by Tony Keddie
University of California Press
9/9/2021, paperback
SKU: 9780520385696
Jesus loves borders, guns, unborn babies, and economic prosperity and hates homosexuality, taxes, welfare, and universal healthcare--or so say many Republican politicians, pundits, and preachers. Through outrageous misreadings of the New Testament gospels going back almost a century, conservative influencers have conjured a version of Jesus who speaks to their fears, desires, and resentments. In Republican Jesus, Tony Keddie explains not only where this right-wing Christ came from and what he stands for, but also why this version of Jesus is a fraud. By restoring Republicans' cherry-picked gospel texts to their original literary and historical contexts, Keddie dismantles the biblical basis for Republican positions on hot-button issues like Big Government, taxation, abortion, immigration, and climate change. At the same time, he introduces readers to an ancient Jesus whose life experiences and ethics were totally unlike those of modern Americans, conservatives and liberals alike.
Reviews:
"Keddie makes a convincing case that the leaders of the Christian Right, and especially Donald Trump's court evangelicals, have often allowed politics to shape their reading of the Bible and not the other way around."--John Fea, author of Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump
"Written by a first-rate expert on the New Testament, Republican Jesus is a compelling and no-holds-barred tour de force: whatever proponents of the Christian right might claim, the Republican Jesus stands radically at odds with the Jesus of the Gospels. This is a must-read for our divisive and dangerous times."--Bart D. Ehrman, author of Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife
About the Author:
Tony Keddie is Assistant Professor of Early Christian History and Literature at the University of British Columbia and author of Class and Power in Roman Palestine and Revelations of Ideology.