Resurrection as anti-imperial gospel

"Presuming that the heart of Paul's gospel announcement was the news that God had raised Jesus from the dead (as indicated in 1 Thessalonians 1:9b-10), Edward Pillar explores Paul's letter and aspects of the Roman imperial culture in Thessalonica in order to imagine what proclamation would have evoked for its first hearers. He argues that the gospel of resurrection would have been heard as fundamentally anti-imperial. Jesus of Nazareth was executed by means of imperial power, yet the resurrection subverts and usurps the empire's power."--Page 4 of cover.