The disciples. Mary Magdalene. Lazarus. The New Testament tells of Jesus, to be sure, but it is a Jesus depicted in interaction with many other people. Far too often, Jesus has been studied in isolation rather than as a person sharing relationships. This book seeks to rediscover Jesus in relation to the movement beginning to form around him.

            One of the few books to explore fully the political dimensions of the emerging church, Jesus and the Gospel Movement brings studies of Jesus and Christology into dialogue with today’s social and political sciences. William Thompson-Uberuaga seeks to penetrate the mist surrounding the historical Jesus by inviting readers to imagine him through the perspective of his relationships and to consider how those relationships helped shape his personality and commitments—not just the intellectual aspects but also his feelings, his affectionate bonds, and the reciprocal bonds he stimulated in others.

            This extended meditation represents the first book-length engagement with Voegelin scholarship on these issues, and scholars in Voegelin studies will find a challenging appropriation of that thinker’s political philosophy. It also draws on insights of other philosophers ranging from Nietzsche to Derrida, with a particular emphasis on Gadamer’s hermeneutical thought. Useful for courses in Jesus studies, Christology, and Christianity and politics, the text also features an Internet link to supplements accompanying each chapter, which have been written by the author especially for this book to enable students and readers to delve deeper into the thicket of scholarly debates concerning these issues.

            Thompson-Uberuaga asks readers to imagine the various beliefs about Jesus as the result of forms of participation, helping us make sense of how they emerged and offering a way of evaluating their validity—and arguing that we will form only a narrow, even lopsided view of Jesus if we consider him apart from his relationships. By daring a personal interpretation of Jesus and the Gospel movement that he and his companions originated, this book boldly challenges readers to risk their own interpretations and arrive at their own understanding of the Messiah.

William Thompson-Uberuaga is Professor of Philosophical Theology at Duquesne University and author of six previous books, most recently The Struggle for Theology’s Soul. He is also coeditor of Renaissance and Reformation, the fourth volume of Eric Voegelin’s History of Political Ideas (University of Missouri Press). He lives in Jeanette, Pennsylvania.

“Jesus and the Gospel Movement is one of the most compelling interpretations of Jesus Christ that I have read in a long time. This is Thompson-Uberuaga at his best, combining an impressive scholarly rigor with a writing style that draws the reader into the author’s world as effectively as a fine painting or work of literature.  The book’s richness also derives, no doubt, from its interdisciplinary character, which generates rich, creative insights without sacrificing disciplinary depth.  By inviting us to look at the figure of Jesus in the context of his relationships, this work will be an important resource for challenging ahistorical, rationalist theologies and political theories that so often have destructive practical consequences.”—Roberto S. Goizueta, author of Caminemos Con Jesus: Toward a Hispanic/Latino Theology of Accompaniment  

“Thompson-Uberuaga’s fine work on Jesus and his movement is not a typical academic Christology, but a contemplative effort to take the Gospels seriously, not just as literature, but also as witnesses to the transforming experiences of their authors.  It is a book to be read contemplatively, digested like the monastic lectiodivina, inviting the reader to a personal ‘participation’ in the Jesus story.  Drawing on the political philosophy of Eric Voegelin, the book is largely about relationships, particularly with a God who wants to be seen.”—Thomas P. Rausch, S.J., author of Who Is Jesus? An Introduction to Christology  

“Thompson-Uberuaga’s deeply learned book, a meditation on the dynamics of participation in Jesus’ ‘alternative community of inclusiveness,’ suggests that the founder of the Christian movement can be approached most adequately through a study of the relationships that shaped his personality and his commitments. Arguing that ‘privatizing Jesus’ removes him from his sociocultural matrix, Thompson-Uberuaga convincingly claims that examining Jesus in the context of his movement shows that the ‘intrinsic energy of Jesus’ work was toward inclusiveness.’ The author’s method, characterized as ‘contemplative maximalism and doctrinal minimalism,’ models a reflective contemporary participation and partnership in the Jesus movement.”—Margaret R. Miles, author of The Word Made Flesh: A History of Christian Thought