Antiquitopia

So, for Mother's Day, we've watched several musicals in a row.  One of them was Chicago.  In it, Billy Flynn, the unscrupulous lawyer who can get your off on murder (played by Richard Gere in the film version) says: "I don't mean to toot my own horn, but if Jesus Christ lived in Chicago today, and he had come to me and he had five thousand dollars, let's just say things would have turned out differently." Indeed!

We have been begging for this for years now.  We have all noticed the similarities.  "Hit me, baby, one more time" is basically the same message as "turn the other cheek."  "I'm a slave for you" is clearly about being a servant (as Jesus was in the Last Supper in the Gospel of John).  "Oops, I did it again," is really about all of the mysterious repetitions of miracles in Mark's gospel.   Finally, someone has done it.  Look out Jesus Christ Superstar.  Watch it Godspell.  Someone has turned Britney Spears music into a story--an opera no less--about Jesus called SPEARS: The Gospel according to Britney.  See the information here .   Here is the official website. It appears that the creator developed this originally for Columbia University! From the creator, Pat Blute: So many of the heartaches, loneliness, and miscommunications that we feel are direct results of not listening. We don’t listen to the pleas for help. We don’t...

Anthony LeDonne, that ever-imaginative scholar embracing new ways of thinking and teaching, is offering a new online course on Jesus.  Here is his course description: In this course we will examine some of the different "Jesuses" who have emerged through the ages, including several interpretations of Jesus in historical studies, and several interpretations of Jesus from art and literature. This course will weave together three primary threads: 1) the Jesus of history; 2) ancient representations of Jesus; and 3) the various modern Jesuses who embody various symbols, ideologies, collective memories, and cultural identities. Through lecture and discussion, we will examine diverse portraits of Jesus in history, literature, art, song, and film throughout history. This is a summer course and has no prerequisites.  It actually sounds a lot like how I teach my Jesus course.  I've been wanting to include more artistic representations as well.

As I envision it, my spring course on Jesus and the Gospels will have two (rather traditional) components and a third contemporary component.  The first part will be on methods, using the historical Jesus as sort of a coda.  (I've noticed the suggested readings for my previous post tend to be more on issues surrounding the historical Jesus.  These are important, but I would like to hear other types of gospel approaches that people have found successful in a classroom setting).  Then I want to go through different gospels, whether canonical or extra-canonical, to discuss differing portrayals of Jesus (varying Christologies) as a means to discuss the diversity of emergent Christianity.  Finally, I wanted to apply this idea (basically, Jesus as the ultimate Rorschach test) and apply it to modern portrayals of Jesus:  that is, the rewriting of the Gospels or the portrayal of Jesus in modern culture.  This could be in any medium, really:  literature, f...

As noted in an earlier post , I am reading Jose Saramago's Gospel according to Jesus Christ, and, in a portion when Jesus is with Simon and Andrew telling them to cast their nets again when they had not yet caught fish. Upon having their nets surprisingly full of fish (and, in this version, Jesus is equally surprised, although has some troubling feelings that God--who is not portrayed in a particularly favorable light in the novel--is behind it), Saramago writes about the food laws, but from the perspective of the fish: ...the net may have caught fish, but the law, as elsewhere, is quite unambiguous, Behold what you may eat of the various aquatic species, you may eat anything in the waters, seas, and rivers that has fins and scales, but that which has neither fins nor scales, whether they be creatures that breed or that live in the water, you will shun and abhor them for all time, you will refrain from eating the flesh of everything in the water that has neither fins nor scales, a...

Jesus said, "Earthly life consists of three days: a yesterday over which you have no control, a tomorrow which you do not know whether you will attain, and a today which you should put to good use." (Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Minhaj al-'Abidin ; trans. Khalidi, Muslim Jesus )

Christ said to his followers: "If people appoint you as their heads, be like tails." "Blessed is he who sees with his heart but whose heart is not in what he sees." Christ said, "The world is a bridge. Cross this bridge but do not build upon it." Christ said, "Be in the middle but walk to the side." 'Abdallah ibn Qutayba, 'Uyun al-Akhbar 1:266; 2:268, 328; 3:21 (Trans. Tarif Khalidi, The Muslim Jesus )

Jesus said, "It is of no use to you to come to know what you did not know, so long as you do not act in accordance with what you already know. Too much knowledge only increases pride if you do not act in accordance with it." Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Zuhd (trans. Tarif Khalidi, The Muslim Jesus )

Mark Goodacre reflects on the impossibility of reconstructing the so-called "historical" Jesus at Bible and Interpretation : Bultmann's notorious claim that “I do indeed think we can know almost nothing concerning the life and personality of Jesus” is on one level overstated and easy to dismiss. There are lots of things that we can know about the life of Jesus with a degree of confidence, his healing activity, his proclamation of the kingdom, his connection to John the Baptist, the call of disciples who continued the movement after his arrest and crucifixion, and so on. Beginning from this kind of secure information, one can produce a good sketch of the life of Jesus, and E. P. Sanders has illustrated how much one can do with this kind of data when we integrate them into an informed understanding of Jesus' historical context. But knowing things about the historical Jesus is not the same as being able to write his biography. Bultmann rightly pointed out that we do not ...

