Alex’s Heresies – embracing a physical reality

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Comment:Pick Your Jesus

September 27th, 2009 | Category: Comments

Not surprisingly, Jesus is worshipped by Christians all over the world. However different Christian groups revere quite different images of Jesus. Marcus Borg, a prolific progressive Christian writer, characterises two different views of Jesus as pre- and post-Easter Jesus, historical person and the risen Christ respectively. However I see three types of Jesus in play with scholars, theologians and laypeople: historical Jesus, Jesus of faith, and Christ of faith.

Historical Jesus
We have a sketchy image of a Jewish preacher. Historical scholars – mostly Christian – use empirically-based research techniques to separate historical fact from theological claims. Though difficult at times we would hope scholars can put aside their personal beliefs to approach this work with as much objectively as researching other historical figures like Plato, Augustus Caesar, or Cicero.
With very few non-Christian references, the gospels form the primary source material for Jesus. It is critical that scholars use secular methods to assess potential authenticity the gospels, especially as explicit proclamations of religious faith. The gospels vary considerably how they weave sayings and events together in rough narratives to proclaim their Jesus, suiting the needs of the author and his particular audience. These are not historical documents by any modern understanding of the term. Furthermore the gospels were written some 40 to 70 years after the death of Jesus in a world largely illiterate and dominated by the fear of demons and spirits. Though Paul’s epistles were written earlier than the first gospel, Mark, they say little of Jesus, the man.  As history the gospels provide records of his one, synoptic gospels, or three year, John’s gospel, ministering periods.
Finally we need to remember that biblical writings have gone through considerable editing, re-writing and inaccurate hand copying over the years to reinforce different theological messages. This makes the historian’s task daunting, if not problematic, to produce a meaningful stripped-down Jesus, removed of all Christian supernatural and theological claims.
Ultimately we have very little remaining that is not speculative. Jesus was a Jewish itinerant preacher, living early first century mostly around Galilee. He was executed by crucifixion around 30 CE by the Roman authorities. The liberal Jesus Seminar estimates that less than 20% of the gospel sayings can be attributed to Jesus. Despite this acknowledgement religious scholars seem to be able to propose many diverse images of Jesus, the man – social reformer, philosophical sceptic and apocalyptic messiah to name a few.
What do we make of this historical Jesus? Pretty flimsy according to four professors of English in their excellent The Bible as Literature:
For a long time it was assumed that the “historical Jesus” existed within and behind the four gospels in such as way that, by following clues in them and combining information that they offered separately, it would be possible to construct a reliable general account of his human existence. Many attempts of this kind have been made, but all of them have proven unsatisfactory. They are acts of imaginative piety, not history. The gospels do not contain enough data which to build a real biography, and efforts to flesh out their sketchy accounts simply require too much guesswork. (Gabel, 2006 p. 227)
Jesus of faith
Progressive and liberal Christians revere an idealised image of Jesus, the man. Adding moral, spiritual and social superlatives to a limited Jewish itinerant preacher profile of historical research, progressives venerate the Jesus of faith as one of the greatest people, if not the greatest person, of all time, a concept generally unchallenged in western society after years of Christian indoctrination. Claims of unique greatness are perhaps curtailed by their equally strong desire to recognise the greatest of other religious founders and leaders, like Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) and Mohammad.
Most progressives seek to modernise the demon-infested world of the gospels by interpreting the supernatural aspects of the Jesus stories – resurrections, miracles, and exorcisms – metaphorically. The Jesus of faith then becomes a most remarkable spirit-filled sage whose sayings and actions in first century Galilee continue to be relevant today some 2000 years later. Given the disparate and parochial nature of the gospel proclamations, progressives can find selections of biblical passages to support their enlightened view of Jesus. Despite their acceptance of the historical Jesus research, progressive Christians choose biblical quotations on their support rather than on any authenticity assessments by biblical scholars.
So the Jesus of Faith is a modern Jesus constructed from the four distinct and often contradictory gospel stories. Their Jesus is not the actual Jesus, but from images of the first and second century Christian communities saw him, long after his death. Finally, progressive Christians explain the purging of fanciful stories, the ones that gave early Christians authority, with metaphorical interpretations as giving greater truths than the discarded factual claims. The selected stories and quotations present a gentle, inspiring, inclusive, spirit-filled Jesus sage, acceptable to us all.
Christ of faith
The resurrection story, typically a physical resurrection, forms the centrepiece of the Christian faith for the last 2000 years. Belief in Jesus is more about salvation through his death and resurrection than his life on this earth. According to Dominations Comparison (Rose Publishing, 2005) the Roman Catholic concept of Jesus as Christ of faith is:
The eternal Son incarnate, fully God and fully man, conceived and born of the virgin Mary, died on the Cross for our sins, rose bodily from the grave, ascended into heaven, and will come again in glory to judge us all.
The same publication states that other major Christian churches have similar conceptions of their Christ of faith.
References
Gabel, J. B., Wheeler, C. B., York A. D., Citino, D. The Bible As Literature New York: Oxford University Press, 2006
Rose Publishing Denominations Comparision  Torrance: 2005

Historical Jesus

We have a sketchy image of a Jewish preacher. Historical scholars – mostly Christian – use empirically-based research techniques to separate historical fact from theological claims. Though difficult at times we would hope scholars can put aside their personal beliefs to approach this work with as much objectively as researching other historical figures like Plato, Augustus Caesar, or Cicero.

