Render Unto Caesar
The Struggle Over Christ and Culture in the New Testament

A perennial challenge for followers of Jesus is the question of how to respond to the surrounding culture in which one’s life is lived. Ought the Christian to thoroughly reject the majority culture as some groups have historically done (think of the Amish)? Or do the Scriptures proclaim that certain......more

Update: Worth it for his chapters toward the end such as the one on the radical (and truly practical) maxim of "Love Your Enemies." We need that now more than ever. Peace through Justice not Peace through Victory. Distributive Justice not Retributive or Punishment Justice. And the chapter on "The Th......more

"Render unto Caesar" is the beginning of a phrase attributed to Jesus in the synoptic gospels, which reads in full, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" [Matthew 22:21] - Wikipedia This is an academic piece that looks to place this encounter with t......more

I’ve always appreciated and enjoyed Crossan’s literary works. He is a good writer, easy to follow with his outlines and summaries, proposals and conclusions. For whatever reason, this book didn’t resonate as much as some of his others, especially those co-authorized with Marcus Borg, and Crossan’s b......more

This book examines the early period of Rome's empire after it became a dictatorship, first under Caesar Augustus, and then the many emperors that followed, and particularly in the light of Christian faith. How does early Christianity fit into the picture? is the first question this book asks, and it......more