The story of Christ as told by the biblical evangelists has a meaning beyond the rational. It portrays a truth beyond the scientific; it points to a reality that no life touched by this Jesus could ever deny. The beauty of the Christ story is bigger than literalization could ever produce. For when this Lord is known, when love, acceptance, and forgiveness are experienced, when we become whole, free and affirmed people, the heavens do sing, "Glory to God in the Highest," and on earth there is "Peace and Good Will among Us."
The Jews had always believed in a series of messiahs who would lead their people to the promised land. when it came down to it, some people agreed that Jesus was this man, and others didn't. those who favored Jesus as their messiah became Christians, this is why the old testament is still read, because the messiah is a Jewish belief.
the only difference between the Jews and the pagans was that the Jews didn't believe that a man could be a god. during the reign of Alexander the great, the Jews were exposed to the pagan religions of the Greeks and Egyptians. some Jews found the pagans disgusting, and other Jews found them to be credible. the pagans put on big theatrical plays to put across their message of a man-god. the idea of a man-savior and a man-god integrated and became one in the religion of Christinity.
The earthly life of Jesus is generally dated between 4 B.C.E. and 33 C.E.
with the year 30 the consensus bet on the date of the crucifixion. The
first written part of the New Testament were the Pauline epistles, all
of which were composed between 50 and 64 C.E. or 20 to 34 years after
Jesus' earthly life was concluded. Paul tells us, however, almost
nothing about the events in Jesus' life. In I Corinthians, chapters 11
and 15, he does pass on the tradition that he says had been given to
him, but the details are still quite sparse. When you read The Epistle
to the Galatians, you will discover that Paul gives a rather graphic
account of his activities since his conversion. The noted Church
historian Adolf Harnack has dated that conversion not less than one year
or more than six after the crucifixion. This would mean that if we date
the crucifixion about 30 C.E., which is the best estimate of scholars
today, that Paul came into the Christian Church somewhere between 31 and
36 C.E. Paul writes (Gal. 1:17,18) that following his conversion he went
to Arabia for three years. This would bring us to 34 to 39 C.E. After
those three years he says he went to Jerusalem to consult with Cephas
i.e. Peter. He describes that conversation which also included James,
who Paul calls 'the brother of the Lord.' Next Paul says "after 14
years, I went up again to Jerusalem." That would bring us to somewhere
between 48 and 53 C.E. Most scholars date Galatians in the early 50's. I
go over these first hand Paulin e references to demonstrate that Paul
knew the people who knew Jesus, which makes the idea that Jesus was a
mythological character created by inventors of a religion a rather
preposterous claim. Myths take far more time than that to develop. Paul
certainly did not think that he was being told about a mythological
figure. He was talking to people who knew the Jesus of history. Of
course an interpretive framework was placed on Jesus by the time the
Gospels were written (70 to 100 C.E.). This framework was drawn from
many sources. Mark, the first Gospel, was written some 40 years after
the end of Jesus' life. Matthew is second, written some 50 years after
Jesus' life, Luke is third, some 60 years after Jesus' life and John is
last, some 70 years after Jesus' life. So we deal with a time span of 40
to 70 years in a world where life expectancy was half of what we have
today and in which there were no written records to which an author
might refer. To complicate matters even more, all of the gospels were
written in Greek and our presumption is that Jesus spoke Aramaic. So
when we read the gospels, we are 40 to 70 years and one translation
removed from the events being described. I would say any claim that one
is dealing with literal words in either Testament is problematic. I
think the New Testament contains authentic echoes of the Jesus of
history far more than it contains his literal words.
Where did the memory of both the words and actions of Jesus reside
before these stories were written down? The gospels are so deeply shaped
by and intertwined with the stories found in the Old Testament that this
intermingling process could only have occurred in the synagogue because
that was the only place where the Old Testament was ever read and
studied. The oral tradition is the only way that the stories of Jesus
could have lived between his death in 30 C.E. (approximately) and the
writing of the Gospels between 70 C.E. and 100 C.E. This means that
everything we know about Jesus lived for 40 to 70 years in oral
transmission before it was written down. The real questions are where
was this tradition preserved, by whom and in what context? It was in the
synagogue that the oral tradition was born and in the synagogue that it
thrived. Most of the gospel stories existed first as sermons, preached
about Jesus against the background of the synagogue readings of the
Torah and the prophets In this process, Jesus in the oral tradition came
to be understood as the fulfillment of both the expectations of the
Torah and the hopes of the prophets.
