In today's terms, where do you think Jesus would sit on the 'political spectrum' (if transferred into our secular thought) and how would you define his politics?
Here's my take on it (please provide your own with justifications!)
Scholarly reconstructions of the biblical data may assist us here:
For a comprehensive (and now classic) study of the theme of reversal in the ethics of Jesus see Allen Verhey, The Great Reversal: Ethics and the New Testament (Exeter: Paternoster, 1984)
Personally, in light of the clear evidence, I'd have to place Jesus firmly on the left-wing - at least economically and in terms of the social good - and if pushed to be more precise, probably somewhere between pacifist anarchism and revolutionary socialism.
My rationale runs as follows:
One of the things the majority of historical Jesus scholars can agree on (in spite of the myriad of competing and overlapping perspectives, ranging from apocalyptic prophet, prophet of social change, cynic philosopher, charismatic healer etc.), is that his entire worldview was anchored in the belief in something scholars call a "great reversal" of fortune.
This 'reversal', however conceptualised (and that depends on your paradigm of the historical Jesus), would see the traditional hierarchy of society upended and subverted, with those presently at the bottom of the social order - the poor, the dispossessed, the disabled, prostitutes, the socially marginalised - somehow placed at the top in the 'kingdom', whereas those presently at the highest rungs of society - the rich, the kings, rulers, nobility, priests, teachers of the law - would find themselves cast down to the bottom. (In simplistic terms).
There is basically no scholar trying to reconstruct the historical Jesus who doesn't accept this socio-political-moral belief as being paradigmatic of his worldview. This teaching, one might say basic assumption, is woven into so many disparate logia (sayings), parables and stories in the synoptic tradition, that it has to be accepted as a basic axiom of 'Jesusism'. If we can say at least one thing about what the historical Jesus might have taught, then we can would aver that he taught a great social reversal.
And whatever way you cut it, if transplanted to today, a modern-day Jesus would not be a conservative or defender of the status quo with such a radical ideological standpoint. He would be on the 'left': an opponent of the established institutions of privilege, unequal structures, distribution of resources and power relations / exploitative relationships that preyed on the weak in society. Certainly, if 'conservatism' is nowadays defined by capitalist economics, Jesus would not have supported it. I don't think that's seriously contestable.
Moving on to specifics - what kind of 'leftist' would he be in our contemporary, secular terms? (again just my opinion)
(continued....)
Here's my take on it (please provide your own with justifications!)
Scholarly reconstructions of the biblical data may assist us here:
"...Jesus' message was controversial and threatening to the established institutions of religious and political power in his society: the message carried with it a fundamental transvaluation of values, an exalting of the humble and a critique of the mighty. The theme of reversal seems to have been pervasive in his thought […] This reversal motif is built into the deep structure of Jesus' message, present in all layers of the tradition […] a foundational element of Jesus' teaching."
- Professor Richard Hays (Moral Vision of the New Testament, p. 164)
- Professor Richard Hays (Moral Vision of the New Testament, p. 164)
"...a ‘revolutionary’ or ‘subversive’ attitude towards empire, wealth, and inequality is an integral part of the earliest [Jesus] tradition and a product of socio-economic changes in Palestine as Jesus was growing up...the Jesus movement interacted with the[se] social upheavals in Galilee and Judea, as well as the Roman empire more broadly. The earliest Palestinian tradition pitted the kingdom of God against Rome, attacked wealth and privilege, supported the poorest members of society, and saw Jesus as an agent of the kingdom in both present and future [in which] rich and poor would be reversed."
- Professor James G. Crossley (Jesus and the Chaos of History: Redirecting the Life of the Historical Jesus, p.163)
"...The kingdom of God is characterized by the active identification and critique of coercive relations of power, and the enactment of new, egalitarian modes of social life. This is seen, perhaps most acutely, in the recurrent, general motif of reversal which is typical of traditions associated with Jesus [....] The socio-political nature of much of this reversal is obvious to a modern reader without knowledge of the specific political, religious and cultural context of first-century Palestine – though such knowledge is necessary for a fuller exploration of its implications.
In Jesus' vision, the kingdom belonged to the poor, not the rich; to the hungry, not those who were full; to the tax-collectors and prostitutes not chiefs priests and the aristocrats; to children not adults; to sinners and not the righteous. Its values were exemplified by foreigners, beggars, and impoverished widows not the religiously, politically and economically powerful. We find this theme in aphorisms, commandments, and sayings ascribed to the historical Jesus, but, perhaps above all, in the parables [...] But perhaps the most compelling evidence of socio-political reversal in traditions associated with Jesus is the recurrent portrayal of his own praxis, as someone who lived with the outcasts and the socially marginal, and in an almost constant state of conflict with those who were not.
