|
"Church" Without the Myths of the Blood Atonement and the Resurrection
By Harry T. Cook
In a previous article as part of FINDINGS' expansion, I discussed evidence that supports the hypothesis that the Jesus of the New Testament may be a composite character and, as such, the quasi-separate creations of the several evangelists. I wrote of the implications of such evidence, suggesting that, if the hypothesis held up in light of further research -- my own and that of others -- it need not spell the end of "church" as we know it.
Although, for Christian communities to enjoy any reputation of honesty, considerable alterations of their worship rituals and their texts would be required -- in particular with respect to the narratives of the crucifixion (and the resultant theologies of the blood atonement) as well as the resurrection. Ample evidence exists of thousands of crucifixions taking place in Judea during the times of Roman occupation. The canonical gospels depict criminals and robbers being crucified with the Jesus about which each evangelist writes.
Crucifixion, borrowed by Rome from both the Persians and the Phoenicians, was as much a tool of humiliation and intimidation as it was of execution. But the gospel writers, insofar as their Jesuses were concerned, appear considered it primarily one of execution. Earlier in the epoch, Paul chose to understand that execution to have been appropriated by the deity in whom he believed as the agent of human salvation as is said, for example, at Romans 5:6, Philippians 2:8 (part of what may have been an early hymn to the incarnation, though a great number of those who study this particular text disagree), Colossians 2:13-4 (perhaps not directly from Paul himself but from a close follower).
The catholic churches adopted the Pauline understanding of the crucifixion so that in one of the Roman Eucharistic prayers the priest, holding the chalice aloft, says, "When supper was ended, he took the cup. Again he gave you thanks and praise, gave the cup to his disciples, and said, 'Take this, all of you, and drink from it, this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for many so that sins may be forgiven.' "
If there was more than one Jesus instead of the unitary one some think is seen in the gospels, one would have to ask which Jesus said those words, and why that Jesus and not another ends up being "the" Jesus. [Click here to download "Is the Jesus of the New Testament a Composite Character?: The Evidence and Its Implications."]
Therefore, should the evidence for a composite Jesus ever to become overwhelming and made part of the general study of scripture in graduate schools of theology and seminaries, many liturgical traditions, including those of the Roman, Orthodox and Anglican Communions, some branches of Lutheranism and mainline Protestant denominations -- would be affected.
To seek and maintain intellectual honesty, present liturgical texts and their understanding and interpretation would have to be treated as the language of myth (not at all a demotion in significance) to continue to be used on a regular basis. An example is how contemporary theater companies produce the plays, for example, of Sophocles, Aeschylus or Euripides using translations of original texts. The power of such drama often produces the catharsis it was meant to produce.
Grand opera -- for example: Mephistofele, Pell�as and M�lisande, Orpheus and Euridice, Tha�s and A�da -- are produced well into the 21st century without altering texts with the understanding that what is seen and heard is theater. A solemn high mass with appropriate music, vestments and liturgical deportment can also be understood as drama, not, in the particular case of the Roman rites, a re-enactment of human sacrifice.
The story borne by such a liturgical offering is, indeed, one of sacrifice. But because human society is by and large and long since done with human sacrifice -- certainly in the ritual sense -- the commentary that generally accompanies a eucharistic celebration, known as the homily, can be relied upon to set the acts and texts of the liturgy in a contemporary context. As the evangelists portrayed a Jesus willingly sacrificing his to save others from the same fate (see John 11:49-50 or John 3:16), so the homilist can point to the Jesus figure in the crucifixion narratives as a model for present-tense sacrifice as in the need for people to take poverty seriously (see Matthew 5:40/Luke 6:29) or to let go of self-pride (see Matthew 18:22/Luke 17:4), Matthew 5:44/Luke 6:27) and Matthew 7:12/Luke 6:31).
Already many congregations across the ecumenical and interfaith spectra conduct ongoing outreach ministries that are demanding of volunteer time and energy and considerable financial investment. And a good many of those congregations are strapped so that the costs of such collective ministries begin to outpace the availability of time and money. Here and there churches in cities with warmer climes have not spent the funds to air condition their buildings for the comfort of worshippers, preferring to spend them on direct aid and support of the disadvantaged in their communities. It is a stretch, of course, to compare such choices with the choice of actually and willingly offering up one's body to an executioner, yet it is the idea of putting the needs of others ahead of one's own needs and desires that may constitute sacrifice.