s
human beings we make use of language to communicate our thoughts,
emotions, and actions. Our use of language is a vital means of
participation in God's Mission of handing over Christ into the hands of
all generations and nations (Tradition). Yet the language at our
disposal frequently presents problems of communication, creating
situations more like the story of Babel than of Pentecost. The symbols
and words of church traditions have become so encrusted by their
formation in a sexist and racist Western culture that the language
sometimes becomes a barrier to communication. For those who experience
the barriers of exclusion on the basis of racial or biological origin,
the past becomes useless when language, as well as history and myth, is
used to reinforce these patterns of prejudice. The message of God's love
is thus effectively blocked because it ceases to be part of a still
living and evolving tradition in their conscious perception of
themselves and the world in which they live. The English usage of such words as man, men, his, mankind, brotherhood, etc., in the generic sense has been increasingly called into question. However much a particular person or organization may protest that the words really mean human, human beings, his and hers, humankind, people hood, etc., the fact remains that women are frequently left out of both the mental structures and the social structures of our culture. Their history is not only invisible, they themselves are frequently invisible in the way the male-dominated society speaks its language and makes its decisions. Thus in speaking of consciousness-raising and male language structure,
As women question the generic use of male words they are promptly put down repeatedly with ridicule. Finally it becomes quite evident to them that male and not the generic in the male terminology is meant.
The feminine values of feelings, relatedness, and soul consciousness have virtually been driven out of our culture by our patriarchal mentality.
And it is not only men who have accepted the patriarchal version of reality. Women also have been taught to idealize masculine values at the expense of the feminine side of life. Many women have spent their lives in a constant state of feeling second best. Women have also been trained that only masculine activities, thinking, power, achieving, have any real value. Thus western woman find herself in the same one sided competitive mastery of the masculine qualities at the expense of her feminine qualities.
Our culture is hell bent on destroying and suppressing Nature, just as my shame and guilt suppress my being naked in my Truth. This is because we fear that Nature unfolding from within an individual will mean death, as it really does mean death to the ego. Yet, in that death, our immortality unfolds and the Christ of the Gospels is revealed in all the spiritual teachings of humanity. All religions are ultimately one in Sophia.. Christ is called the Sophia of God by Paul; as indeed He is the incarnate Sophia of God. It is Sophia that creates you within Herself and it is your unfolding of Her that is Her labor. When Truth is found, you will be finding that your revelation is Hers'. The suppression of women, the oppression and destruction of Nature, is ultimately the oppression of our Truth, i.e., our true Self. Nature means Truth. A woman's body presents us with infinite potential, which is why the politicians or surface ego tries to suppress her both outside and within ourselves. Artists love women for in them they see their Creativity - the unfolding of their labors which is their inner world. Yet, we suppress this unfolding because the status quo, the politician and the ego, fear loosing themselves in Love's embrace. Suppression and oppression are the result of fear. Love devours us. In our fear we suppress and oppress God, who is our Truth, i.e., our Nature.
hose who say that this concern of women for language that is whole,
positive, and inclusive is unreasonable should begin to think about what
it is like to sit through years of lectures, sermons, instructions,
etc., in which one is never named, even by inclusion in the pronouns
used. This experience of being kept in her "invisible place" is a
constant reality for a woman both in church and in society. In
describing the result of such experience of discrimination and the
consequent loss of identity or growth of self-conscious rage, 
t
is, in point of fact, a difficult matter for man to realize the extreme
importance of social discriminations which seem outwardly insignificant
but which produce in woman moral and intellectual effects so profound
that they appear to spring from her original nature.The way people use language reflects the images in their lives and the patterns of their social behavior. As social patterns and images in church and society change this may have an effect on our language so that it becomes more inclusive of those who find themselves "left out." One way to help such changes to come about is to begin now by taking the trouble to include others in the way we speak by changing our own linguistic models. Nowhere is woman's experience of male-dominated Language more pervasive than in the church and synagogue. Such "he" language is applied "in the generic sense" to God, to the preacher, to the worshiper. In hymns, liturgies, and styles of government, religious life is male-oriented.
It is outrageous nonsense to say that women are included linguistically when they are excluded by so many practices.
Studies have shown that language frames the way we see the world and limits us to its parameters. Our language, unfortunately, favors the masculine and devalues the feminine, thus even as we use this language to try to uplift ourselves, the effort easily becomes self-defeating. The accepted ways language is used (academic, journalistic, business, technological, scientific) also favors masculine ways of expressing themselves while excluding the ways women need language to work to express themselves. Women need to reject this status quo and begin to use language in ways that favor us. We need to develop styles that truly reflect our ideas and emotions rather than try to conform to the way our language is presently used.
If this is to change, Biblical and theological traditions must be interpreted and translated so that the liberating power of God's love can break through in new words and actions.
The Bible is an extremely complex document and is not a single book; rather, it is several books which span centuries between the lives of it's authors. The Bible revels in a multiplicity of voices, that critiques its own society and confesses its divided opinion about nearly everything. The Bible is to a great extent a document that records the ongoing struggle of the human heart for freedom from the captivity of ignorance and oppression; a freedom brought about by God and humankind working in conjunction.
In baptism there is no discrimination of the sexes. The meaning of Christian ministry is the ministry of service; which empowers others and creates equality and reciprocal relationships. Women as well as men are 'other Christi,' men as well as women can by unity in the Holy Spirit represent the spouse of Christ. The book of Genesis explains the domination of man over women as the result eating of the fruit of duality. It is this division from the Divine and the Blessed that is the meaning of original sin. Therefore, we are required by Christian conviction to endeavor to restore paradises unity. And as Jesus Christ loves Mary, so man must love womankind.
