Brilliant Insightts Fail to Convince

One can't help but admire the content representing as it does a sincere attempt to remain Christian through emptying the claim of any actual content than Auden's; "we muts love one another or die". There are indisputable nuggets and clear evidence of far greater reading than my own but ultimately one is left with a schizoid Jesus clearly deluded by his own fanatical desires, and small wonder as Crossan's own criteria is that 'true' faith recognises that God's peace is possible only through Justice, which he defines if I have it right as radical economic reordering, an understanding that every 'Empire' is doomed to Violence, Expansion, and Decay unless we recognise that economic and political inequalities simply perpetuate injustices always linked to military domination. Ah bless his tailored cotton socks.
Of course how this can be realized peacefully in any society where private ownership is fundamental to any understanding of citizenship, or that his thoroughly modern concept of inclusivity is anywhere embraced in any significantly large religious group, and thus readily acceptable to such groups is left to its academic cul de sac. The expression of the desire for such is clearly akin to Jesus' notion of that 'peace which passes understanding'.
Where the book sings is the clarity with which he shows the use of Son of God language was political and combative, the modern equivalent perhaps being Islam's Da'wah hiring advertising space to prominently declare that Allah and Mohammed are the real game in town, so get with it or get run over. Similarly the Jesus shock troops, disciplined and ready to die took on the Dragon, and like Ghandi's political pacifism won the battle.
"Prometheus on his Crag,
Relaxes
In the fact that it has happened" (Hughes)
Similarly his exposure of the Christian Rapture as a piece of absurdity is excellent but sadly he doesn't develop the notion that the religious mind is all too prepared to embrace error as truth, twisting all data to merely confirm their obsessions, or that such behaviour is simply true of every obsessive. I might cite his own willingness to insist that only some of Paul's letters are genuine and those agree with his conclusions on what Paul really meant and even where they don't that's down to scribal editing (yawn) of course, of course but alas is it our understanding lacking faith?
Excellent book though and very challenging, and so wonderfully read by Mr Perkins, I would suggest any religious minded person give it a listen, as I must give it a re-hearing to see where I've been hasty in my own judgement.

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