Overview

Displacing Jesus studies the inner workings of Thomas Jefferson's editing and shortening of the Gospels of the New Testament, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. It uncovers the immanent moves of his editorial project and shows how he makes judgments on what to include and exclude from the Gospels. As the book analyzes Jefferson's gospel, it reconstructs his cut-and-paste project as a displacing of the biblical story of Jesus into a war on Jewish authorities. Ignoring nearly all traditional religious themes, the new gospel reframes the story into a battle against the narrow and hypocritical morality of the leaders of Second Temple Judaism. Surprisingly, Jefferson's editing does provide a robust, if not traditional, theology and a Christology centered in the passion of the Shepherd-Sage who performs his death for Wisdom. Displacing Jesus ends by connecting Jefferson's creation in The Life and Morals with theological themes, with the history of his views on religion, and with comments on how new insights into Jefferson's gospel can inform contemporary Jefferson research.

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9781666763775

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Reviews

"""Displacing Jesus is a remarkable book that calls readers to take seriously 'Jefferson's Bible, ' an edited version of the Gospels that scholars have often cited only selectively. By showing in detail how Thomas Jefferson crafted a Jesus detached from context, emerging out of nowhere to initiate global moral reform, Charles Wilson sheds new light on Jefferson's faith and the very American tradition of enlisting Jesus to serve our own purposes."" --Douglas Casson, professor and chair of political science, St. Olaf College ""Charles Wilson presents an incisive, original, challenging, and skillfully organized analysis of Thomas Jefferson's reconstruction of the four Gospels and his private religious views. He convincingly explains his 'displacement' title. He exhibits complete command of the necessary primary and secondary sources as well as Scripture. Scholars will applaud and value the annotated footnotes. The chapter on Jefferson's religion is superb. Serious students of Jefferson need to read this book."" --Steven Greiert, professor emeritus of history, Missouri Western State University"

Author Information

Charles A. Wilson is Professor of Religion at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. He is the author of Feuerbach and the Search for Otherness (1989) and the two volumes of Inventing Christic Jesuses (Cascade Books, 2017, 2018).

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