Friday, March 23, 2012
So now we know a small amount about the historical Jesus his followers, and why everyone followed this peasant who altered many individuals perception of patriarchy among other things. I know that the gospels are embellished stories to show the significance of what Jesus did, but I want to know where God fits into all of this. I know it was a biography of Jesus, but from what I've learned over the years (I know I'm supposed to leave that out but since we are moving on I have been curious about this) the belief of Jesus and God kind of go hand and hand. Father and son, the holy family, etc. The kingdom of God is something we touch upon but once again that is not a literal place. He God also another embellishment of the history? or is that a whole other book?
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I think that belief in God is not required in order to believe in Jesus' social views, although obviously the two often go together. One can support Jesus' vision of an egalitarian society without being religious at all, or one can believe that he was a (human) revolutionary with very strong and valid religious faith, or one can believe he was actually the son of God. God was certainly not just a feature of the story added in by later historians; Jesus himself was Jewish, and the Jews of his time did believe that God existed. Whether or not one believes in God, the fact that many people in Jesus' time (most probably including Jesus) did believe is hard to dispute. However, the idea of Jesus being the son of God was likely added in later. While of course I cannot prove this, I seriously doubt that Jesus himself thought that he was the son of God (unless, of course, he actually was.)
ReplyDeleteP.S. I also posted this on my blog if you'd rather read it there.
I would have also liked Crossan to touch upon God more. i agree with avery in saying that God is not required to believe in what Jesus was doing, but I grew up being told that Jesus was the son of God and that he was here to save us. As far as I can tell, Jesus was just trying to help us all love one another. I don't think he pushed God onto people. We also went over in class that Jesus believed everyone was his brother/sister/father, so this is probably where God came into being Jesus' 'father.' Like so many of the stories, it was probably just embellishment and people taking things too literally.
ReplyDeleteWhen you re-read the book, I think you will notice how frequently Crossan (and Jesus) talk about God's justice, God's rule, God's community. It really is all about God, though not perhaps in quite the way we're used to. This is a good thing, as we won't learn anything much if we don't get outside our preconceived notions of the topic.
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