- By Melissa Fassel

"Why do they hate us so?" asked many Americans of people in the Middle East following the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. Richard Horsley, Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and the Study of Religion at UMass Boston, attempts to shed light on this puzzling, frightening question in his new book, Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder. Published by Fortress Press, his latest work signifies a major advance in Jesus studies and presents a critique of oppression that also sheds light on post-9/11 politics in the United States.

According to Horsley, most Westerners think of Jesus solely as a religious figure and rarely take into account the political nature of his plight to free the oppressed Israelites of Rome's imperialism. Horsley argues that the "kingdom of God" preached by Jesus is not only a spiritual place – a reminder that Israel can have no ruler but God – but also a place where the kings and emperors of Rome would have to stand under God's judgment.

Horsley contrasts Jesus and the Israelites' rebellion against the Roman Empire with a similar present-day uprising against global capitalism and the United States led by Middle Easterners. This juxtaposition is particularly ironic, given that America has historically thought of itself as a biblical people, exemplified by the phrase "In God We Trust" prominently stamped on all American currency.

The controversial concepts in Jesus and Empire are not new to this Jesus scholar. Horsley authored the widely read Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs, which also separated the religious from the sociopolitical by suggesting that Israelites were a gypsy-like band of peasants who'd established their own utopian society in Palestine's hills. The book further proposed that Jesus was one among many prophets working toward political change.

Desmond Tutu, Nobel laureate and Archbishop Emeritus, praised the work ""… what I found quite exhilarating was [Horsley's] showing the crucial relevance of proper New Testament scholarship and theology in the amazing parallels he has shown to exist between the policies of the ancient Roman Empire and those of contemporary America" " and advised that in light of the charged atmosphere of international politics, politicians read the book.