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Archive: John Dominic Crossan
Obama, Easter and empire
Jesus was crucified by Empire. Jesus was raised by God. Empire and God are thereby proclaimed irreconcilable. President Obama, is America now an Empire?
By John Dominic Crossan | April 7, 2010; 08:57 AM ET | Comments (8)
The Real Issue is Violence, Not Sex
Let us debate about sex and marriage rather than war and violence. Let us concentrate on the bed-room rather than the war-room. Let us liberals get trapped--as always--on the right side of the wrong question. Does that distraction happen just by chance?
By John Dominic Crossan | December 9, 2008; 12:24 PM ET | Comments (28)
Whom Does Christ Exclude?
Since the sacraments belong to Christ rather even than to Christianity and certainly to Christianity rather than just to Roman Catholicism nobody would have had the right to refuse her. What God has brought together in Christ, do not dare to put asunder in Church
By John Dominic Crossan | July 9, 2008; 12:46 PM ET | Comments (165)
Pope Looked Outward, but Not Inward
While the Pope looked outward and made several very accurate structural criticisms of society, he never looked inward and made similar criticisms of his own hierarchy.
By John Dominic Crossan | April 27, 2008; 02:13 PM ET | Comments (14)
Time for Third Vatican Council
The Pope should convene the Third Vatican Council so that the hierarchy can solemnly return the gift of infallibility, and beg instead for the gift of accuracy, and maybe also for the gifts of transparency, honesty, and integrity?
By John Dominic Crossan | April 22, 2008; 06:31 AM ET | Comments (80)
Why Not Confront Putin, Jesus?
Sergei Torop may be a sincere prophet or even a devout messiah (as distinct from a fraud and a charlatan) but, to coin a phrase: "Vissarion, you're no Jesus Christ."
By John Dominic Crossan | February 6, 2008; 09:51 AM ET | Comments (35)
Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Care
"Sexual preferences" is simply contemporary code for lesbianism and homosexuality. The question is not asking, for example, about the "sexual preferences" of clergy who choose or are chosen for celibacy which is, after all, a "sexual preference" or, better, a...
By John Dominic Crossan | August 27, 2007; 06:00 AM ET | Comments (42)
Only One Verse is Necessary
Were all else lost forever from the Christian Bible, that single verse would be more than enough as surviving remnant to start over again from scratch.
By John Dominic Crossan | August 17, 2007; 10:17 AM ET | Comments (59)
Primacy and Insecurity
The papacy and hierarchy of Roman Catholicism have failed by refusing their sacramental vocation to lead by serving from below rather than by ruling from above
By John Dominic Crossan | July 19, 2007; 09:40 AM ET | Comments (37)
Back to Greek or, Better, Aramaic?
If a religion changes, it may go wrong; if it does not, it must go wrong.
By John Dominic Crossan | July 16, 2007; 09:07 AM ET | Comments (75)
Deport our Troops
When the problem is our presence, the solution is our departure....
By John Dominic Crossan | June 21, 2007; 10:51 AM ET | Comments (16)
Questioning and Conscience
Questioning is the voice of conscience and the absence of one is the death of the other.
By John Dominic Crossan | June 15, 2007; 09:52 AM ET | Comments (683)
Both/And not Either/Or
Paul's words should have been enough to end the Reformation delusion of any “faith’ versus “works” dichotomy.
By John Dominic Crossan | June 11, 2007; 08:57 AM ET | Comments (29)
Satisfied and Surprised
I find myself much more in the center than on the left wing—or, of course, the right wing.
By John Dominic Crossan | May 19, 2007; 10:52 AM ET | Comments (252)
Accuracy and Inadequacy
Jesus—at least for myself as a Christian—exemplified the justice of God over against the injustice of imperial power.
By John Dominic Crossan | May 11, 2007; 09:33 AM ET | Comments (43)
The Art of Non-Apologetic Apology
The ancient act of religious repentance is not the same as the modern art of rhetorical pseudo-apology.
By John Dominic Crossan | April 25, 2007; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (18)
Wounds Not Bones
Faith in Jesus’ resurrection is a declaration of Christian treason against any Empire—yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
By John Dominic Crossan | April 7, 2007; 09:36 AM ET | Comments (125)
"The World" Means What?
