The gospels and ancient historians agree: Jesus was sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate, the Roman imperial prefect in Jerusalem. To this day, Christians of all churches confess that Jesus died 'under Pontius Pilate'. But what exactly does that mean? Within decades of Jesus' death, Christians began suggesting that it was the Judaean authorities who had crucified Jesus--a notion later echoed in the Qur'an. In the third century, one philosopher raised the notion that, although Pilate had condemned Jesus, he'd done so justly; this idea survives in one of the main strands of modern New Testament criticism. So what is the truth of the matter? And what is the history of that truth? David Lloyd Dusenbury reveals Pilate's 'innocence' as not only a neglected theological question, but a recurring theme in the history of European political thought. He argues that Jesus' interrogation by Pilate, and Augustine of Hippo's North African sermon on that trial, led to the concept of secularity and the logic of tolerance emerging in early modern Europe. Without the Roman trial of Jesus, and the arguments over Pilate's innocence, the history of empire--from the first century to the twenty-first--would have been radically different.

About the Author
David Lloyd Dusenbury is a research fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of Platonic Legislations: An Essay on Legal Critique in Ancient Greece, and of scholarly articles on the legal thought of Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben. He lives in Washington, DC.

Reviews

'David L. Dusenbury's The Innocence of Pontius Pilate is a model of intelligent, accessible and persuasive scholarship.'

'[The Innocence of Pontius Pilate] contributes to a very interesting history of our disputed and entangled conceptions of secular power and spiritual kingdom and the nature and location of political sovereignty.'

-- Catholic Herald



Book Information
ISBN 9781787382176
Author David Lloyd Dusenbury
Format Hardback
Page Count 272
Imprint C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd
Publisher C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd