Jesusviolence: Racism, Speciesism, and Other Violences in and after the Gospels

Summary

What does Jesus say and do within the narrative worlds of the New Testament gospels that, through the ages, enabled innumerable gory horrors and immense systemic violence to be perpetrated with his presumed permission? That is the question driving this book. Its compound title, Jesusviolence, simultaneously denotes: first, the violence inflicted on the gospel Jesuses in their narrative worlds; second, the violence enacted by the gospel Jesuses in their narrative worlds; and third, certain of the violence enacted in Jesus's name in our histories and worlds. The book's investigation of Jesusviolence extends over a spectrum ranging from the spectacularly visible—most notably, the ultraviolent spectacle that was Roman crucifixion—to the systemically invisible, which is to say structural, sanctioned, or sanctified violence, encapsulated in such gospel sayings as "The poor you always have with you" and "Are you [humans] not of more value than [nonhuman animals]?" Entangled with class- and species-related stratagems of systemic violence in and after the gospels are sex/gender-related stratagems, and race/ethnicity-related stratagems, the latter epitomized by the whitening of the gospel Jesus(es). Inspired by affect theory, non-representational theory, and other related currents of thought, this book is more interested in what gospel texts do than what they mean.