May is Jesus month

[wanton_heat_jet]

May is my month to get cracking on my book about Jesus. That's my number one creative project, and I need to make it my first priority, over soaking in the hot tub and over looking for a job. This is the project that, if I don't do it now while I have time and space, I'll really regret it, so I need to make it priority one.

I'm working on a book

Comments

[kaosofia]

This sounds great! I like the flesh & blood Jesus too. The well known swedish (in Sweden) writer/playwright/comedian/gay profile Jonas Gardell has written a similar book. I look forward reading yours. Do you have a dead line?

no deadline

[wanton_heat_jet]

I'm working on the book through May and we'll see where that lands me. No deadline so far.

Biographical overview

[anonymous]

Very cool so far. You make a lot of provocative statements in the biographical overview; I think you should hyperlink each one to the relevant -- or most relevant -- essay. Overall, I think your examining your topics with few digressions is a good approach, but a few times it bugs me that you don't digress, like when you talk about the crucifixion and the tearing of the temple veil without comment. I think most people envision the tearing of the veil as something visible from Golgotha, where the Romans turn around and go, "Oh crap, look at that," where actually it's an odd detail, and probably highly metaphorical.

jesus rolls a 1

[anonymous]

"forgive them, father, for they - oh fuck that FLAME STRIKE."

(cain't wait to see the controversy that erupts over this tweetly spelunking.)

Re: jesus rolls a 1

[wanton_heat_jet]

"Controversy"? Oh my, do you think it might be controversial? I shrink from controversy!

tee-hee

Re: jesus rolls a 1

[anonymous]

I am always curious about those who invest a lot of time and energy into proving something they do not believe happenend/exsisted. Are you trying to talk yourself into Jesus was just a man. I do not believe in aliens but don't need to write a book to prove what I don;t believe.

It's rather curious to press ahead on a disbelief

Re: jesus rolls a 1

[wanton_heat_jet]

"It's rather curious to press ahead on a disbelief

[agrumer]

So, all that about baptism/"washing", and not a word about Jewish ritual bathing? The historical Jesus, his disciples and prospective followers, and the audience for which the earliest gospels were written, would all of them already have been thinking of baptism in terms of religious ritual, and not as mundane washing. (And that includes the washing of hands before a meal, which was also a traditional ritual.)

Jewish ritual bathing

[wanton_heat_jet]

Good catch.

The Jewish tradition of having a convert bathe in a mikvah no doubt directly influenced the early Christian tradition of having a convert bathe in "living water."