John Dominic Crossan Quotes

#1. It is impossible to avoid the suspicion that historical Jesus research is a very safe place to do theology and call it history, to do autobiography and call it biography.

John Dominic Crossan

#2. The past is recorded almost exclusively in the voices of elites and males, in the viewpoints of the wealthy and the powerful, in the visions of the literate and the educated.

John Dominic Crossan

#3. Jesus called for nonviolent resistance to Rome and just distribution of land and food. He was crucified because he threatened Roman stability - not as a sacrifice to God for humanity's sins

John Dominic Crossan

#4. Still, as one ponders that progress from open commensality with Jesus to episcopal banquet with Constantine, is it unfair to regret a progress that happened so fast and moved so swiftly, that was accepted so readily and criticized so lightly? Is

John Dominic Crossan

#5. Jesus is what God looks like in sandals

John Dominic Crossan

#6. I find anthropology is a marvellous discipline to shock me out of my own world into another world.

John Dominic Crossan

#7. My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally.

John Dominic Crossan

#8. To obtain and possess the kingdoms of the world, with their power and glory, by violent injustice is to worship Satan. To obtain and possess the kingdom, the power, and the glory by nonviolent justice is to worship God.

John Dominic Crossan

#9. The Greek is importantly different: "Jesus said to her, 'Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God

John Dominic Crossan

#10. The ... challenge of Christmas is this: justice is what happens when all receive a fair share of God's world and only such distributive justice can establish peace on earth.

John Dominic Crossan

#11. There were always historians who said [historical Jesus research] can not be done because of historical problems. There were always theologians who said it should not be done because of theological objections. And there were always scholars who said the former when they meant the latter.

John Dominic Crossan

#12. If an audience kept complete silence during a challenge parable from Jesus and if an audience filed past him afterward saying, 'Lovely parable, this morning, Rabbi,' Jesus would have failed utterly.

John Dominic Crossan

#13. The heart of God's justice is to make sure that the "weak and the orphan" have received their share of God's resources for them to live and thrive. Retributive justice comes in only when that ideal is violated.

John Dominic Crossan