Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Toto · 04-04-2010, 12:34 PM

Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (or via: amazon.co.uk) by Diarmaid MacCulloch.

Reviewed here

Quote:

Not long ago I was with a group of ministers on the East Coast. The conversation turned to critical interpretations of the New Testament. I remarked that I did not see how people could make sense of the Bible if they were taught to think of it as a collection of ancient Associated Press reports. (Cana, Galilee — In a surprise development yesterday at a local wedding, Jesus of Nazareth transformed water into wine. . . .) “That’s your critical reading of the Gospels,” one minister replied, “but in the pulpit I can’t do that.” “Why?” I asked. “Because,” he said, “you can’t mess with Jesus.”

Well. If the power of Jesus — “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” as Peter called him — cannot survive a bit of biblical criticism, then the whole enterprise is rather more rickety than one might have supposed. Still, the objecting cleric’s remark illuminates one of the issues facing not only Christians but the broader world: To what extent should holy books be read and interpreted critically and with a sense of the context in which they were written, rather than taken literally? To later generations of the faithful, what was written in fluctuating circumstances has assumed the status of immutable truth. Otherwise perfectly rational people think of Jesus’ Ascension into heaven on the 40th day after Easter to be as historical an event as the sounding of the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. To suggest that such supernatural stories are allegorical can be considered a radical position in even the most liberal precincts of the Christian world. But the Bible was not FedExed from heaven, nor did the Lord God of Hosts send a PDF or a link to Scripture. Properly understood — and MacCulloch’s book is a landmark contribution to that understanding — Christianity cannot be seen as a force beyond history, for it was conceived and is practiced according to historical bounds and within human limitations. Yes, faith requires, in Coleridge’s formulation, a willing suspension of disbelief; I do it myself, all the time. But that is a different thing from the suspension of reason and critical intelligence — faculties that tell us that something is not necessarily the case simply because it is written down somewhere or repeated over and over.

You may ask why 3,000 years? It appears that the author includes the roots of Christianity in Greek and Jewish thought.

The most intriguing part of the review was the claim that "an early supporter of Christians at court was Marcia, the emperor Commodus’ mistress and the woman who instigated his assassination."

Marcia apparently triggered the release of the future Pope Callistus, who was later attacked by Tertullian as a heretic.

mountainman · 04-06-2010, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toto

You may ask why 3,000 years? It appears that the author includes the roots of Christianity in Greek and Jewish thought.

Once upon a time it was in Zeus "In Whom We Live and Move and Have Our Being". But Zeus got old and then it was in Apollo, the son of the god Zeus "In Whom We Live and Move and Have Our Being". When the god Apollo got old -- his son -- the Healing God Asclepius stepped in and then it was in Asclepius "In Whom We Live and Move and Have Our Being".

But Constantine kicked Asclepius out of the Roman Empire, and he backed the Historical Jesus God "In Whom We Live and Move and Have Our Being". And the Tribe of Christians "In Whom We Live and Move and Have Our Being". - and about which Constantine published lavishly, legislated on behalf of, and protected with his authoritative sword - is not extinct at this day. Amen.

Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin. - Lord Acton

Quote:

The most intriguing part of the review was the claim that "an early supporter of Christians at court was Marcia, the emperor Commodus’ mistress and the woman who instigated his assassination."

What evidence is presented? This looks like more apologetic conjectural mileage out of the often-suspected "Christian" Prosenes Inscription

Quote:

A funerary inscription in Rome from the Severan period, to Prosenes, and a servant of emperor, is claimed to be christian. The grave of Marcus Aurelius Prosenes--set up by several of his own freedpersons (liberti)--reveals that this imperial freedman had moved his way through the hierarchy of imperial service, even holding several procuratorships (senior positions of considerable influence) under Commodus.

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