With very few non-Christian references, the gospels form the primary source material for Jesus. It is critical that scholars use secular methods to assess potential authenticity the gospels, especially as explicit proclamations of religious faith. The gospels vary considerably how they weave sayings and events together in rough narratives to proclaim their Jesus, suiting the needs of the author and his particular audience. These are not historical documents by any modern understanding of the term. Furthermore the gospels were written some 40 to 70 years after the death of Jesus in a world largely illiterate and dominated by the fear of demons and spirits. Though Paul’s epistles were written earlier than the first gospel, Mark, they say little of Jesus, the man.  As history the gospels provide records of his one, synoptic gospels, or three year, John’s gospel, ministering periods.

Finally we need to remember that biblical writings have gone through considerable editing, re-writing and inaccurate hand copying over the years to reinforce different theological messages. This makes the historian’s task daunting, if not problematic, to produce a meaningful stripped-down Jesus, removed of all Christian supernatural and theological claims.

Ultimately we have very little remaining that is not speculative. Jesus was a Jewish itinerant preacher, living early first century mostly around Galilee. He was executed by crucifixion around 30 CE by the Roman authorities. The liberal Jesus Seminar estimates that less than 20% of the gospel sayings can be attributed to Jesus. Despite this acknowledgement religious scholars seem to be able to propose many diverse images of Jesus, the man – social reformer, philosophical sceptic and apocalyptic messiah to name a few.

What do we make of this historical Jesus? Pretty flimsy according to four professors of English in their excellent The Bible as Literature:

For a long time it was assumed that the “historical Jesus” existed within and behind the four gospels in such as way that, by following clues in them and combining information that they offered separately, it would be possible to construct a reliable general account of his human existence. Many attempts of this kind have been made, but all of them have proven unsatisfactory. They are acts of imaginative piety, not history. The gospels do not contain enough data which to build a real biography, and efforts to flesh out their sketchy accounts simply require too much guesswork. (Gabel, 2006 p. 227)

Jesus of faith

Progressive and liberal Christians revere an idealised image of Jesus, the man. Adding moral, spiritual and social superlatives to a limited Jewish itinerant preacher profile of historical research, progressives venerate the Jesus of faith as one of the greatest people, if not the greatest person, of all time, a concept generally unchallenged in western society after years of Christian indoctrination. Claims of unique greatness are perhaps curtailed by their equally strong desire to recognise the greatest of other religious founders and leaders, like Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) and Mohammad.

Most progressives seek to modernise the demon-infested world of the gospels by interpreting the supernatural aspects of the Jesus stories – resurrections, miracles, and exorcisms – metaphorically. The Jesus of faith then becomes a most remarkable spirit-filled sage whose sayings and actions in first century Galilee continue to be relevant today some 2000 years later. Given the disparate and parochial nature of the gospel proclamations, progressives can find selections of biblical passages to support their enlightened view of Jesus. Despite their acceptance of the historical Jesus research, progressive Christians choose biblical quotations for their support rather than on any authenticity assessments by biblical scholars.

So the Jesus of faith is a modern Jesus constructed from the four separate and often contradictory gospel stories. Their Jesus is not the actual Jesus, but drawn from images of the first and second century Christian communities, long after his death. Progressive Christians explain the purging of fanciful stories, the ones that gave early Christians all of their authority, with metaphorical interpretations as giving greater truths than the discarded factual claims. The selected stories and quotations present a gentle, inspiring, inclusive, spirit-filled Jesus sage, acceptable to us all.

Christ of faith

The resurrection story, typically a physical resurrection, forms the centrepiece of the Christian faith for the last 2000 years. Belief in Jesus is more about salvation through his death and resurrection than his life on this earth. According to Dominations Comparison (Rose Publishing, 2005) the Roman Catholic concept of Jesus as Christ of faith is:

The eternal Son incarnate, fully God and fully man, conceived and born of the virgin Mary, died on the Cross for our sins, rose bodily from the grave, ascended into heaven, and will come again in glory to judge us all.

The same publication states that other major Christian churches hold similar conceptions of their Christ of faith.

Alex McCullie

References

Gabel, J. B., Wheeler, C. B., York A. D., Citino, D. The Bible As Literature New York: Oxford University Press, 2006

Rose Publishing Denominations Comparision Torrance: 2005

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