Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

FAITH AND THE HISTORICAL JESUS §4.6
as significant for their influence on contemporary use of the Gospel portrayal of
Jesus, particularly in terms of liberation theology, as they have been for their
contributions to the 'quest of the historical Jesus' as such — if not more. 143
b. Richard Horsley
The other most important voice in calling for a realistic historical sociology of
the Jesus movement has been Richard Horsley. Reviving an emphasis which has
surfaced periodically in 'Life of Jesus' research, 144 Horsley protests vigorously
against the depoliticisation of Jesus and his mission and questions the theological
presuppositions which have dominated most previous discussion. 145 In particular,
traditional interpretations of Jesus individualized his teaching and assumed
that 'religion' and 'politics' are two quite separate categories; whereas the tradition
for Jesus was that of the political prophets, Elijah and Elisha, and he was executed
as a political agitator or criminal, charges of which he was hardly entirely
innocent. 146 In Jesus' teaching, the kingdom of God should not be understood in
terms of the older apocalyptic eschatology as the end of the world ('cosmic catastrophe'),
but as 'a political metaphor and symbol' of the restoration of society
and the renewal of social life; Jesus' concern was for nothing less than 'the renewal
of Israel' conceived in 'some fairly definite and distinctive patterns of social
relationship'. 147 What was in view, then, was not particular groups or wandering
charismatics, but local communities, conceived in familial but nonpatriarchal
terms (Mark 3.35), communities without hierarchy (Matt. 23.8-9)
whose members took economic responsibility for one another ('forgive us our
(Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1975) 20-37. It also worked with a conception of Jesus as a
millenarian prophet (28-32) which was just about to go out of fashion among those from whom
Gager might have expected support (see further below, §4.7).
143. Notably L. Boff, Jesus Christ Liberator: A Critical Christology for Our Time
(Maryknoll: Orbis, 1978); J. L. Segundo, The Historical Jesus of the Synoptics (1982; ET
Maryknoll: Orbis, 1985); E. Schüssler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological
Reconstruction of Christian Origins (New York: Crossroad, 1983) 105-59; see also her 'Jesus
and the Politics of Interpretation', HTR 90 (1997) 343-58. They regard traditional dogmatic
concerns as a cloak for colonial and patriarchal oppression.
144. From Reimarus (§4.2) to S. G. F. Brandon, Jesus and the Zealots: A Study of the
Political Factor in Primitive Christianity (Manchester: Manchester University, 1967).
145. R. A. Horsley, Jesus and the Spiral of Violence: Popular Jewish Resistance in Roman
Palestine (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987).
146. Horsley, Jesus 151-53, 156-57, 160-64; also ch. 10.
147. Horsley, Jesus 168-72, 192-208. Horsley has deeply influenced R. D. Kaylor, Jesus
the Prophet: His Vision of the Kingdom on Earth (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox., 1994)
particularly ch. 3.
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