In his defence writings Rêber APO evaluates the history of the democratic forces of the Middle East in a detailed and deep way. Here we can find several evaluations about religion in general, but especially about Jesus and Christianity and its role as a democratic force in the Middle East. On this day, the day that is celebrated as the birthday of Jesus in Christianity, we want to share some of Rêber APOs evaluations, that we found in his books “Beyond State, Power and Violence”, “Capitalism – The Age of unmasked Gods and naked Kings” and “Sociology of Freedom”.
The first evaluation, that is found in “Beyond State, Power and Violence” describes the importance of Jesus being called the “Son of God”, instead of God itself, and how this change became the basis of questioning authorities in that time: “The concept of “God as a Trinity” that was introduced by Jesus led to great historical contortions. The mentality revolution that began with Jesus is a great development that constituted a long transition period between the era of god-king and the era of human kings. While, up to that time, the kings had presented themselves as gods, Jesus, who was influenced by that culture but whose concern was the kingdom of Jerusalem, described himself not as God but as the Son of God. Actually, the concept “Son of God” in the Holy Scripture has profound sociological significance. Being the “Son of God” instead of being God is something new, while the “Holy Spirit,” in fact, signifies being from the lineage of God. Jesus tried to reform that mentality he was born into, and in doing so he changed both the Roman and Jewish religious cults. The kingdom of Judea and the Roman prefect collaborated to crucify Jesus because of the revolutionary character of the new message. At the time, there were a growing number of poor and unemployed people. They and the lower clerics and officials took an interest in Jesus, which is to say, the Jesus phenomenon didn’t come out of the blue. It was connected to the Essene community, which played a significant role at the time. John the Baptist, who was seen as a prophet, named Jesus his rightful successor, and even before Jesus was crucified, John was decapitated. In brief, the system of slavery was in a severe crisis. The mentality revolution in the form of Christianity was the result of an evolution spanning several centuries. In a way, Christianity was very much like the Marxist, social democratic, or socialist movements of recent times. Its expansion followed well-trodden paths within the Roman Empire and in its shadow, so to speak. One can properly regard the Christian movement as the first and most comprehensive party of the poor in history.” (Beyond State, Power, and Violence, page 56-57)
In the second quote Rêber APO explains the role of monotheist religions in Democratic Modernity. Of course religion also built the ground for many mentalities that would support Capitalist Modernity. But Rêber APO does not take a one-sided approach and so points out the positive sides of these religions as well: “In all of this, we encounter the social democratic character of the monotheist religions: class compromise. Jesus was actually a radical class revolutionary. In Christianity, especially during the period when it became the state, Arianism in particular represents the great class resistance of the poor. The same tendency was seen when the Sunni denomination in Islam became the state; the Alevi denomination represented the poor and the oppressed. In the Middle East, classes don’t appear as immediately visible structures; instead, they confront us clothed in ethnic, religious, and denominational covers.” (Beyond State, Power, and Violence, page 247)
On the question of how the Christian religion came into the service of Capitalist Modernity, Rêber APO holds Western civilization responsible: “The answer to the question of who spilled the blood of Jesus of Nazareth, drank it like wine, and got wealthy off of it is: Western civilization itself. It was the Roman Empire as the worldly kingdom of European civilization that shed the blood of Jesus. The papacy, in its turn, made wine of his blood, drank it, became the spiritual otherworldly kingdom, and created the fundamental moral values of European civilization. The fate of Jesus and his poor, ascetic successors, however, was to be persecuted, tortured, and killed. When we analyze these formative developments of Western civilization, we recognize how the system murders its victims, while simultaneously heralding and praising them.” (Beyond State, Power, and Violence, page 520-521)
In the book Capitalism – The Age of unmasked Gods and naked Kings, the second Volume of the Manifesto for a Democratic Modernity, Rêber APO describes how many of the religious leaders that tried to protect the meaning of life became victims of oppression: “If we are to give some known examples like Mani who was put to death by the Sassanid Empire; Husayn ibn Ali, Mansur Al-Hallaj, and Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi who were executed by the Islamic rulers; hundreds of followers of Jesus who became martyrs, and followers of the Iinddha who fled the horror of the rulers; those who were burnt on the stakes of the Inquisition of the Christian Church; and those who died in the genocides of capitalism. What all these people have in common is that they persisted in being aware of life. They refused to be content with the curtain pulled between themselves and life-thin was their crime.” (Capitalism – The Age of unmasked Gods and naked Kings, page 25)
Furthermore Rêber APO shows how the execution of Jesus must be understood as an attempt to end the “movement of the poor”: “The reason why all traces of Manichaeism have been lost must be due to the lack of any strong tradition preceding or succeeding it. And even though the Abrahamic tradition had been around for 1,500 years, it only had a partial success, that is, until the period of Jesus Christ. It could not defeat any of the civilizations that had Egyptian and Mesopotamian roots. The tiny Kingdom of Jerusalem it established was not very influential or long-lived. Its most important success was to continuously be the hope of the oppressed and those seeking liberation. It had thus become the conscience and center of attraction for all those who had suffered at the hands of the Nimrods and Pharaohs-of all despotic rulers-for the poor and for those with ideals. If the phenomenon of Jesus Christ were seen in this light it would be better understood. When, following the Roman conquest of Judea, the collaborationist priests sided with the Roman rulers, the atmosphere was once again conducive to new prophets. Moreover, the Roman slave-owning system dissolved the Middle Eastern community structures, and many “unemployed slaves,” proletarians, were generated as a result. Many cults and prophets came to the fore, and Jesus Christ was probably only one of a number that were crucified or condemned to similar deaths. Christ (as liberationist) became the symbolic name for the general movement of the poor. One may see this as a primitive socialist movement. Initially, it was definitely the movement of the poor and the escaped slaves. Jesus’ last action was his march to conquer Jerusalem: he was after a new kingdom -a kingdom of the poor- a Spartacus that did not wage war.” (Capitalism – The Age of unmasked Gods and naked Kings, page 156-157)
