Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
The Historical Jesus – John Crossan
December 20th, 2009 | 
Author: 
The Historical Jesus by John Crossan (find it here) is a remarkably good read and much more academic than many other atheist books on the history of Jesus of Nazareth. The Historical Jesus is an attempt to reconstruct the life of Jesus using all the evidence and all the available tools.
Crossan uses three types of study to reconstruct who Jesus probably was, what he did and what he said. He uses a social anthropological approach, a historical approach and textual research. He uses these approaches to visualize a world and the time in which Jesus lived and narrows the story down to the person himself. The final chapter contains “stratum sources”, being events and sayings which have multiple direct references.
The book starts with a reconstruction of first century Mediterranean life to give the reader a backdrop in which the events around Jesus can be contextually placed. Crossan also details the society and traditions of the Roman Empire, specifically that of slavery. He covers the Cynical movement, a philosophical group advocating withdrawal from the world.
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The Darwinian Success of Christianity
Ok, now for a more theological post.
Many have either read or at least heard of The Selfish Gene by the famously vocal atheist, Richard Dawkins (if you have not, you can find it here. I really recommend it!). This hugely popular book stipulated genes to be the central players in evolution and that any entity beyond the level of genes (such as insects or humans). Organisms are merely evolving tools to ensure the success of these genes in terms of global copy number. In other words: to maximise the inclusive fitness of genes globally.
This elegant theory has been studied and continued since The Selfish Gene was published more than thirty years ago. However, besides the biological side of gene-centred inclusive fitness, Dawkins made a very important anthropological contribution by applying this theory to so-called ‘cultural evolution’.
In The Selfish Gene, Dawkins uses the concept of a ‘meme’ (the cultural version of a gene) to explain that cultural ideas such as melodies, catch-phrases or beliefs can be transferred to or imitated by a larger population. More popular (more fit) ideas propagate successfully. The less culturally fit ideas lose the Darwinian race and cease to exist. ‘Memetics’ is now a widely studied theory and can be applied not only to human culture, but also to e.g. tool-making by great apes.
The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth – Thomas Jefferson
We all know Thomas Jefferson to be one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, co-author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the US. He was a man with many talents and many views. Jefferson was a scholar theology, biblical studies and Christian belief. He probably was a Deist and his religious views differed much from his contemporaries.
Thomas Jefferson thought the moral philosophies of Jesus were the best in the world and he decided to write his vision of the “Christian System”. From this came the Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, also known as the “Jefferson Bible”. This book can be found here or, if you prefer to read it online, here.
In his book Jefferson merges together the four canonical gospels in chronological order to describe the life of Jesus Christ. Jefferson’s biggest edit, however, is the removal of any reference to the supernatural found in the gospels and he focuses on the teachings of Jesus. Jefferson wanted the New Testament to be free of the “the corruptions of reason among the ancients”, by which he implied the deliberate additions of supernatural events to Jesus’ life by Evangelists. The story removes the doctrine and becomes a very interesting read for free-thinkers.
The Gospel Of Christian Atheism
For the more metaphysical among us a good read would be The Gospel of Christian Atheism by Thomas J.J. Altizer. This book gave me an interesting and very different perspective on atheism when I was still a college student. You can see it here if you’re interested.
In the sixties, this somewhat unconventional theologian pioneered a new view on the ‘death of God’ concept first proposed by the famous philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. Whereas Nietzsche tried to exemplify a figurative “God” of being “killed” as a metaphor for religion gradually losing to naturalism, Altizer takes the concept to a more literal dogma.
According to Altizer, the God of Christianity committed an act of self-destruction by incarnating himself as Jesus Christ, who we subsequently crucified. This idea is at odds with my own views, but he does proclaim the importance of Jesus as a central figure or a Messiah to humanity.
