James Crossley is not only an exegete of biblical texts, but an exegete of exegesis - that is, concerned with the ways in which the construal of 'religion' in neoliberal political theory has had a profound impact on the reading and use of the Bible. Taking England since 1968 as his focus, Crossley offers an incisive analysis of how the Bible has been implicated in political discourse and how its role as a supposed touchstone of shared values has been invoked variously in support of the State's role in the welfare of its citizens, the war on the British labour movement, and the political construct of "True Religion" in the "War on Terror." This is required reading for anyone who thinks that biblical exegesis is a historically neutral and purely antiquarian project.

John Kloppenborg, University of Toronto, Canada

Underneath the secular skin of our political self-understandings, behind the back of the career representatives of our religious institutions, there is an ongoing political war to manage and manipulate the empathy, outrage, and even violence of biblical traditions. In a richly detailed and engagingly written book, James Crossley uncovers since 1968 a generally unrecognized public struggle for the political hearts and minds of Britain. Crossley is our shrewdest and most challenging analyst of the biblical networks still operative in the soul of English politics. The new paperback edition includes updating material about David Cameron, Jeremy Corbyn, and Russell Brand. Crossley shows how their recent pronouncements fit squarely in an English tradition of struggle for a kind of divinity management of the political.

Ward Blanton, University of Kent, UK