In his book “Sociology of Freedom” Rêber APO evaluates different factions that resisted against the hegemonic civilizations in history. In this sense he sees Jesus as a representative of the poor people, that resisted. “Second was the anti-civilization tendency of the poor and radical sections of society. These sections understood that becoming civilized would aggravate their problems. Even in the first kingdom of Israel and Judah this was an intense contradiction. This is partly reflected in the fierce opposition of the Samuel-like priests to the leaders who became kings. The emergence of Jesus would make all of this even clearer. During this period, class division had deepened among the Hebrew people. The representatives of the upper layer, the owners of the Kingdom of Judah, who were Roman collaborators, accused Jesus of undermining their power and had him seized and crucified (with the help of Judas Iscariot, the thirteenth apostle, a Jewish informant who collaborated with the authorities). The governor who represented Rome did not insist that Jesus be crucified; it was the representatives of the Kingdom of Judah who demand crucifixion. It is clear that Jesus was regarded as a symbol of the first great inter-people’s party that represented the poor, not only of the Hebrews but of all peoples (especially the Greeks, Assyrians, and Armenians, who were all peoples that had established civilizations at the time) impoverished by the Romans and the Persians. This was a new movement developing against classical civilization. The members of this movement lived an anti-Roman and anti-Sasanian underground life for three hundred years, running the risk of all types of hunger and torture. Later, the senior management (e.g., the council of priests and the consul) of the politicized movement officially collaborated with Roman emperor Constantine, becoming the ideological organ of the second largest Eastern Roman Empire built during the Byzantine era. In contrast, the poor and the radical sections linked to different denominations displayed a fierce resistance that lasted for centuries. The resistance displayed by the Arianists, Assyrians, and Gregorians is important. Clearly, class struggle, and even the struggle for a moral and political society, carried out by the oppressed tribes and peoples under religious cover has continued unabated for centuries.” (Sociology of Freedom, page 168-170)
In this paragraph Rêber APO evaluates the role of Christians in the collapse of Rome: “Although still debated, it seems quite clear that Christians within Rome played a major role in its collapse. In light of the Jewish roots of the very first Christian, Jesus of Nazareth, the role of a wing of the Jews in the decline of Rome is indisputable. In a sense, they took revenge for the double destruction of the Temple in the Jewish capital of Jerusalem. Also, the beheading of St. Paul (born in Tarsus, one of the first Christians, and the most important author of Christian doctrine) in Rome could not go unanswered. The fact that thousands of Christians were crucified or thrown to the lions was, so to speak, part of their resistance. The first successful offensive of the diaspora was to use Christianity as a strategic spiritual force. Objectively, therefore, we can confidently claim that the destruction of Rome from within was the consequence of the first major strategic spiritual offensive of the Jewish diaspora. Undoubtedly the attacks by the Germanic, Hunnish, and Frankish tribes also contributed to the fall of Rome. Nevertheless, the internal factors were decisive.” (Sociology of Freedom, page 224)
In this extract Rêber APO points out the importance of Judaism, as the roots of Christianity, for Democratic Modernity: “It would be insufficient and wrong to think of Judaism only in connection to capitalism, modernity, and the nation-state. It also exerted a strong influence on democratic modernity. Even if this influence fails to match that of the power-oriented, statist wing (e.g., the Kingdom of Judah and the State of Israel), there has always been a strong Jewish wing of democratic civilization and modernity. Historical mention of the Judaism that lived in poverty and lacked strong tribal ties has been consistent. From the time of Ishmael, the son of the Prophet Abraham and his concubine Hagar, to Joseph, who was taken to Egypt as a slave, and from Miriam, the sister of Moses, through Mary, the mother of Jesus, to the present, the list encompasses prophets, scribes, intellectuals, social anarchists, feminists, philosophers, scientists, and, together with its laborers, the other side of Judaism has produced great discoveries, inventions, theories, revolutions, and works of art in the struggle for democratic civilization and modernity. The Jews have not always devoted their ideological and material strength to the monopolies. They have also made significant efforts and achieved important successes for a more enlightened, just, free, and democratic world. What prophetic movement, what fraternity and solidarity of the poor, what utopian, socialist, anarchist, feminist, or ecological movement is conceivable without Jews? Likewise, philosophical schools, scientific and artistic movements, and religious denominations are hardly conceivable without Jews. How far could socialism have developed against capitalism, internationalism against nation-statism, communalism against liberalism, feminism against social sexism, ecological economy against industrialism, laicism against religionism, or relativism against universalism without Jews?” (Sociology of Freedom, page 237)
In this last quote it becomes clear that Rêber APO sees Jesus as a part of a general line of resistance, and as a heritage, that we are building on today: “Humanity has not only developed political resistance at the social or regional level to protect its existence and dignity, history offers numerous examples of insurgent individuals who have played a significant role akin to that of a nation. From Adam and Noah to Job (Ayyub), from Abraham to Moses, from Jesus to Mohammad, it is said that there are 124,000 prophets in the Holy Scripture, as well as many individuals and countless sages, ranging from the goddess Inanna to Aisha, from Zenobia to Hypatia, from Cybele to Mary, from the Buddha to Socrates, from Zarathustra to Confucius, from witches to Zeynep to Rosa, from Bruno to Erasmus, all of whom resisted to the death to maintain their freedom and dignity. If society remains moral and political, it owes much to these individuals. Without their contributions, we would not be able to distinguish societies from herds of slaves.” (Sociology of Freedom, page 351)