Michael Okinczyc-Cruz

Join hosts Edouard Tahmizian and John MacDonald for about an hour in this interview with one-time Jesus Seminar co-chair John Dominic Crossan and his recent coauthor and community organizer Michael Okinczyc-Cruz as they explain their motivation for writing Jesus and Justice: Organizing for God's Reign on Earth Then and Now. After explaining their aim and process, the interviewees turn to why a contemporary secular audience can still find much of value in the moral principles attributed to a first-century leader, whether Jesus went into Jerusalem for martyrdom, substitutionary atonement, or obedience, why claiming to be the Messiah would be a capital offense to Jesus' contemporaries, and how both first-century Israelites and later Christian sects came to understand the concepts of Resurrection and Ascension. Tune in for a wide-ranging interview on the moral and political relevance of the teachings ascribed to Jesus even—and perhaps especially—today!