[soc.religion.christian] the resurrection

roderic@vicom.com (Roderic Taylor) (03/19/90)

   I originally posted the following article in talk.religion.misc.
A kind person mentioned that this newsgroup would also be appropriate:


   Christ's suffering moves me.  In a previous article, I wrote
about how my father suffered with cancer for a long time, then
died; and how this led to the end of my own belief in God.
Because Christianity does not downplay suffering, or deny it,
or minimize it, because it considers suffering so serious that
even God's anointed suffered, I have to take Christianity seriously.

   Now what does Christ's resurrection mean in this context?  It
seems to undermine the seriousness of Christ's pain.  This is not
supposed to be the case; the gospels transmit the seriousness of
his suffering, even to the point of recounting his prayers that
he might be delivered from it.  But it undermines his suffering
for me.  Human beings suffer and die, and do not then rise again.

   Yet the resurrection of Christ is central to Christianity.
I do not know how to take it; I do not know what it means.
Of course some Christians interpret it literally to mean that
Christ triumphed over death by being resurrected, and that those
who believe in him will triumph similarly; some of these Christians
even talk at length what it will be like to live with a perfect
resurrected body in a perfect Christ ruled world.

   But I know there are Christians on this net who do not
necesarily believe in an afterlife, and who certainly don't
find such a belief central to their faith.  To them I would ask,
is the resurrection important to you?  What is its signficance?
What does it mean to you?

                                                --Roderic T

gilham@csl.sri.com (Fred Gilham) (09/20/90)

Howard Steel writes:
----------------------------------------
I look at the resurrection story and what has grown from it. I don't
need a verification of that event to justify the changes that have
occured as a result of the story. In fact I don't need the event
itself any longer, I just listen to the message.

>You would be deriving 
>inspiration from a lie, or from wishful thinking.  Is that what you want to
>base your life on?

No I would be deriving inspiration from a story and the message it
includes.

> If the the resurrection story is just that -- a story --
>then the only "teaching" I would get out of it is either that (1) there is no
>God, (2) He is aloof and doesn't care about us, or (3) He hasn't gotten around
>to helping us out of our mess because he wants us to do it.

Your points 1 and 2 do not follow from the premise. Neither does point
3, but I'm sure he would want us to work our way out of our mess, but
he has provided help.

>In any case, your Christianity, which does not need the validity of the
>resurrection story, is something quite different from New Testament
>Christianity.

I think not. I simply say that the event itself is not as important as
what we have learned from the story of it. If Christianity had not
developed at all, the event would not even exist in your life; it is
the truth of the message underlying it that has kept it alive all
these centuries. The message in my mundane little story of the beggar
is no less real because it is a fable, than the ressurection story's
message would be if it were a fable.
----------------------------------------

The question, I guess, is what the ``message of the resurrection'' is.
If it never happened, you would get a different message out of it than
if it actually happened.  (When you said that your beggar story never
happened, it completely changed the significance of the story!)

The message of the resurrection, if it happened, is that Death has
been conquered.  The message of the resurrection, if it didn't happen,
is that it would be nice if Death were conquered, and thinking about
Death being conquered makes it easier to think about Death, and
therefore makes life a little more pleasant.

For me, being a Christian involves certain difficulties.  If the
resurrection didn't happen, I'd kind of like to know about it, since
it might cause me to reassess my view of the value of submitting
myself to these difficulties.  If death has not been conquered, then I
am not a being destined for eternity, and I should live life
accordingly.  More like the beer commercial--``You only go around once
in life, so you have to grab for all the gusto you can get.''

I might also comment that the resurrection story was not perpetuated
by people who didn't think it had happened, but liked the sound of it.
That is a lot more like the story of Balder.
--
Fred Gilham    gilham@csl.sri.com
``Man was meant to lead with his chin.  He is only worth knowing with
his guard down, his head up, and his heart rampant on his sleeve.''
                                      -- Robert Farrar Capon