Antipatriarchal Jesus: Psychoanalysis, Christianities, Love, Ethics, and Democracy

Many--both religious and nonreligious-- find Jesus one of the most compelling figures in human history. Richards came to his view of Jesus from an outsider's perspective, as a gay and nonreligious man, inspired by the psychoanalyst Winnicott's understanding of both psychoanalysis and Jesus and its illumination of his own struggles to equal love. Many may find in this book how and why Jesus so moves them, and why--given the hegemonic power of patriarchy in human history and in the life and times of Jesus and the subsequent history of Christianities--he has been so difficult to see face to face and yet moves something deep in our human natures, the love of equals that he believed was coming into existence through his life and teaching. The book's argument integrates empirical psychology and history to reveal the antipatriarchal Jesus--challenging the anti-Semitism, sexism, and homophobia of the Christianities (Augustine and Luther) that accommodated the hegemonic Roman patriarchy, making many Christianities more Roman than Christian. In contrast, heterodox Christianities, appealing to the antipatriarchal Jesus, have advanced justice and human rights. Their values underlie both Kant's appeal to universal human rights and Rawls's reconstruction of Kant in contemporary terms.