The Historical Jesus

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.

The second part of the book deals with the first century Judea and the Jewish-Roman relationship. The Jewish religious traditions of the time and the emergence of first century prophets are described. The book also refers to the Roman-Jewish war to picture the tense and rebellious nature of the region.

The final part of the book describes the life of Jesus himself by studying relationships and descriptions of the people around him (e.g. John the Baptist). Crossan also draws parallels with the canonical New Testament he even details the accounts of Jesus’ Resurrection.

Crossan concludes that Jesus had:

an ecstatic vision and social program sought to rebuild a society upwards from its grass roots but on principles of religious and economic egalitarianism

Jesus opposed contemporary morality and tried to break down the barriers of power structures in society. As opposed to the Christian account, none of his followers witnessed his death and his burial place is unknown. Crossan explains that many miracle stories surrounding Jesus are reproduced accounts pre-dating Jesus’ life and resurrection.

As expected, The Historical Jesus diverges significantly from the viewpoints of later Church history. It is a valuable book for Christian atheists, as it gives a more detailed description of Jesus as a prophet and a philosopher, rather than the Son of God. The book also manages to discard most of the supernatural aspects of Christianity, leaving behind the moral philosophical and humanist side of Jesus. We can also form a picture of why Jesus’ sayings and morals were so successful compared to other philosophies of the time. If the Bible lays the groundwork for Christian belief, this book can do something similar for Christian atheism.

(find the book here)

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.

Religion can be memetic and genetic. It is a particular successful ‘gene’. This claim has been supported by anthropologists and psychologists. Pascal Boyer argues the persistence of religion from a psychological standpoint in his book Religion Explained (can be found here). He argues religion to be a natural product humans have gained during the evolutionary development of the cognitive mind. We, as humans, are perhaps evolutionarily primed to have faith.

Religion has also proven itself to be a particular successful meme. Dawkins has himself supported this claim. Susan Blackmore studies this concept in greater detail in her excellent book, The Meme Machine (get it here). In the chapter ‘Religion as memeplexes’ she discusses religions to have mechanisms to prevent people from using reason, thus they convert to faith-based explanations. However, many religions have guidelines and doctrines that benefit individuals and societies. These can range from altruism (‘love thy neighbour’) to personal care (circumcision) and are generally based on the religious texts.

Aside from strong historical, auspicious and liberating reasons for the success of Christianity, I would like to argue for the triumph of the Christian belief from an anthropogenic and sociological perspective. Christianity has many guidelines benefitting people, even in modern times. The non-violent nature of Jesus’ teachings was appealing in a time when the world was a very violent place. Benevolent moral philosophies such as equality and love have promoted this belief and its clear, acceptable values taught by a single philosopher ameliorated its adoption. Original Christian teachings abolished hierarchy and gave spiritual wealth to those who followed.

Christian humanism has led to the establishment of welfare institutions which has benefitted many, who in turn dedicated their lives to helping others. The needs of the community were provided by the community by Jesus’ humanitarian principles. This put Christianity on a higher moral plain than, perhaps, other religions of the time. It also gave people a sense of belonging and with this, support during hard times.

In modern times we can adopt the altruistic and social nature of Christianity and outgrow the supernatural and religious side of it. This, together with an intrinsic humanism, can lead to a continuation of Jesus’ teachings as they were originally intended. This is what Christian atheism is about.

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 Jefferson Bible is an intimate look into Jefferson’s belief and spirituality. Although he still believed God to be the Ultimate Creator he sees Jesus as the greatest moral philosopher. By removing the “groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications” one can concentrate more on the sayings of Jesus, rather than his divinity. This was for my family one of the most important influences for pursuing Christian atheism, (others pursued Jeffersonian Christianity).

The Jefferson Bible ends with Jesus’ burial in his tomb after his crucifixion. I find this a more monumental event than the Resurrection, which has been left out by Jefferson. It affirms the humanistic spirit of the book. The mortality of Jesus sends us a message from a person who is not the Decider on your Day of Judgment, but from a human being.

Find the book here.

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.

Although Altizer has a different view on Christian philosophy, his Christrocentricity might portray his emphasis on the importance of the moral philosophies of Jesus Christ. So, although Altizer’s “annihilation of God” theory might sound a bit crazy to some, in the Gospel of Christian Atheism he does give a very interesting view on the centrality of Jesus to atheists of his kind.

I would recommend this book to folks interested in a more philosophical debate about the importance of Christ in people’s lives. As mentioned before, it can be found here. Enjoy.