Class Struggle in the New Testament

A reinvigoration of historical materialism within the study of the New Testament & Christian origins

Initially funded by a competitive Faculty of Arts Research Development Fund grant from the University of Auckland, this project advances the discussion of class analysis in relation to the social and economic worlds of Jesus, Paul, and their first followers. It principally draws on the explanatory power of Marxist theory to critically re-interpret and re-evaluate the primary sources of earliest Christianity.

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The project culminated in the publication of an edited volume Class Struggle in the New Testament, as well as a number of academic and popular articles.

The research has also provided a launching pad for subsequent major projects, namely, Jesus in the Ruins of Neoliberalism and Jesus: A Life in Class Conflict which are currently in development. 

Class Struggle in the New Testament

Edited volume published by Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2019

Paperback edition released in July 2021!

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Class Struggle in the New Testament engages the political and economic realities of the first century to unmask the mediation of class through several New Testament texts and traditions. Essays span a range of subfields, presenting class struggle as the motor force of history by responding to recent debates, historical data, and new evidence on the political-economic world of Jesus, Paul, and the Gospels. Chapters address collective struggles in the Gospels; the Roman military and class; the usefulness of categories like peasant, retainer, and middling groups for understanding the world of Jesus; the class basis behind the origin of archangels; the Gospels as products of elite culture; the implication of capitalist ideology upon biblical interpretation; and the New Testament’s use of slavery metaphors, populist features, and gifting practices. This book will become a definitive reference point for future discussion. 

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Read the introduction to the volume here.