The theme of reversal functions not just to expose a number of inequitable relationships, but also to make visible and valorise the powerless within them, and their needs and their desires. In addition to the theme of reversal we can see a significant cluster of traditions in which exploitation, whether economic, legal, theocratic, military, or medical, is exposed and condemned, and responses advocated or made available that affirm both the agency of the oppressed and their capacity to resist such oppression."
- Professor Justin Meggitt (Anachronism, anarchism and the historical Jesus, p.18-19)
- Professor James G. Crossley (Jesus and the Chaos of History: Redirecting the Life of the Historical Jesus, p.163)
"...The kingdom of God is characterized by the active identification and critique of coercive relations of power, and the enactment of new, egalitarian modes of social life. This is seen, perhaps most acutely, in the recurrent, general motif of reversal which is typical of traditions associated with Jesus [....] The socio-political nature of much of this reversal is obvious to a modern reader without knowledge of the specific political, religious and cultural context of first-century Palestine – though such knowledge is necessary for a fuller exploration of its implications.
In Jesus' vision, the kingdom belonged to the poor, not the rich; to the hungry, not those who were full; to the tax-collectors and prostitutes not chiefs priests and the aristocrats; to children not adults; to sinners and not the righteous. Its values were exemplified by foreigners, beggars, and impoverished widows not the religiously, politically and economically powerful. We find this theme in aphorisms, commandments, and sayings ascribed to the historical Jesus, but, perhaps above all, in the parables [...] But perhaps the most compelling evidence of socio-political reversal in traditions associated with Jesus is the recurrent portrayal of his own praxis, as someone who lived with the outcasts and the socially marginal, and in an almost constant state of conflict with those who were not.
The theme of reversal functions not just to expose a number of inequitable relationships, but also to make visible and valorise the powerless within them, and their needs and their desires. In addition to the theme of reversal we can see a significant cluster of traditions in which exploitation, whether economic, legal, theocratic, military, or medical, is exposed and condemned, and responses advocated or made available that affirm both the agency of the oppressed and their capacity to resist such oppression."
- Professor Justin Meggitt (Anachronism, anarchism and the historical Jesus, p.18-19)
For a comprehensive (and now classic) study of the theme of reversal in the ethics of Jesus see Allen Verhey, The Great Reversal: Ethics and the New Testament (Exeter: Paternoster, 1984)
Personally, in light of the clear evidence, I'd have to place Jesus firmly on the left-wing - at least economically and in terms of the social good - and if pushed to be more precise, probably somewhere between pacifist anarchism and revolutionary socialism.
My rationale runs as follows:
One of the things the majority of historical Jesus scholars can agree on (in spite of the myriad of competing and overlapping perspectives, ranging from apocalyptic prophet, prophet of social change, cynic philosopher, charismatic healer etc.), is that his entire worldview was anchored in the belief in something scholars call a "great reversal" of fortune.
This 'reversal', however conceptualised (and that depends on your paradigm of the historical Jesus), would see the traditional hierarchy of society upended and subverted, with those presently at the bottom of the social order - the poor, the dispossessed, the disabled, prostitutes, the socially marginalised - somehow placed at the top in the 'kingdom', whereas those presently at the highest rungs of society - the rich, the kings, rulers, nobility, priests, teachers of the law - would find themselves cast down to the bottom. (In simplistic terms).
There is basically no scholar trying to reconstruct the historical Jesus who doesn't accept this socio-political-moral belief as being paradigmatic of his worldview. This teaching, one might say basic assumption, is woven into so many disparate logia (sayings), parables and stories in the synoptic tradition, that it has to be accepted as a basic axiom of 'Jesusism'. If we can say at least one thing about what the historical Jesus might have taught, then we can would aver that he taught a great social reversal.
And whatever way you cut it, if transplanted to today, a modern-day Jesus would not be a conservative or defender of the status quo with such a radical ideological standpoint. He would be on the 'left': an opponent of the established institutions of privilege, unequal structures, distribution of resources and power relations / exploitative relationships that preyed on the weak in society. Certainly, if 'conservatism' is nowadays defined by capitalist economics, Jesus would not have supported it. I don't think that's seriously contestable.
Moving on to specifics - what kind of 'leftist' would he be in our contemporary, secular terms? (again just my opinion)
(continued....)
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