Is this true? (Main Forum)

by Brian Coyne , LINDEN, NSW, Tuesday, March 20, 2012, 15:08 (425 days ago) @ Brian Coyne

Beehive, you write:

How we have complicated things? It is our penchant for definition, precision and categorisation that has woven a web of entanglement that has trapped us.

Yes certainly the Western, scientific and theological paradigm is more complex, and I'd agree it causes some entanglement in some sectors of society, but on the bigger canvas my sense is that our increasing insights have largely served humanity well. It's a hypothetical in any case to suggest that we might jettison our paradigm and revert to one that would be better appreciated by the Zulu people or the Aramaic and Hebrew speaking people of Jesus' time. What you write certainly gives insight into the culture and language that was the crucible for Christian belief but I don't have a sense that culturally we can revert to that cultural and language paradigm. The challenge we collectively face is making the Divine insights of Jesus accessible within our paradigm and cultural envelope. I'm not even sure these days that it is "just Jesus — the historical individual". To me the historical figure is some kind of "archetypal skelton or coathanger" onto which has been draped this rich theological and spiritual insight over a couple of millenia. If the historical figure re-appeared today do you think he would understand the paradigm out of which we moderns do our thinking, and living?

The other thing I am intrigued about is your closing couple of paragraphs. This seems to be a radically different construct you are advancing to the usual Paulian one that if we cut out the resurrection our beliefs are worthless. I hope in time you can expand a bit more on the insights you are developed in this area.

Brian Coyne
[Editor & Publisher]