Got Jesus?
This has been an ongoing thought process for me. I have typically had a mental understanding of my reasons for believing in God. That one is easy. But why believe that Jesus is the son of God? I've asked this before, but I've come to some interesting answers, and am interested in other answers.
Some obvious reasons to believe in Jesus as the son of God that I've discarded:
The people who knew and loved him said he was the Son of God.
OK, certainly a decent argument, but not utterly convincing. I mean, people who knew and loved Mohammed claim that he is the last major prophet, and that Jesus was simply another, lesser prophet. Why believe the disciples of Jesus instead of the disciples of Mohammed?
There are non-Christian historical records of Jesus' existence.
I think you'd have to look pretty hard to find people who believe that Jesus never existed. The question is whether he was the son of God, and that's not necessarily proven by the non-Christian historical record.
Jesus said really important things about God and life.
Yes, Jesus was smart and good. There are lots of smart and good people that are not the sons of God. Why exclude them?
Jesus died to save us.
So have (and do) many soldiers, police officers, and others every day. The reason that the death of Jesus was different was because he was the sacrifice of God on our behalf--but that pre-supposes Christ's divine nature. Dying for a good cause is not proof of divinity, and neither is circular reasoning.
That was what I grew up with.
This works just fine, but in my case I need something more. The main difference between my theology/cosmology and my wife's is christology--simply been accustomed to believing something is not necessarily the best way to support the major theological rift in your marriage. This is not to say that it can't be a valid response--just it's not enough for me.
My response is this: the nature of the God I believe in is that he has a universal reality as an integral part of creation and a specific reality. This specificity or personhood is an important part of my experience of God--so much so that should I not have had the myth of Jesus, I would have had to create or find another such a myth to explain this reality in the proper way. Ergo, Jesus is an important part of my theology because of the nature of God's willingness to suffer on behalf of the world (only really possible through some variant on the incarnation) and God's willingness to not simply be omnipotent, but also to reach into our lives in a personal way.
Further, the myth of Jesus doesn't conflict fundamentally with my understanding of the nature of God in other ways, so it is an appropriate myth for my understanding of God--it fills a gap without conflicting with other areas. Certainly, my upbringing has a great deal of influence over that, but that's where I'm at after years of reflection.
But one important part of this fact is that the historical truth of Jesus the Christ is not that important to me. If it were proven that Jesus never rose from the dead (ie "Another Roadside Attraction"), it wouldn't impact my faith that severely. So, for those of you who do share the belief in Jesus as Christ, do you think your faith could ever be shaken by any kind of historical proof of the life of Jesus which disproved some element of theology? How important is history to your religion or spirituality?
Of course, there is another question about why Jesus is then the only path to God. My justification doesn't offer any reason for this, but it is a Catholic principle. I can't get there right now. Maybe that's a separate post. For now, there remain two questions:
1) If you believe Jesus is the son of God, why do you believe that?
2) If you believe Jesus is the son of God, if somehow that could be historically disproven--for example, it is proven that the existence of someone named Jesus was a complete fiction--would that shake your faith?
Some obvious reasons to believe in Jesus as the son of God that I've discarded:
The people who knew and loved him said he was the Son of God.
OK, certainly a decent argument, but not utterly convincing. I mean, people who knew and loved Mohammed claim that he is the last major prophet, and that Jesus was simply another, lesser prophet. Why believe the disciples of Jesus instead of the disciples of Mohammed?
There are non-Christian historical records of Jesus' existence.
I think you'd have to look pretty hard to find people who believe that Jesus never existed. The question is whether he was the son of God, and that's not necessarily proven by the non-Christian historical record.
Jesus said really important things about God and life.
Yes, Jesus was smart and good. There are lots of smart and good people that are not the sons of God. Why exclude them?
Jesus died to save us.
So have (and do) many soldiers, police officers, and others every day. The reason that the death of Jesus was different was because he was the sacrifice of God on our behalf--but that pre-supposes Christ's divine nature. Dying for a good cause is not proof of divinity, and neither is circular reasoning.
That was what I grew up with.
This works just fine, but in my case I need something more. The main difference between my theology/cosmology and my wife's is christology--simply been accustomed to believing something is not necessarily the best way to support the major theological rift in your marriage. This is not to say that it can't be a valid response--just it's not enough for me.
My response is this: the nature of the God I believe in is that he has a universal reality as an integral part of creation and a specific reality. This specificity or personhood is an important part of my experience of God--so much so that should I not have had the myth of Jesus, I would have had to create or find another such a myth to explain this reality in the proper way. Ergo, Jesus is an important part of my theology because of the nature of God's willingness to suffer on behalf of the world (only really possible through some variant on the incarnation) and God's willingness to not simply be omnipotent, but also to reach into our lives in a personal way.
Further, the myth of Jesus doesn't conflict fundamentally with my understanding of the nature of God in other ways, so it is an appropriate myth for my understanding of God--it fills a gap without conflicting with other areas. Certainly, my upbringing has a great deal of influence over that, but that's where I'm at after years of reflection.
But one important part of this fact is that the historical truth of Jesus the Christ is not that important to me. If it were proven that Jesus never rose from the dead (ie "Another Roadside Attraction"), it wouldn't impact my faith that severely. So, for those of you who do share the belief in Jesus as Christ, do you think your faith could ever be shaken by any kind of historical proof of the life of Jesus which disproved some element of theology? How important is history to your religion or spirituality?
Of course, there is another question about why Jesus is then the only path to God. My justification doesn't offer any reason for this, but it is a Catholic principle. I can't get there right now. Maybe that's a separate post. For now, there remain two questions:
1) If you believe Jesus is the son of God, why do you believe that?
2) If you believe Jesus is the son of God, if somehow that could be historically disproven--for example, it is proven that the existence of someone named Jesus was a complete fiction--would that shake your faith?