Many people struggle with the violence of the crucifixion. Jesus, the central figure of the Christian faith, is violently killed by the Roman Empire and said to have risen from the dead. This idea– that Jesus died and was raised– is the cornerstone of many Christians’ faith. Much of Christendom believes that Jesus’ death and resurrection heals the relationship between God and humanity. The dominant understanding, according to Lawrence Swaim, is that “by dying on the cross, Jesus atones for the sins of humankind and redeems sinners in the process… Human beings may have crucified Jesus, but it was God who gave that crucifixion its redemptive power, thus ensuring eternal life for the believer.”(1) Swaim suggests that this is a problematic aggrandizement of violence and asks if Christianity can exist without the cross. I believe that it can.
In this paper I will suggest that focusing on the life and ministry of Jesus, instead of his death on the cross, offers an imagining of Jesus that highlights justice work and removes focus from his violent death. Ivone Gebara’s ecofeminist Jesus offers an alternative understanding of Jesus as example that can encompass a variety of theologies. I will begin by examining the problematic popular conception of the violently crucified Jesus, as presented by Lawrence Swaim, and consider the alternative lens he offers: a focus on Jesus’ life. I suggest that Jesus from an ecofeminist perspective, as presented by Gebara, conveys a concern for victims of violence and oppression and allows for a variety of theological inclinations by stripping Jesus of the dogmas often associated with him. I will begin by addressing some of the concerns raised by Swaim.
In his article, The Death of Christianity, Lawrence Swaim illustrates how a focus on Jesus’ crucifixion bonds the Christian faith to violence. Swaim argues that understandings of Jesus that place value on his crucifixion and resurrection redeem the violence inherent in a brutal Roman terror tactic. God becomes “…a cosmic thug whose specialty is ritualized human sacrifice and whose preferred method of redemption is public torture of dissenters.”(2) The brutality of crucifixion, imbued with religious value, becomes necessary for the “blood atonement” that many believe is offered through Jesus’ death.(3) This glorification of violence has dangerous implications and results.
As early as Constantine, the violence of the cross seemed to sanction further aggression. After a dream that lead Constantine to believe that the Christian God approved of his military ambitions, he combined the Christian symbol of the cross with his imperial advances and “used” the cross to conquer land and people. This dangerous coupling of Christianity with conquest would continue for hundreds of years via churches and governments. Swaim suggests that “all the violence… can be traced back to the belief that Jesus suffered publicly on the cross for the sins of the world and, in so doing, redeemed the world.”(4) Most of our modern minds know that the violence of the Roman Empire and the countless other eruptions of violence supported and instigated by Christian religious institutions were tragic abuses of power that resulted in lives lost and ruined. Swaim argues that the emphasis on the cross not only leads to a damaging conflation of religion and violence, but obscures the importance of Jesus’ life.(5)
In denouncing the violence of the cross, Swaim asks whether Christianity can survive without it.(6) This leads him to focus on the life of Jesus of Nazareth and the ministry that appealed to his earliest followers. In so doing, Swaim finds a figure that he considers a religious revolutionary. Jesus speaks against the religious establishment, asks his followers to re-think prayer and relationship to divinity, and envisions a spiritual kingdom grounded in love. This Jesus teaches that God’s love is transformational in the lives of his followers and leads to a community that practices radical charity, non-judgment, and humble dependence on God.(7) Jesus’ ministry focuses on the internalization of law that manifests in loving compassion and interdependent community. Swaim differentiates this idea of kingdom from afterlife-oriented ideas of kingdom that are often derived from crucifixion-centric imaginings of Jesus.(8) This focus on Jesus’ life leads not only to abstraction from the cross, but resistance to suffering.
