New Testament and Christian origins scholarship have historically been influenced by their political and social context. Jesus in an Age of Terror applies the work of critical and media theorists to contemporary Christian origins and New Testament scholarship. Part one examines the influence of the mass media on the writing of contemporary biblical scholars, whose political views - as demonstrated in their 'biblio-blogging' - are shown to have striking similarity to the media's depiction of the 'war on terror' and conflict in the Middle East. Part two argues that the Anglo-American cultural mis-representation of Islam as the 'great enemy' has led New Testament and Christian origins scholarship to collude with intellectual defences of the war in Iraq. Part three examines the influence of the media's approach to Palestine and Israel on biblical studies, exploring the shift towards widespread support for Israel in contemporary scholarship.

"A powerful provocation to contemporary New Testament/Christian origins scholarship.'"

Source: Review of Biblical Literature

"A sustained, judicious and informed critique. Crossley's voice is a vital one.'"

Justin Meggitt

"In this challenging and provocative book, James Crossley puts recent scholarship on Christian origins under the spotlight, utilizing analytic tools drawn from Chomsky, Hermand and Said. ...This compelling book does much more than stating the obvious: that scholarship reflects the concerns and agendas of its proponents. It offers a plausible political explanation for the rise of particular trends in NT scholarship in the 1970s. More importantly, it is a powerful reminder to the scholarly community that what we write not only has political implications, but affects - for good and for ill - actual human lives. Crossley's critique may not make for easy reading, but it deserves to be taken very seriously.'"

Source: Journal for the Study of the New Testament