challenge
Progress update on the big challenge
A month ago I shared the information that I had set myself a challenge to search for understanding of the real Jesus. I showed the first pile of books I planned to read.
Well, I can now report real progress! Wahey!! All these books have now moved to the have-been-read shelf. And a substantial pile of knitting for refugees is filling out a polythene sack!
I confess I felt I was drowning for a while, but persistence has paid off and things are coalescing to give me a clearer – no, perhaps ‘less-muddy’ picture would be more accurate. So at this point in my search, I want to pay tribute to the many writers who have attempted to put down their thoughts and scholarship on what is an immensely difficult and multi-layered issue.
In particular one book stands out for me and calls for a specific mention: The Meaning of Jesus by NT Wright and Marcus Borg. Both New Testament scholars, they have excellent credentials for tackling this topic, with impressive lists of awards, appointments and books to their credit. NT Wright is an English Anglican; Marcus Borg was an American Liberal Christian (he died in 2015). Real authorities then, huh?
But not so fast! In this book they have together presented differing views on the historicity and meaning of Jesus of Nazareth. And I mean radically different! On pretty much every aspect: his origins, his birth, his divinity, his foreknowledge, his sayings, his resurrection, his intentions … Mightily confusing for us lesser mortals sitting at their feet. Who is right? They can’t both be.
But they have both challenged me greatly. We are too used to turning to an authority on a subject and quoting them to substantiate a fact or a viewpoint. These two men ask us to enter into their thinking and work it out for ourselves. A work in progress.
However, what impressed me most is their humility and deference each to the other. Less qualified and generous minds too frequently fail to show respect or tolerance for alternative interpretations. But in the struggle to understand matters at the interface between God and humankind, it’s fitting that all should acknowledge they see through a glass but darkly, and encourage fellow travellers to keep thinking and exploring. As they do.
As I’ve said before, I’ve spent years re-examining my own set of beliefs and refining, confirming, revisiting, discarding. So I love the idea conjured up by Wright: It’s time that the old scholars’ myths were given a decent burial! I’ve certainly buried a few in the light of their exposition.
On now to the work of another towering figure who has a wealth of personal experience living in the land where the historic Jesus walked and talked: Kenneth Bailey – Presbyterian, lecturer and author; master of Middle Eastern culture. But first I’m going to take time out to read an undemanding novel to give my grey cells a bit of a holiday!
The serious challenge for 2025
I might have mentioned before that each year, alongside all my other reading, I try to tackle one big issue in an effort to better understand the foundations of Christianity, and to challenge the beliefs and notions I’ve inherited or picked up in my long life. Topics to date include things like inspiration; the place of doubt versus certainty; questions about homosexuality; the role of women in the church. It’s been a sobering and humbling experience, and driven a coach and horses through some cherished ideas along the way. But I like to think I’m now more honest and humble about what I believe and how I live/ought to live.
So, this year my thinking has led me to explore who the real Jesus was, and why it matters. Many things suggest to me that the church has developed its own pictures and stories, and each culture and generation and new wave of scholars has overlaid them with yet more layers of interpretation. But who was the person known as Jesus of Nazareth in the Middle East in the first century AD, and what was he like, and is he indeed someone I want to follow, and if so, what should that look like? And as before, I’m very very aware that what I discover might require me to change my personal world-view and religious stance. And might indeed upset some people who have certain expectations of me.
Three weeks in and I’m feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer volume of literature on the subject, ranging from the way-out bizarre, through the well-worth-delving-into, to the totally-out-of-my-depth-erudite! So, in an effort to save my sanity I’ve drawn up a plan for all the different aspects of Jesus’ life I want to examine, and marshalled the stack of books I want to read on the topic into some kind of order (sample shown above).
Back to it!