Although we loathe admitting it, Christians have often, throughcrusade, conquest, and commerce, used the name and powerof Christ to promote and justify political, economic, and evenmilitary gain.
Rieger's ambitious and faith-filled project chips away at thecolonial legacy of Christology to find the authentic Christ - orrather the many authentic depictions of Christ in history andtheology that survive our self-serving domestications. Against theseeming inevitability of globalized unfairness, Rieger holds up a"stumbling block" that confounds even empire.
Joerg Rieger is distinguished professor of theology, Cal Turner Chancellor's Chair of Wesleyan Studies, and director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt University. Hs books include Jesus vs. Caesar: For People Tired of Serving the Wrong God (2018), No Religion but Social Religion: Liberating Wesleyan Theology (2018), Unified We Are a Force: How Faith and Labor Can Overcome America's Inequalities (2016), and No Rising Tide: Theology, Economics, and the Future (2009).