Unfundamentalist

Above All, Love

The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part Four

by Christian Chiakulas in Christian History

This five part series is written by Christian Chiakulas. Part one is here, part two is here, part three is here, part four is here, and part five is here.

The term “Kingdom of God” and its related form in the Gospel of Matthew, “Kingdom of Heaven,” are at the very center of Jesus’s entire message. New Testament scholar John Reumann wrote: “Ask any hundred New Testament scholars around the world, Protestant, Catholic, or non-Christian, what the central message of Jesus was, and the vast majority of them – perhaps every single expert – would agree that his message centered in the kingdom of God.”

There are differing interpretations of what exactly this Kingdom looks like, but far more controversial is the method of the Kingdom – how and when it will arrive. This is where scholars are divided: at the eschatological views of Jesus.

Eschatology is theology regarding the end of the world. The traditional Christian view is that the world as we know it will end with the second coming of Jesus as told in Revelation. But Revelation was written many years after Jesus’s death. What were his own views?

The traditional model is commonly called “apocalyptic” or “imminent” eschatology. It was codified by Albert Schweitzer and remained the dominant view throughout the 20th century. The dissenting view is called “realized” or “participatory” eschatology, and was first developed by C.H. Dodd; it has found support mostly among more liberal scholars.

Before we discuss… [Read more…] about The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part Four

Preemptive Forgiveness (The first saying from the cross)

by Chuck Queen in Christian Spirituality

“Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

Can the spiral of violence that plagues our planet and fractures relationships, ravaging families, communities, and whole societies, ever be neutralized and overcome? Are we caught in a web from which we cannot tear loose?

Jesus refuses to get sucked into the spiral of violence. On the night of his betrayal and arrest, one of his disciples draws his sword and strikes the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Jesus exclaims, “No more of this!” And to make his point, he touches the man’s ear and restores it. Violence never brings healing. Never. It may, on some occasions, bring an end to overt violence, but it often causes the violence to escalate. It cannot heal or redeem. There is no redemptive violence.

Only forgiveness can exhaust the constantly spinning spiral of violence and offer redemptive possibilities. But we rarely do it, because it is so costly. Look at Jesus on the cross, bearing the violence, enduring the punishment and torture inflicted by the powers that be. What does he do in reaction? He responds to the violence with a preemptive strike of forgiveness. The enormity of the sin against Jesus is countered only by the magnitude of Jesus’s grace toward his killers.

There are two primary ways we avoid forgiveness. First, we avoid forgiveness when we fail to face the wrongs we have done and admit to those we have offended and to God the hurt and pain our actions have caused. I… [Read more…] about Preemptive Forgiveness (The first saying from the cross)

The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part Three

by Christian Chiakulas in Christian History

This five part series is written by Christian Chiakulas. Part one is here, part two is here, part three is here, part four is here, and part five is here.

Now that we’ve created a decent sketch of the life of the Historical Jesus, it’s time to examine the social and political background of 1st-century Palestine in order to make better sense of the words and deeds we find in the Gospels.

Although Matthew and Luke say that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, it’s far more likely that he was born in the city of Nazareth in the region of Galilee. The Christmas stories, aside from contradicting each other too much to both be true, are both historically unfeasible. They were intended as metaphorical or parabolic narratives expressing convictions about Jesus as the Messiah. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan provide more details about this understanding in their book The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Birth.

Jesus’s ministry was primarily based in Galilee, the Gospels say he grew up in Nazareth, and he is known historically as “Jesus of Nazareth.” Occam’s Razor applies here: Jesus was almost certainly born in Nazareth, a tiny village in the north of modern-day Israel.

Jesus is said to have been a tekton, which is sometimes mistranslated as “carpenter,” implying artisanal craftsmanship. In actuality, it describes basic manual labor, perhaps in construction, and was a lower occupation than farmer. Tektons were people… [Read more…] about The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part Three

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

by Jill Crainshaw in Christian Spirituality

This guest post is by Jill Crainshaw.

Ashes.
I scatter them. They slip away from cold-numbed fingers.
It is winter. Nothing grows in winter—
does it?

Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.

But a dancing fire warms my hands
and its ashes cultivate growth.

We are ashes;
our lives slip through our fingers
sometimes. Or so it seems.

We are also formed from the earth.
We are dust.
Scattered in God’s garden
“to till it and to keep it.”

Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.

The seasons of Lent and Easter in Christian traditions call us to reflect on rhythms of feasting and fasting and feasting in our world, our churches, and our spiritual lives. But the traditional Lenten fast is complicated this year because fasting in our world today is a complicated concept. Too many people’s bodies and souls ache because of fasts imposed on them by unjust life realities. Too many people’s tables are too empty because they lack adequate access to food.

So we wonder. To what fasts can we commit ourselves during this season that will teach us how to fashion redemptive and life-giving relationships with each other and this earth that is our home? What can we plant in the ashes and dust of Lent’s great fast that will bring forth a resurrecting great feast for our world’s hurting people?

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday. On Ash Wednesday, our foreheads smudged with charcoaled Palm branches from last year’s now-cold feast, we are reminded:

By the sweat of your face you shall eat… [Read more…] about Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part Two

by Christian Chiakulas in Christian History

This five part series is written by Christian Chiakulas. Part one is here, part two is here, part three is here, part four is here, and part five is here.

In my previous post, I said that the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth is perhaps the most sure thing we can know about him, based on the double contemporary attestation from non-Christian sources within one hundred years of Jesus’s death.

Historians use a technique called reconstruction to flesh out their sketches of the Historical Jesus. They start with the most basic and indisputable facts, and then add and subtract from the evidence based on what those facts say.

Based on our non-Christian independent sources (Josephus and Tacitus), we can identify the following facts about the Jesus:

Jesus was crucified under Roman procurator Pontius Pilate.
Jesus was known as a miracle worker and gathered followers.
Shortly after his death, some of Jesus’s followers claimed that he had risen from the dead and continued his ministry in some form.

From there, we can consider our primary sources, the Gospels. Remember that when viewed simply as documents primarily concerned with exalting Jesus (and expressing the authors’ already-held convictions), we can’t take their claims at face-value. Everything must be measured against our more concrete knowledge about Jesus, as well as the background of 1st-century Palestine.

Mark, Matthew, and Luke are called the synoptics because they share many similarities. Mark was written… [Read more…] about The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part Two

Review: Life's Too Short to Pretend You're Not Religious

by in Book Reviews

I recently asked my Facebook friends what connotations the term “religious” has for them. The answers ran the gamut, from the generally positive:
“sacred space,” “ritualistic,” “disciplined,” “a shared set of beliefs and moral standards”
to the safely neutral:
“vague,” “subscribing to a particular religion. no more, no less,” “parameters of how they view life.”
to the negative:
“intolerant,” “wrapped up in the letter of the law,” “makes me cautious,” “ick” “conjure[s] up derision,” “suspicion”
and even the outright hostile, in the form of a hastily retracted comment of “deluded” and “mean.”

It’s toward those on the negative end of the spectrum that David Dark’s new book, Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious (InterVarsity Press, $20), is addressed. Dark argues that the term “religious” has become an unnecessary source of exclusion and judgment, a pejorative used to marginalize and suppress those with whom we disagree.

Dark makes an end run around the negative connotations, neatly avoiding both the knotty metaphysical issues behind religious belief as well as the pragmatic realities of thousands of years of human religious practice. Instead, he proposes radically redefining the entire notion of religion, characterizing it as simply the “controlling story” of our lives (14).

Given that definition, we are all, whether we admit it or not, deeply religious. We all have a narrative that we live by, we all have commitments and priorities and values that shape… [Read more…] about Review: Life's Too Short to Pretend You're Not Religious

The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part One

by Christian Chiakulas in Christian History

This five part series is written by Christian Chiakulas. Part one is here, part two is here, part three is here, part four is here, and part five is here.

Jesus Christ is a figure of religion and mythology. Miraculous deeds, divine attributes, and arcane sayings are attributed to him, and his billions of followers across the world hold countless views about who he was, what he said, what he meant, and how exactly he was related to God.

Jesus of Nazareth is a figure of history, a real man who lived and died in the first century Middle East, but whose biographical details often seem frustratingly elusive, obscured by the sensational aspects of his religious persona.

Extricating the man from the myth is a more complicated task than many Christians might imagine. “We have four good biographies of Jesus,” they might say. “Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Put them together, and we know a great deal about Jesus.”