Yet, given the sense of sacrifice depicted in the mass by the above quoted text "Take this, all of you, and eat of it: for this is my body which will be given up for you; take this, all of you, and drink from it: for this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many so that sins may be forgiven," the language of any revised liturgy would need to touch at least on the themes of expiation and atonement -- the former being the act by which the latter is accomplished. The idea is to be made whole and to make whole.
It is safe to say that human wholeness is not a gift of destiny. Rather it is an achievement human beings gain from time to time through what they choose to do and choose not to do by way of respecting the dignity of others and the environment in which all live and move and have their being.
Atonement is more often thought of as compensating for a trespass against another person than it is in a more collective form -- not to say that person-to-person atonement is not important. Reconciliation by way of atonement with those individuals whom we have hurt is necessary as one-on-one relational dislocation affects the entire community. Judaism and Christianity in their various expressions are primarily communal religions. The raison d'etre of each is recognized in and by community.
That said, how can and should a community offer sacrifice by way of expiation and for what? One does not have to look far to see that for which society should atone: Income disparity made worse by malign partisan politics added to a sometimes willed ignorance on the part of haves of what the have-nots must endure; the despoiling of the environment to which anyone who drives an automobile with a gasoline-powered internal combustion engine contributes, the profligate consumption and the throwaway culture that aids and abets it.
Atonement for these cannot be made in the form of a general confession, or, for that matter, in the familiar sacrament of penance. Words and intentions will not suffice, meaning that a community whose members accept the reality of societal trespass upon the dignity of the economically defenseless as well as upon the fabric of Earth herself must mobilize for action.
Such communities will need to learn that the individuals who constitute them at a given time will not necessarily be parts of them ad infinitum, the implication being that ongoing education will be necessary to build a tradition of lasting sacrificial atonement in a communal, world-aware manner. The Hail Marys and Our Fathers of the past, mumbled for a cheap-grace penance after a mere five minutes in the confessional will be replaced with learning about what an intentional community can and should do to alleviate poverty and remediate the damage human beings have done to the environment. What will remain to be done is the actual effecting of alleviation and remediation.
The theory is that the church's liturgy is the substance of the community's life in the offering of which its people try to discern their place in the world, recognize the idea that they are important to each other and try to connect with whatever the source-origin of life may be. Either giving the established liturgical texts the interpretation mentioned above, or crafting news ones to more directly engage the people in their collective vocation as atoners will be required.
Where to turn for inspiration if new texts are to be composed? Here follow quotations from various sources that might serve as inspiration for the composition of such texts.
* * * * *
The Church is catholic, universal, so are all her actions ... when she buries a man, that action concerns me; all [human]kind is of one author ... The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth ... Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world? No [one] is an island, entire of itself; every [one] is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were; any [one's] death diminishes me, because I am involved in [human]kind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
-- John Donne, Devotions, Meditation XVII.
For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh, nor grating, though of ample power
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean, and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.
-- From Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth, 1798
Jesus, forgive my easy righteousness
When I lay claim, with such convenient speed
To small gains only got because you bless
And, in your love, anticipate my need.
Shall I exult if I can sometimes go,
Mustard-seed faithful, limping minus dread?
Or flaunt the unbarked shin, the unstubbed toe.
When you precede to sweep the paths I tread?
You have kept the faith; I fail at gratitude.
You dearly bought this crown I cheaply wear.
Humble me, Lord, amend my attitude,
And if it mean your rod then do not spare
Teach me, dear Lord to keep your first great law:
Add love to fear -- I would not fail at awe.
-- From To Jesus on the Rood (II) by Gary Frahm (1937-2002)
When I consider all those hands have done,
Which you stretched out before one world began,
To model planets, light the brilliant sun
And plant a home, a glorious home for man,
At times it seems you must have overwrought:
Things are more lovely than they have to be --
Lights, colors, shapes almost as afterthought,
And life in infinite variety.
Then, most Beloved, I see you hanging there
And know the natural world but does its duty:
Because it mirrors, therefore it is fair,
And things but witness to their Lover's beauty.
What lovelier than Eden or a flood,
And what more costly than your precious blood?
-- From To Jesus on the Rood (XIII) by Gary Frahm
To lose the earth you know, for greater knowing;
To lose the life you have, for greater life;
To leave the friends you loved, for greater loving;
To find a land more kind than home, more large than earth -
Whereon the pillars of this earth are founded,
Toward which the conscience of the world is tending -
A wind is rising, and the rivers flow.
-- From You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938)
Where is my light, my light is in me,
My light is in me, and in you and in you.
Where is my hope, my hope is in me,
My hope is in me, and in you and in you.
-- By Sherwin T. Wine (1928-2007)
| 
