Alex’s Heresies – embracing a physical reality

Tom Wright, well-known religious writer and Bishop of Durham, has chided Christians and their churches for down-playing  and even mythologising the resurrection of Jesus. And why not? Take-away that as a historical event and you are left with Jesus as a pretty good man rather than being the true son of God. Would that also drop Jesus down the prophet league ladder and then wrap it up for Christianity?

Wright wants Christians to realise we are talking about a full-blown, fair dinkum physical resurrection – not some airy-fairy, namby-pamby floating off to heaven. According to Wright the resurrection continued the brutality of the crucifixion story. “The Passion of Christ” viewers would appreciate the blood and gore of this R-rated event.

Of course I was never sure how Jesus and any other resurrected people would look. Would Jesus still have the broken limbs, nail wounds, wip marks, torn flesh, collapsed lungs and so on. And what about skin colour and rigor mortis? Stiff body parts would not be appropriate. Paul made this even more problematic when he promised the physical resurrection of all dead people with the imminent coming of the “Son of Man”. That’s too horrible to contemplate! So thank God it didn’t happen.

Here’s the full article from Times OnLine .

Alex McCullie