Member-only story
Let’s Talk About Jesus
Not that one, the real one
Partner article to my honest analysis and appraisal of atheism.
Did you know I earned a degree from a seminary? Yes, really. My first master’s degree was from an odd little UCC seminary that was looking for non-Christians to help establish a religious studies program.
I’ve never been a Christian, but I respect religions, and I’m fascinated by religious history and the many varieties and expressions of Christianity. At that odd little seminary, my MA thesis was on the first-century heretic, Marcion. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Incredibly important guy for Christian history, his existence and influence deliberately buried, but that story’s for another time.
Which Jesus?
Christianity has never been a unitary entity, despite so many people wanting it to be. Christianity, like all human cultural expressions, has always been subject to interpretation. Differences in interpretation of who Jesus was and what his existence means began almost immediately. The first testament to this is in the Christian Scriptures, which relate the dispute between Paul and James as to the relation between Jesus and the Jewish Law.
Jesus was a Jew and was respectful of his heritage and the traditions of his society…
