millenarianism

Chapter 7 Discipline and Community

Was Jesus a Violent Subversive?

Serious Literature

Disciplined Exegesis

Divorce and Decadency

Pure and Impure Living

Purity and the Good Samaritan

Pure and Impure Support       

Chapter 8 A Preferential Option for Death

The Martyrs Are Immortal!

With the Blood of Martyrs

Dying to Be Great Men

Chapter 9 Passover in Jerusalem

Passover

Entering Jerusalem

Unrest in the Temple

A Crowded Temple

The End?

Predictions of the Temple’s Destruction

Jesus’ Last Passover Meal

Defection of a Comrade

Chapter 10 A Ransom for the Many

Trial and Punishment

The Crowd’s Preferential Option for Jesus’ Death

Total Humiliation: The Shame of Crucifixion

Reversing Burial: Tombs for the Poor, Pits for the Rich?

Post-mortem Visions of a Millenarian Martyr

Chapter 11 What Happened Next?

The Failed Revolution of the Jesus Movement

Spread of Christianity

God of Empire