Jesus & Utopia

by Beavis, Mary Ann

• ISBN13: 9780800635626
• ISBN10: 0800635620
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-10-01
• Publisher: Fortress Pr

Summary

Scholarship on the historical Jesus and, now, on the "Jesus movement" generally divides into separate camps around two sticky questions: was Jesus an apocalyptic prophet and was the movement around him political, that is nationalistic or revolutionary? Mary Ann Beavis moves the study of the historical Jesus in a dramatic new direction as she highlights the context of ancient utopian thought and utopian communities, drawing particularly on the Essene community and Philo's discussion of the Therapeutae, and argues that only ancient utopian thought accounts for the lack of explicit political echoes in Jesus' message of the kingdom of God.

Author Biography

Mary Ann Beavis is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Religious Studies and Anthropology at St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	vii
Introduction: Ancient Utopias, Jesus, and the Kingdom of God	1	(8)
Ancient, Classical, and Hellenistic Utopias	9	(20)
Biblical Utopias: From Eden to the Kingdom of God	29	(24)
Ideal Communities in Early Judaism: Essenes, Therapeutai, Havurah	53	(18)
Jesus and the Kingdom of God in Biblical Scholarship	71	(14)
Jesus' Preaching of the Kingdom of God in Utopian Context	85	(18)
Conclusion: From Basileia to Ekklesia	103	(6)
Notes	109	(32)
Bibliography	141	(14)
Index of Names and Subjects	155	(8)
Index of Scripture Citations	163