How does Christianity break away from its navel gazing theology? How does Christianity bring Jesus back to earth as being fully human? How does Christianity recalibrate and retain the Bible as its foundational source in the light of anthropological, historical, and scientific evidence that debunks and questions the factuality of its narrative?
Jesus, if he indeed existed (and there is no reason to believe that as human he didn't) is far more interesting to me as a human rather than the only-begotten Son of God. In fact, I have difficulty relating to the concept of a human identified as a "sinless" demigod whose sole purpose was to pay for the sins of the world by being crucified. If Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, he is anything but what people expected two thousand years ago and what they expect today, which, to be honest remains pretty much what they expected two thousand years ago. Many Christians look for Jesus, the Messiah, to return to earth as a warrior god-king. A god-king who will set creation straight, judge the living and dead, and establish a new creation.
WAIT!!!
Does anyone else see the irony of saying Jesus freed us from our sins and then has to come back and judge us, as if being once pardoned one will still be judged if one keeps sinning? Does anyone really believe their sin are forgiven, and "by really" I mean having no fear of the after-life consequences of one's actions in a here and now? Doesn't the concept of Hell, for instance, contradict the fundamental purpose of Jesus dying to save the world, past, present, and future?
Historically, some early Christians like the Roman emperor Constantine refused baptism until they were on their deathbed so that they wouldn't have a chance to sin after being baptized. What strange theology. If Christ died once for all, then shouldn't that be enough? Why the need for Jesus Christ to return as judge?
Could there be a theology that does not rely on ambiguity about whether or not one's sins are forgiven; a theology in which there is no need for Hell since Jesus broke the bonds of Hell? One would think that the essential Gospel message is that everyone is saved - full stop - that there is no need to keep beating oneself up or anyone else over the concept of sin. In fact it isn't that death has lost its sting, but rather that sin has lost its effectiveness.
Paul's justification through faith mitigates the salvific effect of Jesus' supposed sacrifice as the everlasting atonement for humankind's sins. Salvation is conditioned on faith in Paul's mind which is not something everyone has. Some are predestined to be saved, others not. Does salvation or my preferred term, redemption, need to be grounded in the tragic and horrific execution of Jesus by crucifixion?
STARTING OVER
Theologically speaking, what if we start over? Why not keep God as a permeating spirit, a creating, recreating, and sustaining force working (to borrow a phrase from Martin Luther) through, with, and under the forces and species (Aquinas) of nature? Why not keep Jesus of Nazareth a human being like the rest of us?
If one would start at the beginning of human understanding of a universal force beyond human comprehension, an unnamable God (the ideal God) that brings about everything, how would one differentiate being made in God's image from God being made in our image?
Most of what the Bible describes as God's mood has a definite human flavor. Philosophers, such as Ludwig Feuerbach, have been on to this theological problem for some time. Apart from Judaism and Islam, the Christian version of God is depicted as all powerful. all knowing, wise, and Zeus-like old man or a Janus-like three-faced God in which Jesus is depicted like God's younger self. By Old Testament standards, God cannot be made into an image, ether in stone or in our minds. Jesus is not the face of God. Jesus might be considered the human exemplar of God's relationship with humankind, but Jesus is not God.
It is unlikely that Jesus of Nazareth, a Jew and the son of Mary and Joseph, ever thought of himself as God nor did he ever refer to himself in the Synoptic Gospel as the Son of God. Rather, he chose to refer to himself as the Son of Man. Why not stick and work with that?
The problem with the New Testament is that everything after the Gospel of Mark, from the Gospel of John through Revelation, is a theology that places Jesus near or as being equivalent with God without directly saying it. That equivalency would come later at the Council of Nicea in 325 CE. The theology of Jesus, Christology, is based on Jesus being the Messiah of Judaism. More importantly Jesus is God incarnate whose sole purpose was to sacrifice himself for our sins, be resurrected by God, and return to "heaven" until such time he returns to judge the world. Christology is not based on fact, but rather on speculative beliefs and unverifiable stories
The mythic basis for Christology is important to understanding Christianity's development and evolution. It evolved from mindset juggling with a monotheistic understanding of creation in a polytheistic world where gods and goddesses have images, have sexual relationships with humans who then produce demigod offspring. It is world where demigods (and occasionally a god) can be killed, and resurrected and raised to the level of their divine parentage. Christianity could not have evolved and survived solely as a monotheistic religion in a polytheistic culture. While such myths have no basis in fact, they are capable of giving meaning to human experience on a metaphorical level.
As such, there is no need to edit or rewrite the scriptures we have, but rather understand them for what they are. God did not write the Bible. God as the ideal creator, re-creator (redeemer), and sustainer of the universe is the inspiration for writing the Bible, but human beings wrote the Bible as the speculative story of the interaction between this divine ideal and humankind. As I have mentioned in other posts, the Bible is not the Word of God, but rather words about God. The claim that the Bible is the Word of God renders it an idol to be worshipped as the voice of God which it is not nor is it an exact transcription of what God is said. The oldest scriptures within the Bible was written centuries, perhaps a millennia or two, after God was perceived as acting in (guiding) our history.
As such, theology should be a fluid undertaking that not only appreciates an ever evolving relationship with God as distilled in scripture, but also in the light of scientific discoveries and emerging human thought expressed in word and deeds. God is what God is. and God will be what God will be at any given time. As such, one cannot paint a permanent picture of God. Allegorically speaking, God is light, love, the flame, the cloud, the thunder, the quaking earth, the wind, the dawning, the darkening, the absence, the quiet, etc.. God cannot be pinned down by our limited understanding; not by creeds, doctrines, or dogmatic beliefs.
JESOLOGY
Theology is a dangerous activity when it tries to figure out God and paint a picture of God. Jesus cannot be God, but is one of the many manifestations or incarnations of God. In Christianity, Jesus should be understood as the prime exemplar of what a human child of God i. Instead of Christology, there is a need for a humanology seen through the teachings of Jesus, a "Jesology" (so to speak) that examines the image of God at work in our world and through all of our lives as expressed in the teachings of Jesus.
The mythological stories; such as, the birth stories, miracle stories, resurrection and ascension stories about Jesus should not be altered in text, but altered in meaning. As mentioned above, they contain meaning without having to be believed as factual events. They are relevant without being replicable in a factual way. Preachers often give sermons that talk about Jesus' birth stories and his resurrection stories as metaphors for the experience we have in our lives. All mythic stories have this attribute of applicability. Treating stories that have no factual or replicable basis removes the burden of having to believe in something unbelievable in order for it to convey meaning.
Within many of my previous posts is an emerging theology based on Jesus' teachings and the stories about Jesus. To bring Jesus down to earth, where Jesus started and ended his life is vital to recalibrating Christianity. In future post, I plan to expand on this concept of Jesology, as a form of humanology based on the teachings of Jesus.
Norm
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