(May 12, 2011 at 7:42 pm)Minimalist Wrote: http://www.rationalrevolution.net/articl...tory.htm#3
Quote:The majority of people in the world today assume or believe that Jesus Christ was at the very least a real person. Perhaps he wasn't really "the Messiah", perhaps he was not "The Son of God", and perhaps he didn't actually perform miracles and rise from the dead, but he really was a great moral teacher who traveled around Galilee with followers and got arrested by the Jews and crucified by the Romans right?
Not likely. In fact, a close examination of the evidence shows that the best explanation for the story of "Jesus Christ" is what we call "mythology". The case that I will be outlining here is that there never was any "Jesus Christ" nor any meaningful real life basis for the story of "Jesus Christ". Like many other religious figures, "Jesus Christ" began as a theological concept, was later used as a character in allegorical stories, and was then historicized as someone whom people believed really existed. The belief in a literal "human" Jesus most likely emerged as eucharist rituals and theology developed around the concept of the "flesh" and "blood" of Christ and these concepts merged with allegorical narratives about the figure.
I'm sure the fundies will show up whining soon enough. Before you do, give some thought to how long a link like this would last any any xtian boards. They are terrified that any of you will ever do any thinking.
In far too many cases their terror is misplaced. Thinking is not big in xtian circles.
This is pretty retro, I haven't seen any real recent "Jesus Myth" stuff. I like how he went with a literary approach in his arguments, trying to locate the Jesus tradition more firmly in the Jewish context, but I don't think it's an entirely new angle. Most of the modern scholarship I'm aware of is pretty firm on Jesus as a real historical figure, but I'm not as up-to-date on this end of critical scholarship. Have you seen some renewed interest in the "Jesus Myth" theory? I have yet to hear a real convincing "Jesus didn't exist" argument personally, but where do you stand on this Min? Is there a particular scholarly source you ascribe to?
