Jesus and After
From Readers
From time to time, we post comments or questions about Jesus and After, to create a dialogue between the book and its readers. An Archive preserves previous comments for future consideration. Personal details are treated as confidential. Otherwise, letters are edited only for brevity; they are not changed in substance.
ALL THAT STUFF
Reader: Ever since your ad started coming out, I've been really eager to read that book, and I guess mainly because of some of the "blurb" statements, such as people who seem to have difficulty with the "blood atonement" and "resurrection" and . . . well maybe even the "virgin birth." That's ME. I do have a problem with all of the so-called facts in the so-called Word of GOD that I find hard to believe and adhere to. I haven't always, but somewhere along the line. It's like: in order to BELIEVE something, it had to MAKE SENSE. You know what I mean? And . . . well, some things just DIDN'T. I finally just blurted it out to everyone, that I couldn't believe a lot of what I have believed all my life. Sorry - I just couldn't do it. I even told the pastor what my conclusions were. He said, "You are probably the most honest person I ever met."
I grew up as the daughter of Southern Baptist missionaries, out in the "boondocks" of the interior of Brazil. So that's where I grew up. I can't tell just WHEN things sort of evolved in my mind, not suddenly, but, well . . . so I asked a friend to order your book for me. And am SO ENJOYING reading it. . .
Author: I do know what you mean. And I can tell you, there's a lot of that going around. At a meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, not long ago, I heard one person say to his friends, in the hallway after a session, "Do we really have to believe all that stuff?" So they have it too, just like so many of the rest of us.
For centuries, scholars have resisted reading what the Gospels really say. They refuse to make a difference between the early Gospels and the late ones. But if you line up the Gospels, in their right order, you find that each one pushes further than the last, in making Jesus magical. In the end, they make him equal to God. Even Mark, the earliest of them, though the basic story is straightforward enough, has later additions: a sentence here, a story there. These additions begin the process of making Jesus magical. The sea miracles, the rising from the dead, that sort of thing. What Jesus and After does is to lay out the whole picture in its proper order, from the simple original story in Mark, to the additions in Mark, to the later theology of Paul, and to the very advanced ideas we find in John. That's how it grew.
So no, you don't have to believe all that other stuff. It is a later growth in Christianity, and followers of Jesus can take it or leave it, as they like. That's the word from here. That's the word from the Gospels themselves. I'm very glad you find it helpful.
Thanks to all, for reading and sharing. To contribute a question or comment, use the link below.
