Matthew and Empire: Initial Explorations - Softcover

."..an insightful and thought-provoking book on Matthew's use of the concept of empire in describing two conflicting powers: Rome and God...Readers of the book will be in Carter's debt as they pore over the pages and continue to seek to plumb the depths of Jesus' life and teaching and its application to the church past and present." Walter M. Dunnett, St. Mark's Episcopal Church for RBL, March 2003--Sanford Lakoff

Carter offers a different way of reading Matthew. The usual way, of course, has been to see Matthew as a community document that reflects a dispute with a synagogue or local Judaism. Carter accepts this view, but he wants to read Matthew not only as a religious or theological document but as one of social protest, since it offers a different vision of society by questioning Rome's sovereignty. In particular, Matthew's presentation of Jesus calls into qu4estion the blessing of God (or the gods) on Roman rule. Furthermore, participation in God's rule implies Rome's destruction. Carter has ample material draw upon concerning Roman imperial rule, particularly since there has been so much work on this topic in relation to Pauline studies. He has opened the way for Matthean scholars to apply it further. Also, without intending to do so, he has indirectly called into question the dominant way of reading Matthew as a thoroughly Jewish document engaged in sibling rivalry with local Judaism, for Carter is able to show that Matthew must be set in an imperial framework to some degree. The question is to what degree? A rich and suggestive work." Fred W. Burnett, Anderson University for Religious Studies Review, October 2002--Sanford Lakoff

"In a world that has largely been shaped by the legacies of colonialism and imperialism, the question of how precisely the founding texts of Christianity relate to empire assumes immense significance. Warren Carter's incisive and accessible investigation of the complex relationship between Matthew's Gospel and the Roman Empire makes a memorable contribution to this important debate." Stephen D. Moore, Drew University Theological School--Sanford Lakoff

"Warren Carter invites us to reread the Gospel of Matthew in a fresh, different, and exciting way. His engaging explorations lead us to appreciate Matthew anew in a realtion to the Roman Empire in the first century. By demonstrating the rich results of taking seriously the Roman imperial context, Carter stands at the cutting edge of modern Matthean scholarship."--Sanford Lakoff

"Carter has written an excellent, eminently readable piece of social history."--Sanford Lakoff

"Warren Carter's incisive and accessible investigation of the complex relationship between Matthew's Gospel and the Roman Empire makes a memorable contribution to this important debate."--Sanford Lakoff

"Writing in an engaging and accessible style, Carter argues counter to nearly a century of Matthean scholarship that it is not the relationship between Matthew's community and the post-70 synagogue that forms the dominant social backdrop for Matthew's story of Jesus. Instead, the primary external social reality for this group of early Christians in Antioch is Roman imperialism, and the message of the gospel is that salvation comes not through Roman gods or their imperial agents, but rather through Jesus Christ." "Carter's concluding chapter demonstrates that he is a theologian concerned for the church as well as an exegete. Here Carter discusses implications of Matthew's gospel for the modern practice of Christianity, noting his theological and social challenges to imperialisms then and now, and he does so without being limited to the standard antiestablishment glossary of solidarity, inclusivity, and the like." Mary Hinkle, Luthern Seminary, St. Paul, MN--Sanford Lakoff

This book argues that Matthew's gospel protests the imperial ideology of theology of Roman imperialism by asserting that God's purposes are performed not by the empire but by Jesus and his community of disciples.