Book Review Radical Jesus: A Graphic History of Faith

Radical Jesus inside e1385597792904

 

RADICAL JESUS: A Graphic History of Faith

Paul Buhle, Editor; Art by Sabrina Jones, Gary Dumm and Nick Thorkelson (2013, Herald Press, Virginia)

 

Although noted Left-wing historians such as Paul Buhle aren't normally seen as devout in their religiosity, a read through of RADICAL JESUS could lead to the assumption that the revolutionary intellectuals in our midst have "seen the light". But here, Buhle and a company of underground comic artists are instead offering a vision of Jesus Christ (and religion itself) that was clear all along to anyone who looked beyond their hymnal. What comes to life in the course of these 128 pages is what political radicals have always asserted: Biblical figures such as Jesus, John the Baptist and Martin Luther were not only revolutionary in their spirituality but in their actions.

The book opens with "Radical Gospel" and offers the 'downtown' art of Sabrina Jones to Biblical excerpts. But as one may expect, it wouldn't be the stuff of underground comicdom without the proper irony, so Jones mixes contemporary imagery morphed into the Greatest Story Ever Told. Quotes such as "blessed are the poor" are paired with visuals of a union strike, and "blessed are those who mourn" with the parents of Trayvon Martin. These are in excellent company with frames that depict Occupy Wall Street, the homeless, peace demonstrators and Middle Eastern families faced with armed US troops. And as the Bible is filled with symbolic tales of faith, these sections of RADICAL JESUS are fully engaged with expanding on the common symbols to denounce capitalist greed and high-priced televangelists. But what's in store for the reader here is not necessarily what we may have guessed: in a discussion between Jesus and an apostle about the great power, wealth and towering temples around them, Jesus warns that "The day will come when there isn't one stone left on top of one another that isn't thrown down", and Jones bravely recreated the wreckage of the World Trade Center on September 11.

"Radical History" is the next lengthy segment and it brings us through the Lollards journey (one of the early radical Christian organizations), the Catholic Church's base of power, the burning of "heretics", and the radical reformation founded by Martin Luther. These sections are not from the Bible at all, but history itself. Drawn by Gary Dumm (with vivid coloring by Laura Dumm) and often scripted by Buhle, Dave Wagner or Dumm himself, we are taken through some harsh and some revelatory scenes. Peace activists and members of AIM will recognize the roots of their struggles in chapters on the Quakers' relationships with Native Americans and the Abolitionist movement. Without much difficulty one can of course see a connection to the struggle of the Palestinians and others of the First Nation.

The final segment, "Radical Resistance" was written and drawn by Nick Thorkelson. It explores faith-based movements in modern times and in doing so, ties together the struggle for human rights and equality throughout the ages. There is a special focus on slavery and African American freedom struggles and Sojourner Truth is heroically depicted as are multiple figures we recall from the Civil Rights years (yes, there's Dr King tearing down the walls of Jericho). But it surely doesn't stop there: check out the story of the Catholic Worker movement and Dorothy Day's quote: "...The class structure is of our making, not His....So we are urging revolutionary change". Hey, this kind of dangerous talk can almost bring ME back to church! And Thorkelson shows how the line went from Haley House to the Catholic Worker to Plowshares. We also see Mennonites, various levels of peace protests around the world, Conscientious Objectors, Aboriginal movements, and the struggle for ecology and a sustainable world.

Taken literally, the messages of Jesus' teachings should always reflect visions of a shared planet and an economy not designed by and for the wealthy few. As a child at weekly Catechism classes I had to attend, we were constantly taught that "God is love" and that Jesus was "the Prince of Peace". But this was during the climax of the Vietnam War and when we asked the nuns or lay-teachers why God has allowed this ongoing horrific violence that came home to us on the television news each night, they only answered that we must have faith, and that God works in mysterious ways. I am sure that none of these intended guides to my religiosity considered the figure of Jesus as a revolutionary nor the symbolism in the Bible to have more in common with Marx than Pope Paul, but then RADICAL JESUS had not yet been published at the time. After reading this book, however, I would argue that it surely had been written ---a millennia ago, with a message still urgent after King James had his way with the words and church corruption attempted to refigure it, sore afraid of a fully awakened populace.

 

John Pietaro is a musician, writer and labor organizer from Brooklyn NY. His website is www.DissidentArts.com and blog http://theCulturalWorker.blogspot.com

 

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  • Hello, John Pietaro, workers and communists don't hear from you enough.
    Jesus, as communist, is a matter of multi-convention documented position of the CPUSA.
    Although, oftentimes, members don't behave as if this were the case.
    That's why articles like this one are so refreshing.
    Epochal theorist, like Marx/Engels, W. E. B. Du Bois, Lenin, and their many contemporaries, always focused on the millions and millions; not the hundreds and hundreds-always protected the futures of future communists and workers.
    Jesus did this also.
    Jesus was maybe, in addition, the most hilarious comedian of all time.
    As the Sadducees conspired to destroy Jesus, after which, with the help of a Pharisee lawyer, The Radical Jesus asked them a question-(Matthew 22:42)"WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE CHRIST, WHOSE SON IS HE?"They answered, the Son of David. Then, Jesus asks: "THEN HOW DOES DAVID IN THE SPIRIT CALL HIM 'LORD' SAYING, THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, SIT AT MY RIGHT HADND, UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET"? IF DAVID THEN CALLS HIM 'LORD', HOW IS HE HIS SON?"
    Christ is in David's future, yet David knew the Lord-for David, through the Spirit, knew Christ and Scripture.
    Workers and communists know the communist Christ, yet in our future. We know that Christ's enemies, our enemies, like the Pharisees and Sadducees, and lawyers, seek to crucify us. However, through the nature of all things in perpetual motion, and in that motion, matter, by or working it through our hands-in His, "SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET",(Psalm 110:1) we sit with, by and of the working class-to be the human race, overcoming all powers, all imperialists, all colonialists, all sexists, all racists, all capitalists, and violators of nature (Job 5:11), all principalities, all iniquity.

    Posted by E.E.W. Clay, 02/12/2014 5:11pm (10 years ago)

  • I'm a 67 year old retired Baptist pastor. Since I was a teenager I've have considered myself a Marxist. I have always felt my faith and my political/economic views to be complimentary. The Christian scriptures contain around 2000 verses that command both secular and religious authorities as well as lay believers to care for the poor, the aliens in their land, and all those marginalized by society with compassion and justice. There are even passages in the Bible where God pronounces a curse on those in power who mistreat or take advantage of the poor. And both the Old and New Testaments command bosses to pay their laborers a fair wage. Unfortunately, the so-called Christian Right and the Teapublicans seem to have exorcised those verses from their Bibles. Marx studied theology before he studied economics. I suspect he became disillusioned with Christianity when he discovered the church did not really practice it.
    Good review btw.

    Posted by Rev. Paul White, 02/10/2014 11:28pm (10 years ago)

  • Glad to see another addition to this growing change in America's theological view. --jimlane

    Posted by jim lane, 12/05/2013 11:30pm (10 years ago)

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