Jesus and the Disinherited

In Thurman’s final chapter, he outlines the role of love in the Gospels and argues for its implementation as a tool for the disinherited. He cites the parable of the Good Samaritan, claiming that “neighborliness is nonspatial; it is qualitative” (89). As in earlier chapters, Thurman points out that Jesus’s political position was a difficult one to take, and his preaching might easily be considered a betrayal of Israel. In addition to the Good Samaritan parable, the story of Jesus and the Syrophoenician woman is a biblical example of faith and love conquering cultural bitterness. Jesus’s biggest hurdle, however, was learning and teaching love for the Romans: “It was upon the anvil of the Jewish community’s relations with Rome that Jesus hammered out the vital content of his concept of love for one’s enemy” (91).

Thurman divides “enemy” into three categories. The first kind of enemy is personal, a party who is “in some sense a part of one’s primary-group life” (92). This is the easiest enemy to love. It requires reconciliation, apology, and “the will to re-establish a relationship” (92). It is easiest because the parties can rely on everything they share in common.