Render unto Caesar: separating God from empire

In this final Q&A for our Jesus of Galilee series, I sat down with Dom Crosson to connect the dots between the hills of Galilee and the high-stakes political drama of Passion Week. We dove deep into how Jesus invited us away from the "apocalyptic delusion" of waiting for God to intervene and toward a participatory eschatology where we actually collaborate with the Divine. From unmasking the "asotopic fallacy" of biblical literalism to reimagining the resurrection as a collective human exit from imperial normalcy rather than a solo miracle, Dom reminds us that the Kingdom isn’t a future escape but a present, distributive justice. We even got real about the "escalatory violence" of our own time, discussing what it looks like for faith communities to embody nonviolent resistance while war rages in Iran. It’s a heavy, holy, and deeply subversive conversation to carry with you into Easter. If you want to hear all four lectures behind these Q&As and send in your own questions for our final session, head over to ⁠crossanclass.com⁠ — you can join for whatever you can give, including zero.

You can WATCH the conversation on YouTube

Join 600+ Listeners, 30 theologians, & 30 God-Pods at Theology Beer Camp 2026 this October 8-10 in Kansas City!

UPCOMING ONLINE CLASS - Theology for Troublemakers: Christian Social Ethics from the Margins⁠

The injustices we face are immense — but they are not unique. Previous generations confronted the same powers with theological conviction and strategic brilliance. The question is whether we'll learn from them.

This 6-week online course, led by Dr. Gary Dorrien and Dr. Aaron Stauffer, recovers the radical tradition of Christian social ethics — from Reverdy Ransom and Reinhold Niebuhr to James Cone and the Welfare Rights Movement — and asks what faithfulness demands of us right now.

Weekly lectures, live Q&A conversations, guest lecturers, and an online community included.

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⁠

John Dominic Crossan, professor emeritus at DePaul University, is widely regarded as the foremost historical Jesus scholar of our time. He is the author of several bestselling books, including The Historical Jesus, How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian, God and Empire, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, The Greatest Prayer, The Last Week, and The Power of Parable. He lives in Minneola, Florida.

Previous Podcast Episodes with Dom & Tripp

• ⁠⁠Are We Waiting for God, or Is God Waiting for Us?⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠A Tale of Two Gods: Why C.S. Lewis’s Famous Argument Falls Apart⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠From Iron Swords to Nuclear Bombs: Tracing 3,000 Years of Escalatory Violence⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Paul, Christ, & the Mystery of Execution & Resurrection⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Paul & Thecla⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ask JC Anything

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