Adventures of an Itinerant Imagination: Essays Celebrating John Dominic Crossan on His Ninetieth Birthday

by Bernard Brandon Scott (Editor)

Overview

John Dominic Crossan is the most important scholar on the historical Jesus since David Fredrick Strauss in the nineteenth century. Both his scholarly The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (1991) and the more popular Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (1994) made the bestsellers list. But the scope of his work goes well beyond the historical Jesus to studies on the death of Jesus and anti-Semitism, Christianity and empire, archaeology, the apostle Paul the Pharisee, and recently apocalyptic and the environment. He addresses both scholarly and popular audiences, ancient sources and contemporary concerns. The essays in this volume explore and access the range of his work for his various audiences. Some of the essays are scholarly in tone, while others are quite personal. A feature of this book is Crossan's complete curriculum vitae.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798385249503
Publisher:	Cascade Books
Publication date:	06/25/2025
Series:	Westar Studies
Pages:	340
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

Bernard Brandon Scott is the Darbeth Distinguished Professor of New Testament Emeritus, Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A charter member of the Jesus Seminar, he is the author of many books, among them Hear Then the Parable (1989), The Real Paul (2015), and A Religious History of Abortion (2023). He is coauthor of Sound Mapping the New Testament (Cascade Books, 2009, 2nd edition 2022), After Jesus Before Christianity (2021), and Out of the Shadows, the Acts of [Paul and] Thecla (Cascade Books, 2024).

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“What an excellent celebration of Dom Crossan’s life-long and enduring scholarly contributions on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday! Twenty-one scholars tell stories about Crossan and reflect insightfully and appreciatively on the impact of reading his work. Contributions focus on Parables and Fragments, the Historical Jesus, Violence, Empire (ancient and modern), and Civilization. This is a stimulating recognition and honoring of John Dominic Crossan’s work and legacy.”

—Warren Carter, Meinders Professor of New Testament, Phillips Theological Seminary, Tulsa, Oklahoma



“An appreciative tribute by his friends and colleagues to John Dominic Crossan for his numerous contributions (the volume includes an eighty-two-page vita) toward understanding Jesus, the Gospels, and Paul both in their historical contexts and regarding their import for today.”

—Amy-Jill Levine, Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace



“The twenty-one essays in Adventures of an Itinerant Imagination comprise a series of conversations with Crossan’s oeuvre and the foundational contributions that he has made to a breathtaking variety of foundational topics: the poetics of biblical language; the historical Jesus and the historical Paul; method and theory in biblical studies; the reach of imperial ideology; and the public import of scholarship on the Bible.”

—John S. Kloppenborg, University Professor, University of Toronto

Editorial Reviews

What an excellent celebration of Dom Crossan’s life-long and enduring scholarly contributions on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday! Twenty-one scholars tell stories about Crossan and reflect insightfully and appreciatively on the impact of reading his work. Contributions focus on Parables and Fragments, the Historical Jesus, Violence, Empire (ancient and modern), and Civilization. This is a stimulating recognition and honoring of John Dominic Crossan’s work and legacy.”

—Warren Carter, Meinders Professor of New Testament, Phillips Theological Seminary, Tulsa, Oklahoma



“An appreciative tribute by his friends and colleagues to John Dominic Crossan for his numerous contributions (the volume includes an eighty-two-page vita) toward understanding Jesus, the Gospels, and Paul both in their historical contexts and regarding their import for today.”

—Amy-Jill Levine, Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace



“The twenty-one essays in Adventures of an Itinerant Imagination comprise a series of conversations with Crossan’s oeuvre and the foundational contributions that he has made to a breathtaking variety of foundational topics: the poetics of biblical language; the historical Jesus and the historical Paul; method and theory in biblical studies; the reach of imperial ideology; and the public import of scholarship on the Bible.”

—John S. Kloppenborg, University Professor, University of Toronto

From the Publisher