I’m thinking here of Karen King’s remark that the Gnostic belief in the relative lack of value of the material world could be used to support the hegemonic interests of the upper class. “Such belief can leave intact exploitative economic and class structures by turning attention away from the world to spiritual matters” (“Gospel of Mary [Magdalene],” in Schüssler Fiorenza, Searching the Scriptures, vol. 2, p. 624). What other forms of the Easter faith function this way?