Ivone Gebara takes her imagining of Jesus further; not only does her vision of Jesus avoid unduly sanctioned violence, he resists the hierarchic structures that she sees as threatening to our world and societies. She considers the destruction of the planet and its life (including many human lives) to be important issues for religion to address and asserts that “in becoming aware of what unites us… we will be able to discover once again the meaning of walking Jesus’ path, which is pluralistic and welcomes the presence of a variety of different paths.”(9) She suggests that imaginings of Jesus need to be stripped of rigid doctrine that excludes people and reinforces damaging hierarchies. In letting go of dogmatic understandings of Jesus, many of which are focused on the meaning of his death on the cross, we can find the values we share. As Gebara explains, dogma reduces the nature of our relationships to hierarchies and creates fear of heretical thought. This eliminates “the many paths… and the multiplicity of loving exchanges” that can arise when our understandings of Jesus are allowed to be variant.(10)
In searching for a vision of Jesus that focuses on his life, ministry, and the values he propagated, I believe we can find a figure who would “…strive not for power, but to change the nature of power. [He] would accomplish this through radical love and forgiveness.”(11) This focus away from the cross can encompass a diversity of beliefs. It challenges the violence done in the name of Jesus and reorients ideas of “salvation.” Both Swaim and Gebara see in Jesus a person seeking common ground, community, love, and selflessness– values at odds with violent attempts at power and control like those of Constantine. Focus on the underrepresented members of society and their real, temporal needs characterized Jesus’ ministry. We must consider how a conception of Jesus that supports violence by glorifying the cross puts his message at odds with victims of oppression. “We move away from an excessive emphasis on the figure of the savior… the martyr… as well as the victorious warrior…” and move toward an understanding of Jesus that emphasizes his concern for those suffering.(12)
If we conceive of Jesus not as an individual whose suffering is elevated and central, but as one who was concerned with the suffering of others, Jesus loses the kind of title that can be used to condone violence in any way. Jesus becomes a savior in his example to us, not in his death– he asks us to see our own lives as salvific and asks us to orient our lives toward justice and solidarity.(13) Gebara asserts that Jesus highlighted the experiences of the “unimportant” so that they could “develop their own style of seeking the paths of salvation.”(14) Viewing Jesus through the lens of his ministry, we find a figure focused on alleviating suffering, challenging hierarchy, and supporting a multiplicity of paths.
Lawrence Swaim offers a critical look at how christologies can support and glorify systems of violence and oppression. In examining the gospels, he finds the figure of Jesus to support radical love and non-judgment, values that seem at odds with the history of violence in the Christian tradition. He asserts that by glorifying the crucifixion and developing views of Jesus’ blood atonement, elements of the Christian tradition have implicitly (and at times, explicitly) sanctioned violence. He asks, in light of this reality, whether Christianity could exist without such an emphasis on the crucifixion. Ivone Gebara offers a vision of Jesus as salvific example that addresses his concerns. In focusing on the life and ministry of Jesus, she develops a view of Jesus as intimately concerned about and resistant to suffering, especially the suffering of the marginalized. His focus on the “least important” members of society asks us to stand in solidarity with the victims of society’s hierarchies, including the poor, women, plants, and animals. This view rejects the violence often enacted in the name of Jesus and demands that we consider how our roles in the world are conducive to justice and equality. It brings the focus away from dogmatic conceptions of who Jesus is for our individual salvation and asks us to consider how our own lives can model Jesus and be salvific for the world.
1. Swaim, 20.
2. Swaim, 20.
3. Swaim, 20.
4. Swaim, 22.
5. Swaim, 21.
6. Swaim, 26.
7. Swaim, 22-23.
8. Swaim, 22-23.
9. Gebara, 175.
10. Gebara, 179.
11. Swaim, 23.
12. Gebara, 180.
13. Gebara, 186.
14. Gebara, 180.
Gebara, Ivone. Longing for Running Water: Ecofeminism and Liberation. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1999.
Swaim, Lawrence. The Death of Judeo-Christianity: Religious Aggression and Systemic Evil in the Modern World Circle Books, 2012.
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