Introduction
Cultural materialism is a term that was coined by Marvin Harris in 1968 in his attempt to explain how people and societies live together amidst strikingly different and dynamic ideologies and symbols. In his book “Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches”, Marvin pours water on the common belief that Jesus the Messiah, was truly the Word’s most awaited prince of peace (Marvin, 1974). This paper reacts to these views that have been considered quite provocative across the religious circles.
The Military Messianic tradition
Marvin Harris suggests that the life of Jesus was the precursor for political expedition of the infamous Jewish military messianic traditions, birthed by colonial misrule and excessive exploitation and organized guerilla attacks against their political and religious “enemies”. This is a misplaced observation considering that the contradictory nature of the gospel writings, from which Harris bases his arguments, does not exist. The non peaceful events that was witnessed and attributed to Jesus during his mission work was not politically motivated but was sparked by the opposition met by the miracles that he performed. The religious teaching and ideologies that Jesus taught could also at some point conflict with the Jewish traditions and the Mosaic laws, but not necessarily with the political establishment, this in essence led to uproar among the Jews in most cases and not the Romans. Therefore the implication that Marvin Harris attributes to Jesus and John the Baptist alleging them as guerilla warlords is unfounded (Marvin, 1974).The contents of the gospels is perfectly in balance and non ambiguous in their clear expression of Jesus as the prince of peace.
The Caesar’s tax question
Marvin Harris wrongfully assumes that the gospel writers did not know about Judas of Galilee and the Galileans revolt in tax payment to the Roman Empire. When Jesus asked his critics to pay their due taxes to Caesar and give to God what deserved him (Marvin, 1974), it was out of his reconciliatory effort, between the Jews and the Roman government and it reflected his unwavering respect for authorities. The teachings by Judas of Galilee that everything that existed belonged to their creator did not serve to mean that the tax also belonged to God, neither did Jesus in his statement try to contradict what belonged to Caesar from what belonged to God. So Jesus rightfully meant that citizens were obliged to pay taxes, not to God, but to Caesar and his roman government. To demonstrate this, Jesus at one time directed Peter to get money from the mouth of a fish and use it to pay tax to Caesar.
The connotation of Jesus as the king and messiah of the Jews did not mean that he was to overthrow the Roman Empire ruling at that time to establish his kingdom in Jerusalem. Instead, as written in the prophetic books that Marvin Harris, quotes Jesus was to be opposed, killed, resurrect and ascend to heaven before coming back to establish the kingdom. So his title as a king was not in any way a threat to the government of the day and is still valid today for he is yet to come and establish his kingdom across the world.
Conclusion
Jesus is therefore as expressed by the gospel books the prince of peace and the Christianity religion was initially meant for his believers mostly the Jews though later extended to all, as propagated first by Paul, who Marvin Harris describes as even “willing to baptize non-Jews as Christians”, (Marvin, 1974). Romans embraced Christianity later and propagated its teaching far and wide especially after the conversion of the Emperor Constantine. However this does not ratify any doctrine and changes that they could have introduced about Jesus, which was not based on the general teachings of the gospels.
Reference
Marvin, H. (1974). Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches. New York: Random House.