INTRODUCTION
Please feel free to comment on these discussion questions below:
Please feel free to comment on these discussion questions below:
John Bell suggests there are three ways the portrayal of
Jesus minimizes his humanity and his impact on us:
·
Jesus is seen as passive, where birth and cross
are the main focus, not life stories, we tend to neglect his actions, choices
and words;
·
The apostle Paul, the earliest Christian writer, understood
and experienced the symbolism of Jesus – the witness of his resurrection - but
did not have a sense of Jesus' life and teachings;
·
Modern scholarship tends to bring "a hermeneutic
of suspicion" to the stories of the gospels, dividing up what is possibly historical,
what is metaphor and myth.
In contrast, this book will look primarily at gospel stories
that emphasize Jesus’ action and choices, taking all the gospel witnesses into
account.
Bell describes his potential audience: the general reader (I read everything, why
not this?), the curious spectator (what are they saying about Jesus now?), the
enthusiast (I read everything I can about Jesus!) – which one are you?
I guess I'm the curious spectator. Always curious about someone's take on the spiritual teacher who has been most influential in my life. I did, however, have a question from the Introduction: Page 9 says "Paul must be read through Jesus and not vice versa." I don't know how to go about doing that. Suggestions?
ReplyDeleteI'll take a stab at interpreting it, though I can't speak for John Bell.
ReplyDeleteSince Bell's overall thesis is that the traditional image of Jesus Christ is based on a theological understanding of the Christ (ascended to heaven after resurrection, part of the Trinity, fully divine and fully human) and neglects the more down-to-earth scripture stories of how Jesus interacted with people and communities, Bell reacts to Paul's lack of comment on the life stories of Jesus in his epistles. Bell imagines that Paul assumed everyone knew those stories. Perhaps he is even telling his readers that Paul believed Jesus' resurrection was due, in part, because of how he lived with others and demonstrated God's way in human form.
I am always mindful, when speaking of Paul's writings, that Paul's interaction with Jesus came via a spiritual vision of the risen One - that he did not "know" Jesus in any other way, except second-hand for the stories of those eyewitnesses. So he writes about what he "knows" to be true for him.
As readers who have access to both Paul and the gospel accounts, we do well to do what Bell suggests (read Paul through Jesus) but do something like the vice versa, and allow our own spiritual connection with Jesus to inform how we read both.
That's helpful, Elizabeth. I know Jesus through stories about him, but most of my knowledge comes from my spiritual interactions and guidance from him. So, necessarily, my reading of anything spiritual is informed by God's guidance and interpretation. Faith is a wonderful thing when you know that in your journey you are accompanied by Love.
ReplyDeleteI am also a curious spectator... I don't feel as if I have any connection to Jesus apart from what the gospels say and what scholars and spiritual leaders may say. That is to say, I don't feel a living presence I can attribute to Jesus. So, I approach this more intellectually than experientially. I appreciate this book as it focuses on Jesus humanity. I grew up in a tradition that focused on Jesus as a perfect being, the perfect sacrifice, the agent of atonement....rather alien, all in all. I like the idea of an imperfect Christ... I like the idea of a redeemer that also was redeemed, even though this may be a subversive idea in traditional Christian theology.
ReplyDeleteIf I use the definitions here, I fall somewhere between general reader and curious spectator. But neither of those definitions satisfy me. As an educator, I believe in constructivism. That means that learners are active participants in constructing their knowledge and understandings. Spectator sounds passive to me. I think Western Churches understand this too. For example, Encarana, movie nights and physically carrying the cross all give people different experiences and knowledge to bring to their reading and influence their understandings of Jesus.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate Alyce's comment Christ's perfection-- we had a beautiful creation play performed at the school (I think performers were Red Sky) and they explained that indigenous people don't have a perfect Christ figure, but instead have tricksters, as they believe they can learn from both good and bad. It was interesting to hear them speak about this.
That connects well with the original notion of the "satan" in Hebrew and early Christian stories. The satan was one who tested the strength of the faithful's choices, kind of a "devil's advocate" (ie. the book of Job or Jesus' temptation.) Satan only later became the personification of evil, as we saw portrayed in the Young Messiah film last Wednesday.
ReplyDelete