I don't know how often I will review external material on this site, but around the time I was beginning this blog, I came across this magazine in a supermarket. It caught my eye, and given the title of my blog I considered it my duty to read the material and relay my general impressions.
The magazine has four themes (Who Was Jesus?, Unearthing The Gospels, Martyrs Heretics And History, and Miracles Faith And Science) in which there are 3-4 articles per theme with discussions about various aspects of the Christian faith. While the magazine definitely takes the "conspiracy theory" route in advertising, I found that it was well rounded in portraying the different perspectives on each issue covered.
In the first section (Who Was Jesus?) the articles delve into the legitimacy of the narrative of Jesus as portrayed in the Bible. This section reinforced for me that we all seem to invent our own truths at some point in reference to periods of time that we are detached from. For example, James Tabor (author of The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity) seems to pick and choose what he deems valid in the Biblical narrative to justify what he's found out about Jesus in his external research. My problem with this is his rejection of certain parts of the same texts which, in my opinion, have always been a vital part of Christian practice.
Don't get me wrong, we all use the Bible at some point to justify our own world views and experiences. It would be wrong for me to belittle Tabor's point of view without admitting to probably doing something similar. I just think Tabor goes too far out of his way to justify his own point of view and I disagree with him on many core points.
The other three topics have similar articles with people who take differing points of view on topics like the Gnostic Gospels, the Crusades, Hitler's view of the church, miracles and the apocalypse. I won't review each section extensively, but I will say that I find this magazine fascinating and well researched (in some places more than others).
I guess the one redeeming thing I got from this book is that it seems at multiple points in history people have done their best to debunk Jesus as the Christ and Christianity as a whole. One of the main points they have made is that the faith seems to change its "rules" with the times (usually citing the Catholic church), but also questioning Christ's very existence. As modern science has confirmed Biblical settings and the characters in the Bible have been shown to exist indeed, the very argument of those who refute Christianity seems to change as much as the Christian faith itself.
That's not to say that the conversation and search for truth shouldn't evolve. While I obviously come to different conclusions than those that don't recognize Christ, I think the path to those conclusions often intersect and often may seem eerily similar. After all, isn't faith somewhat rooted in a process involving skepticism? And doesn't even the most severe critic need some level of faith to justify that skepticism?
This piece definitely does prove that Jesus is still relevant in today's world no matter what you think of him. I would definitely pick this up and read through it if you are interested in Christian history and theology.
God bless,
Jason
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1 comment:
That's a very interesting thought on the critically skeptical as actually having a degree of faith in order to be that much a skeptic. I'll think on that but I think you maybe right. Thanks for the review! Dave
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