I am revising my dissertation chapter on Hebrews, and since I am relating it to cosmogonic patterns that interlink creation, rest, sanctuary, and enthronement (beginning with the Enuma Elish, through the Pentateuch, and finally placed in the heavenly realm in the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice and Hebrews), today I am collating all of my references to creation (under which I, in fact, include restorative Day of Atonement rituals since they restore the temple--itself representative of the cosmos--to its original state of creation). In case you are interesting, in the broader trajectory, the Sabbath (rest) and the Sanctuary (particularly the Tabernacle) become interlinked in an interesting manner, often becoming equivalent symbols, or equivalent expressions of holiness (Pentateuch and Ezekiel) and, I would argue in Hebrews, they are equivalent symbols expressing God's heavenliness; all throughout the tradition, they equivalently express proximity to God in what I call sacred spaceti...

I'm reading Ernst Bloch' Atheism in Christianity: The Religion of the Exodus and the Kingdom , probably something I should have read years ago, but, alas, am getting to only now. It is a fascinating read so far, and is a nice counterbalance to the usual scholarly rubbish I have to wade through. There is only this point, that Church and Bible are not one and the same. The Bible has always been the Church's bad conscience. Tolstoy, speaking against her, called not on Haeckel but on the words of Jesus. The Enlightenment, therefore, will be all the more radical when it does not pour equal scorn on the Bible's all-pervading, healthy insight into man. It is for this very reason (one not remote from the Enlightenment) that the Bible can speak to all men, and be understood across so many lands and right on through the ages. (Ernst Block, Atheism in Christianity , 9-10; trans. J.T. Swann)

I have been asked by a certain journal to review Richard Bauckham's, Jesus and the God of Israel: God Crucified and Other Studies on the New Testament's Christology of Divine Identity (Eerdmans 2008). I am finding my notes to be disproportionately longer than they should be, and so I thought I would work out my initial impressions on this blog, while reserving my secondary reflections for the far more succinct official review to come. This book consists of a collection of essays on Jewish monotheism and its importance for what Bauckham has called a “divine identity” Christology, which eschews “ontic” and “functional” christologies as anachronistic. My regular readers will realize that I think all language of "monotheism" is anachronistic in an ancient context (see here , here , and here ). Nonetheless, we'll see how he conceptualizes this divine identity (and see if the issue of "monotheism" is a matter of semantics or substance). He also, in the proces...

An article at Salon reviews a new book by Terry Eagleton, in which he throws down with "Ditchkin" (Dawkins and Hitchens), claiming that atheism has gone downhill since the good old days of Nietsche. April 28, 2009 | Here is how British literary critic Terry Eagleton begins his brisk, funny and challenging new book: "Religion has wrought untold misery in human affairs. For the most part, it has been a squalid tale of bigotry, superstition, wishful thinking, and oppressive ideology." That's quite a start, especially when you consider that the point of Eagleton's "Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate" -- adapted from a series of lectures he delivered at Yale in April 2008 -- is to defend the theory and practice of religion against its most ardent contemporary critics. But Eagleton, a professor of English literature and cultural theory who divides his time between the University of Lancaster and the National University of Irelan...

When YouTube videos come with disclaimers, This is a satire and IN NO WAY does it portray our feelings about Christianity or any other religion. We respect and admire all people of faith and offer this piece only as a form of entertainment. From one set of Judaeo-Christians to another, we apologize to those that are offended and invite you to comment with your thoughts. they must be interesting!

Since I blogged about the controversy that had surrounded the choice of Rick Warren giving the inaugural invocation, I guess I should comment on the actual prayer. First, the controversy surrounded having someone who gave some rather ridiculous comparisons to gay marriage (like comparing it to pedophilia). Then the issue was whether or not he would mention Jesus or not. Would he represent his particular brand of religiosity, or in an event for all Americans represent all Americans. On that issue, I came down on the side that the most "American" thing to do is just be yourself and not try to water things down to vague generalities. If it were a Hindu giving the invocation, I would expect an invocation of Vishnu, Siva, or whatever god or goddess to which that particular person was devoted. If an imam, I would expect something on Allah. And so on... One objection was what would happen if Warren completed the prayer by "in Jesus' name we pray," in which the ...

My girlfriend just sent me this site that sells T-Shirts. It primarily has a lot of stuff on evolution, which is cool, and pro-atheism stuff, with many of the proselytizing slogans found on England's buses. It still amazes me how much at least a particular new breed of atheists are actually not willing to think, are stuck in their own (outdated 18th-century Enlightenment) worldview, and not willing to dialogue with others just like their fundamentalist counterparts on the right (I personally find this type of atheism extremely conservative, while other atheists are not this way and free to engage others in an open, not ridiculously confrontational manner). If these are the paragons of "free thinkers," we are in trouble. In the site's defense, they are responding to the far religious right, but, in doing so, they have to be careful that they do not replicate the religious right's tactics of failing to recognize everything in between--such as liberal religious f...

From Reuters : Holier than thou? Christ statue has rival Tue Jan 6, 2009 3:56pm EST SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A little-known Brazilian farming town with sugar cane wealth is set to upstage Rio de Janeiro by erecting a statue of Christ that will eclipse its famous equivalent atop Rio's Corcovado mountain. The Christ statue in Sertaozinho, northwest of Sao Paulo city, will be 187 feet tall when perched on its 128 foot (39-meter) pedestal, Brazilian daily newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo said Tuesday. Rio's iconic statue overlooking the beach-side city measures up at 98.4 feet high, but its much shorter pedestal gives it a total height of just 125 feet. "Far from a pretense of grandeur, we're thinking about visibility," said Nerio Costa, mayor of the town 206 miles from Sao Paulo which hopes to inaugurate the 1.5 million reais ($681,000) structure at Easter. But those suspicious that Sertaozinho, with a population of just over 100,000, is trying to rival the country's to...

First the issue was the fact that Warren, a staunch opponent to gay rights, was even chosen at all. See here . Now, at issue, is whether he will refer to this first-century Jewish dude from Nazareth, whom some people worship as the Son of God and the second person of the Trinity. From the Associated Press : Warren's inauguration prayer could draw more ire By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer Rachel Zoll, Ap Religion Writer Tue Dec 30, 9:35 pm ET President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation drew one kind of protest. Whether the evangelical pastor offers the prayer in the name of Jesus may draw another. At George W. Bush's 2001 swearing-in, the Revs. Franklin Graham and Kirbyjon Caldwell were criticized for invoking Christ. The distinctly Christian reference at a national civic event offended some, and even prompted a lawsuit. Warren did not answer directly when asked whether he would dedicate his prayer to Jesus. In a statement Tu...

That's right, according to Reuters , Virgin Mary gave birth on Christmas Day to a baby boy, whom she named Jesus. Virgin Mary's husband or Jesus' father is a carpenter by trade. Peruvian Jesus born to Virgin Mary on Christmas Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:02am EST LIMA (Reuters) - Virgin Mary, a 20-year-old Peruvian woman, gave birth to a baby boy on Christmas day and named him Jesus, Peru's state news agency said on Friday. The baby's father, Adolfo Jorge Huamani, 24, is a carpenter. Religious Peruvians compared him to Joseph the Carpenter in the Bible. "Two thousand years later the story of Bethlehem is relived," read the headline about the birth in El Comercio, the main newspaper in Peru, a predominantly Catholic country. The mother, Virgen Maria Huarcaya, delivered the 7.7 pound (3.5 kg) boy, Jesus Emanuel, in the early hours of Christmas at the central maternity hospital in Lima, the capital. "A few days ago we had decided to name my son after a professio...

For those furiously revising and revisiting Judas traditions in the wake of the discovery and continued study of the Gospel of Judas, it might do some good to read Borges' short story, "Three Versions of Judas." It is, as usual, labyrinthine in presentation, provocative, and amazing! The story, using basically just the canonical Gospels and some heresiological reports, revises the relationship between Jesus, God, and Judas. It suggests that Judas seems unnecessary. For a teacher who performs public miracles in the day and has a large following, it should not be difficult to find him. Therefore, Judas' betrayal seems superfluous. It seems to exist only for the purpose of damning Judas. Yet it is a superfluity that signals that something else is going on in the story, something subterranean. The Word, when it was made flesh, passed from ubiquity to space, from eternity to history, from limitless satisfaction to change and death; in order to correspond to such a s...