What do you mean by "Jesus was a fraud"? We no almost NOTHING about the historical Jesus. Philo of Alexandria was a Hellenized Jewish philosopher who lived concurrently with Jesus. Philo left copious philosophical writings about the Logos, yet he nowhere even mentions Jesus. Paul cares ONLY about the Resurrected Christ, not the historical Jesus. Albert Schweitzer theologian and physician, started the whole 19th century inquiry with his book The Quest for the Historical Jesus and came to the conclusion that the Jesus of the Gospels was mythic, not historical. It is clear from the contradictory versions of the Gospels (the four included in the NT - there are many others that were destroyed and unknown til recently) that many versions of the Jesus story existed.
Jesus may be a composite of several strands of Jewish, Greek and Oriental influence woven into a personality. The bulk of Christianity would not only have been alien to a 1st centurt Jewish peasant-class carpenter (Y'shua NEVER would have known about a Holy Trinity, or His place within such a construct. He never would have thought that He was God! All of this and more has been laid upon a questionably historical person. When called "Good Master," did Jesus not respond (according to writ) with "Why call thou me good, only God is good?" Johannine thought took th'man anointed by God' and turned Him into 'God clothed with flesh' - a decidedly Greek mythological notion.
Iesus/Y'shua/Issa/Jesus (Greek/Hebrew/Aramaic/English) may or may not have existed as a historical individual. It didn't much matter to Paul, it didn't matter to most Gnostics and it doesn't matter to me. The Truth of Jesus has nothing to do with His historicity but with the Truth that He symbolizes and which is represented in the writings. How to Be a Human and why to Be such is built in to the various Gospels - even more sensibly in Gospels that were not included in the canon. As for 'heresy,' Websters defines it thusly:
Main Entry: her·e·sy Pronunciation: 'her-&-sE, 'he-r&- Function: noun Inflected Form(s): plural -sies Etymology: Middle English heresie, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin haeresis, from Late Greek hairesis, from Greek, action of taking, choice, sect, from hairein to take 1 a : adherence to a religious opinion contrary to church dogma b : denial of a revealed truth by a baptized member of the Roman Catholic Church c : an opinion or doctrine contrary to church dogma 2 a : dissent or deviation from a dominant theory, opinion, or practice b : an opinion, doctrine, or practice contrary to the truth or to generally accepted beliefs or standards
I don't know about you, but unlike the medieval mentality that fundamentalists of all faiths still adhere to, I question authority. I have always questioned authority. The Church Fathers and their doctrines NEED to be questioned since they were not all trustworthy. They worked for an evil emperor, they were misogynistic to the max and they looked down upon the illiterate multitudes of believers to such an extent that at one point it became punishable by death for a lay person to be in possession of a Bible!
Myth is not falsehood and it is abysmally ignorant to think so! Read Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth to understand the meaning of the word 'myth.' Equating the words myth and falsehood is an unfortunate modern mistake. That the intelligent believers have always recognized the midrashic and mythic nature of Gospel stories is unquestionable. That the multitudes (as the Church Fathers knew but exploited) are generally concrete and literal in their understanding has also been true throughout history. The Truth embedded in The Way that Jesus epitomized in the stories may not be historical, but it does not mean that The Way is not true.
I believe that Jesus Christ represents The Way - to Be. I further believe that being conformed to Christ modifies our human nature, transforms us alchemically from baseness to nobility. I know how and what it is like to be trustworthy. I know that it takes continual crucifixion of my selfish desires in order to maintain trustworthiness. I get this 'discipline' from being a 'disciple' of Christ. A beautiful counselee cries on my shoulder - and better a millstone be hung around my neck and me tossed into the sea - than to cop a feel, steal a kiss or exploit her vulnerability in some other base way. Does the desire arise? Yes. Will I act on it? No. Why, fear of disciplinary action on my license? Partly. If the situation takes place with a friend's girlfriend and is not a clinical situation, what stops me? Discipleship. I Know how to Be Christ-like. I too have 'this treasure in an earthen vessel.' If Christ IS The Kingdom of Heaven, Heaven dwells in a Heart of Compassion, not above the clouds. This is the Truth by which I live. There is no fraud, Christ lives in me too.
-------------------- γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself
|