I’m very proud to have contributed a piece—”On the Art of Rabble-Rousing”—to the Los Angeles Review of Books symposium on Reza Aslan’s controversial/ordinary new Jesus biography, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth alongside Andrei Codrescu and Kevin Hart.

“This backlash is not surprising. There is a long tradition of biographies of Jesus — and, along with it, an equally long tradition of controversy. Zealot is now officially part of both, serving as both a compelling new narrative retelling of the life of Jesus Christ and, thanks to its author’s personal faith, a flashpoint for very contemporary strains of Islamophobia and anti-intellectualism in the media.”

My piece is here, and the symposium is here!