The idea that “the end of the world” is the consummation of a divine plan for the earth is due to a bad translation in the King James Version of the Bible.
By John Dominic Crossan | March 23, 2007; 09:37 AM ET | Comments (43)
Unfair Discrimination & Fair Criticism
The most serious charge I would make against Roman Catholicism is that it is deeply involved in a profound abuse of power both hierarchically and sacramentally.
By John Dominic Crossan | March 14, 2007; 10:26 AM ET | Comments (93)
Against Nature?
Paul was wrong on hair and equally wrong on homosexuality.
By John Dominic Crossan | March 2, 2007; 07:41 AM ET | Comments (108)
Love and Criticism
It is certainly possible to be critical of Israel and not be anti-Semitic. But it may not be possible to be critical of Israel and not be accused of anti-Semitism.
By John Dominic Crossan | February 22, 2007; 09:09 AM ET | Comments (8)
The World, the Flesh, and the Devil
The flesh is sacred when it is held in dialectic with the spirit—when, that is, each can be distinguished but not separated (like two sides of a coin.
By John Dominic Crossan | February 14, 2007; 09:46 AM ET | Comments (36)
The Earth is a World Heritage Site
We human beings have a vocation: To rule the earth like God, who so loves the world.
By John Dominic Crossan | February 8, 2007; 07:47 AM ET | Comments (11)
Prayer Is A Life Lived in Union With God
Jesus, in Mark's gospel, spends little time stopping to pray--he is already in a permanent state of prayer through that love-relationship with God.
By John Dominic Crossan | February 1, 2007; 08:29 AM ET | Comments (51)
On Bilingual Candidates
A bilingual candidate can sincerely translate "WWJD?” in two ways, first as ”What Would Jesus Do?” and then as “What Would Justice Demand?"
By John Dominic Crossan | January 30, 2007; 09:10 AM ET | Comments (16)
Testosterone Trumps Theology (Always?)
Women need beware men in unchecked charge.
By John Dominic Crossan | January 19, 2007; 09:13 AM ET | Comments (16)
Waist Deep In The 'Big Muddy'?
I hear again—after forty years—a certain repeated line from Pete Seeger’s “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” but now with Mekong morphed into Tigris.
By John Dominic Crossan | January 10, 2007; 06:06 PM ET | Comments (17)
The Best Game in Town
At the age of 15 God seemed to me to have the most exciting game in town.
By John Dominic Crossan | January 5, 2007; 09:30 AM ET | Comments (53)
While They Debate God's Existence, Earth Burns
Is it possible to live instead by a dialectic of body and soul, reason and revelation, history and faith – like two sides of a coin that can be distinguished but not separated? Could that be the challenge of the twenty-first century?
By John Dominic Crossan | December 27, 2006; 03:40 PM ET | Comments (35)
Jesus, As Son of God, Brought Humanity Salvation
To confess that Jesus is the Son of God means to commit your life to peace through justice rather than peace through victory.
By John Dominic Crossan | December 20, 2006; 12:50 PM ET | Comments (84)
Christianity's Non-Violence Unaccepted By All Nations
Are politically conservative Christians doing everything possible to lower rising levels of violence or are they giving violence the validation of a “Christian” blessing?
By John Dominic Crossan | December 14, 2006; 01:40 PM ET | Comments (16)
Are We Hard-Wired for God?
We are hard-wired to name the transcendental meaning by which we commit ourselves to live human lives in the certainty of human death
By John Dominic Crossan | December 6, 2006; 11:41 AM ET | Comments (68)
Returning Bronze Horses to Istanbul Might Heal Wounds
It is true that Christ practiced and commanded non-violence in a way that Muhammad never did. But granted that difference, history shows that Christianity used violence not only in just and unjust wars but also in direct and indirect conversions
By John Dominic Crossan | December 1, 2006; 05:00 PM ET | Comments (106)
A Thanksgiving Prayer
Thanksgiving is a national civic festival when all Americans celebrate the triumph of theory over practice, word over deed, and promise over fulfillment.
By John Dominic Crossan | November 23, 2006; 10:30 AM ET | Comments (6)
Monopoly & Genocide
When monopoly-on-truth is taken literally it always contains within itself a lethal germ of murder
By John Dominic Crossan | November 13, 2006; 08:30 PM ET | Comments (11)
