c. 2004 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The Roman Empire lies in ruins in more than one place. In Priene, Turkey, huge chunks of stone lie like blocks scattered on a playroom floor. Toppled pillars, some carved in letters a foot high, proclaim that Caesar, the Roman emperor, was the son of a god.

The Caesars are gone. Someone else is now known as the son of God. And the story of that transition has meaning for modern Americans, says John Dominic Crossan, co-author of a new book about the Roman Empire and the Apostle Paul, who preached Christ in the first century and became Christianity’s first theologian.

“We are now the greatest postindustrial civilization, as Rome was then the greatest preindustrial one,” Crossan says. Paul’s challenge of the Roman Empire’s political and moral legitimacy has modern implications, he adds. How Christian really is America? That’s the subtext of his new book,“In Search of Paul” (HarperSanFrancisco, $29.95, 447 pages). To Crossan, the writings of Paul challenge Americans on how well they adhere to the teachings of Christ.

Written with biblical archaeologist Jonathan L. Reed, “In Search of Paul” uses a “you-are-there” approach to take readers on a pilgrimage in the footsteps of Paul. Crossan and Reed recreate the first-century Roman Empire, reconstruct Diaspora Judaism, and revive Paul, a Jew and a Roman citizen who converted to Christianity and criticized the great government of his time. Their 2001 book, “Excavating Jesus,” was a religion best seller.

In a telephone interview, Crossan talked about Paul’s confrontation with Rome and its implications. Crossan’s comments are edited.

Q: What do we need to know to understand the parallels between Rome and the United States?

A: In the first century, there was (an imperial ethos) of the Roman Empire _ in all their texts, on their coins, in their images and in inscriptions everywhere _ it was a little like advertising all around us, like a bumper sticker, if you will, (and its message was) that first came victory and then came peace.

Rome ruled by a mandate from the gods. Jupiter is talking with Venus and says,“I have given empire without limits of time and space to the Roman people.” The Roman Empire starts with a manifest destiny set in heaven. Peace through victory was their mandate.

But from Jesus, and through Paul, came another way. The other way comes out of the prophets of the Old Testament, that first justice is established and then comes peace. That was the alternative being proposed by Paul.

Q: What was so threatening about that “other way,” from the Roman perspective?

A: Civilization has always been imperial, since it was invented on the plains of Mesopotamia, to the present. Take ours. We’re the last dreary one in a long line. Civilization’s drug of choice is violence. Two thousand years ago, Paul was sounding an early warning that we haven’t heard yet.

Q: So Paul was taking on civilization itself?

A: Yes. When Paul is talking about the kingdom of God, the lordship of Christ, his language of a new creation is not just hyperbolic, not just provocative language. He is saying that (Roman) civilization is not working, that we should stop doing it and try another way.

Q: Rome didn’t hear what he was saying?

A: In the air, between Jesus’ and Paul’s mouths and the ears of their hearers, what I call “the drag of normalcy” was at work. Paul says some radical things in the New Testament, that men and women are equal to teach and to preach and everything else. By the end of the New Testament, letters written in Paul’s name say women should stay home, have babies, not ask questions in church and not teach men.

The drag of normalcy pulls it back into real life. It’s like what we do. We hear Jesus say, “Love your enemies,” and we say, “That’s nice, but get real. That’s not the way the world works.”

Q: What are the implications for modern life?

A: Since the last election, people have talked about moral values being most important to them. I have profound respect for that, but the moral values mentioned often are restricted to abortion or gay marriage. But what was desperately lacking was any idea that the war in Iraq was also a moral issue. What appalled me was the attenuation of moral values to just one or two elements.

Q: What do you think needs to happen now?

A: We Christians need to take back Christianity and the Bible and morality (from those who would reduce it). We have to make morality as broad as we can, to include poverty, gun control, capital punishment, a whole spectrum of issues if you’re pro-life. Life begins and ends. Those are all moral values.

The theology of Paul is a theology for Democrats. If there is a monopoly on the Bible, on Christianity, on Jesus and Paul by right-wing Republicans, we can’t deny them their integrity. That is one way of understanding it, but there is another way, a more fundamental way, from the Bible.

A Christian must do everything to lower the decibel level of violence and think of it really, really, really as a last resort. We’ve sort of reduced Christianity to a percentage of people who attend church every Sunday, but the level of biblical literacy and Christian knowledge is very low.

KE/JL END HAUGHT

(Nancy Haught is a staff writer for The Oregonian of Portland, Ore. She can be contacted at nancyhaught(at)news.oregonian.com.)