Yes and no. Scholars and theologians have long realized that there is much about Jesus that the Gospels don’t tell us, or at least that they aren’t conclusive about. The “First Quest for the Historical Jesus” began during the 18th century and lasted until Albert Schweitzer published The Quest of the Historical Jesus in 1906. The “Second Quest” began in the 1950s, and the current “Third Quest” began in the 1980s with the Jesus Seminar.

The reason these “quests” exist is simple: we can’t necessarily trust the Gospels, or the New Testament in general, as… [Read more…] about The Quest for the Historical Jesus: Part One

The Gospel of Hate

by in Christian Issues

Yesterday I was confronted with the gospel of hate. I was watching a TV show about a team of gay male cheerleaders. The show told about their personal stories as well as about the hate that they are regularly confronted with. Time and time again “Christians” would stand around them, telling them that they should be burned, that they are going to hell and that God hates them for what they are.

I was furious. It felt to me like some part of God’s heart for the lost and the broken exploded in my chest. What happened to the Gospel? How did it get to the point where we, as mere followers of Christ, replaced a Gospel of love with one of damnation, hate, and death? What gives us the right to take a message of love, showing God’s heart for all of us — including those cheerleaders — and turn it on its head to be replaced by a Gospel of hate? Have we forgotten what John 3:16 truly means?

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever shall believe in Him shall not perish but share in the glory of eternal life.” – John 3:16

I know some of you will think “But do they believe in God?” I don’t know the answer to that question. But I do know that we will never get the opportunity to tell someone about Christ if we continue to throw a Gospel of hate their way.

One of the guys on the show put it very clearly: “The more people hate on us, the more strength it gives us to say f*ck you, we will do it anyway.”

This broke… [Read more…] about The Gospel of Hate

Starting out in a Theology of Food: Beginning with the Eucharist

by Hunter C. Beezley in Christian Issues

Eating is nothing new. For many of us it has become so rudimentary in the patterns of our days that when we come to the table to feed our hunger, we often think of it merely as a means to an end. Food today has become a commodity, its value seen primarily in its taste, convenience, and price. When we think about it, we mostly view food as fuel to sustain our bodies in order to carry us on throughout the day.

I never cared much about food until my last semester in seminary. I took a class on a theology of food merely because one of my favorite professors was teaching it and I needed another elective to graduate. But by the end of the semester, I realized that this class would stick with me for a while. Nearly a year later, I still cannot help but talk about food and faith.

It is telling that the first story in the Bible is a story about eating. It is in a garden that humanity is first placed and it is eating that ultimately leads to the inauguration of sin into the world. And it is within Christianity that consuming food–namely the Lord’s Supper–functions as the central practice of corporate worship.

Still, food is not often seriously considered in theology. Because we tend to view it merely as fuel, the relationship many of us have with food is filled with anxiety and stress as we wrestle with the daily question “what do I eat for dinner?” We know that food can do something for us: make us fat or skinny, sleepy or ill; but we have lost the wonder and mystery of… [Read more…] about Starting out in a Theology of Food: Beginning with the Eucharist

Give me a deeply moving experience over a deeply held belief every time!

by Chuck Queen in Christian Issues

Last year April Kelsey wrote a viral post for this blog which played off the phrase “deeply held religious belief.” I’m sure we all know Christians who seek to justify injustices and prejudices on the basis of their deeply held religious beliefs. I suspect we are all guilty of this to some degree.

I would like to suggest that the two people most responsible for our Christian faith today, the historical Jesus and the Apostle Paul, were first and foremost shaped by deeply moving religious experiences that in turn helped form their deeply held religious beliefs.

Many of us learned of the story of Paul’s conversion (scholars today opt for the word “calling”) to the living Christ in Sunday School. Paul mentions it in at least three of his authentic letters (Galatians, 1 Corinthians, Philippians) and Luke imaginatively offers his take on the encounter in three separate places in Acts (9, 22, 26).

Before this encounter there is no question that Paul clung to some deeply held religious beliefs. Unhealthy, life-diminishing beliefs are held by their adherents just as strongly as those who hold to healthy, life-affirming beliefs. My point here is that Paul’s transformation was the result of an encounter with the unconditional forgiveness and love of God expressed through Christ. His experience served to reshape and reform what he believed about God.

According to the Synoptic Gospels, it was a divine experience that sent Jesus out healing, preaching, and teaching about the kingdom of… [Read more…] about Give me a deeply moving experience over a deeply held belief every time!