Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
What would the world look like if God sat on Caesar's throne?
In this Q&A, John Dominic Crossan responds to questions from Session One of his Lent 2025 lecture series — "Jesus and Galilee: The Rule of God and the Parables of Jesus."
In the lecture, Dom walked us through the world Jesus was born into: a world where Augustus was worshipped as a living god, where Roman imperial theology promised peace through conquest, and where Jewish activists — decades before Jesus began his ministry — were already experimenting with something the ancient world had never quite seen before: organized, theologically-grounded nonviolent resistance.
Questions in this session explore:
→ Roman imperial theology and the cult of Augustus
→ The Boscoreale silver cups and what everyday objects reveal about power
→ Josephus — traitor, apologist, or terrified protector of his people?
→ The "Fourth Philosophy" and the invention of nonviolent resistance
→ John the Baptist's Jordan River reenactment and why geography is theology
→ What any of this has to do with the parables of Jesus
→ And how Rome's logic of "peace through victory" echoes across 2,000 years
This is history that provokes. Whether you're a pastor, a student of the ancient world, a justice activist, or simply someone asking hard questions about empire, religion, and resistance — you'll find this conversation worth your time.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🎓 WANT ACCESS TO ALL FOUR LECTURES?
Join Dom and the full community at CrossanClass.com
You'll get access to all four sessions of this Lent series, the complete slide materials, live Q&A participation, and a growing library of conversations with one of the most important New Testament scholars of our time. Individual learners, small groups, and congregations are all welcome.
CrossanClass.com
What would the world look like if God sat on Caesar's throne?
In this Q&A, John Dominic Crossan responds to questions from Session One of his Lent 2025 lecture series — "Jesus and Galilee: The Rule of God and the Parables of Jesus."
In the lecture, Dom walked us through the world Jesus was born into: a world where Augustus was worshipped as a living god, where Roman imperial theology promised peace through conquest, and where Jewish activists — decades before Jesus began his ministry — were already experimenting with something the ancient world had never quite seen before: organized, theologically-grounded nonviolent resistance.
Questions in this session explore:
→ Roman imperial theology and the cult of Augustus
→ The Boscoreale silver cups and what everyday objects reveal about power
→ Josephus — traitor, apologist, or terrified protector of his people?
→ The "Fourth Philosophy" and the invention of nonviolent resistance
→ John the Baptist's Jordan River reenactment and why geography is theology
→ What any of this has to do with the parables of Jesus
→ And how Rome's logic of "peace through victory" echoes across 2,000 years
This is history that provokes. Whether you're a pastor, a student of the ancient world, a justice activist, or simply someone asking hard questions about empire, religion, and resistance — you'll find this conversation worth your time.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🎓 WANT ACCESS TO ALL FOUR LECTURES?
Join Dom and the full community at CrossanClass.com
You'll get access to all four sessions of this Lent series, the complete slide materials, live Q&A participation, and a growing library of conversations with one of the most important New Testament scholars of our time. Individual learners, small groups, and congregations are all welcome.
CrossanClass.com
