The Innocence of Pontius Pilate: Early Modern Readings of the Roman Trial of Jesus

The late-ancient and medieval question of Pilate's innocence continued to be debated in the early modern period. This lecture explores the contribution to this theme by Christian Thomas, whose On the Unjust Judgment of Pontius Pilate responded not only to earlier medieval and Renaissance discussions of this issue but also to the works on this question by his contemporaries Johann Steller and Daniel Hartnack. This presentation examines how ideas of religious toleration, natural law, and "secularization" were shaped by a forgotten controversy over the Roman trial of Jesus.

David Lloyd Dusenbury is a philosopher, historian of ideas, Times Literary Supplement contributor and senior fellow at Budapest's Danube Institute. The author of I Judge No One and The Innocence of Pontius Pilate (published by Hurst and Oxford University Press), he is also Chair for Jewish-Christian Relations at the University of Antwerp.

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