Together they are the fullness of the Church in the service of Love. Together in the Holy Spirit they promote light and salvation in the world.
The lack of this dynamic female expression is why no dynamic psychology has developed from theology (Luke 15:9). At heart it is a wound, a split within us, that denies any firm theological basis for a poetics that will make possible a joining of our perceptions; perceptions of life, the essence of creative erotic union and the birth process, and the phenomena of the spiritual. Dualism raped the natural beauty of the Divine's bestowed images of life, replacing joy and compassion, male and female, rainbow color, with images of positive and negative, good and evil, black and white. It is time the Church clearly pointed out that these Persian influences are not to be found in the old Hebrew religion, nor are they Biblical, neither are they Christian.
with
discoveries of previously unknown early Christian writings from
Egypt, like the Gospel of Mary, the Dialogue of the Savior, and the
Gospel of Thomas. The Gospel of Mary is found in a fifth-century C.E.
papyrus book that came onto the Cairo antiquities market in 1896. It
was purchased by a German scholar and taken to Berlin, where it was
first published in 1955. In 1945, two Egyptian peasants made an
astonishing discovery while digging for fertilizer at the foot of the
Jabel al-Tarif, a cliff near the town of Nag Hammadi in Middle Egypt.
They uncovered a sealed clay jar containing a hoard of papyrus
manuscripts. Known as the Nag Hammadi Codices, these fourth-century
C.E. papyrus books included a wealth of ancient Christian literature,
a total of 46 different works in all, almost all of which were
previously unknown. These and other original writings are offering
new perspectives on Christian beginnings. They show that early
Christianity was much more diverse than we had ever imagined.
Early Christians intensely debated such basic issues as the content
and meaning of Jesus' teachings, the nature of salvation, the value
of prophetic authority, the roles of women and slaves, and competing
visions of ideal community. After all, these first Christians had no
New Testament, no Nicene Creed or Apostles Creed, no commonly
established church order or chain of authority, no church buildings,
and indeed no single understanding of Jesus. All of the elements we
might consider essential to define Christianity did not yet exist.
Far from being starting points, the Nicene Creed and the New
Testament were the end products of these debates and disputes. They
represent the distillation of experience and experimentation-and not
a small amount of strife and struggle.
One consequence of these struggles is that the winners were able to
write the history of this period from their perspective. The
viewpoints of the losers were largely lost since their ideas survived
only in documents denouncing them. Until now. The recent discoveries
provide a wealth of primary works that illustrate the plural
character of early Christianity and offer alternative voices. They
also help us to understand the winners better because their ideas and
practices were shaped in the crucible of these early Christian
debates. The Nicene Creed, for example, was never intended to be the
full statement of Christian faith-after all, it does not ask
Christians to affirm anything in the teachings of Jesus even though
they were of fundamental importance to faith and practice. Instead
every article of the Creed was formulated as a hedge against views
that were considered to be wrong.
To take the new texts seriously as historical documents does not mean
considering them to be theologically authoritative for contemporary
believers. That determination has to be made-as it always has been-by
communities of faith.
Meanwhile, placing the figure of Mary Magdalene in this new context
helps us understand how the erroneous portrait of her as a prostitute
could have been invented and how it could have flourished in the West
for well over a millennium without any evidence to support it.
Several of the newly-discovered works portray her as a favored
disciple of Jesus and apostle after the resurrection. In the Gospel
of Mary, for example, she calms the other disciples when they are
afraid and gives them special teaching that Jesus had conveyed to her
alone. The text states that Jesus knew her completely and loved her
more than the others. It also draws upon a tradition of Peter in
conflict with Mary, a topic handled with great sophistication by Anne
Brock in her new book, Mary Magdalene, the First Apostle: The
Struggle for Authority.
But in these newly-discovered books, Mary is the apostolic guarantor
of a theological position that lost out in the battle for orthodoxy.
The Gospel of Mary, for example, presents a radical interpretation of
Jesus' teachings as a path to inner spiritual knowledge, not
apocalyptic revelation; it acknowledges the reality of Jesus' death
and his resurrection, but it rejects his suffering and death as the
path to eternal life; it also rejects the immortality of the physical
body, asserting that only the soul will be saved; it presents the
most straightforward and convincing argument in any early Christian
writing for the legitimacy of women's leadership; it offers a sharp
critique of illegitimate power and a utopian vision of spiritual
perfection; it challenges our romantic views about the harmony of the
first Christians; and it asks us to rethink the basis for church
authority. All written in the name of a woman.
The Gospel of Mary lets us see that by making Mary Magdalene into a
repentant prostitute, the leaders of the Church could achieve two
aims at once. They succeeded both in undermining appeals to Mary
Magdalene to support women's leadership, and at the same time they
were able to undermine the kind of theology being promoted in her
name-theology which the Church Fathers condemned as heresy.
An accurate
historical account will not ensure that the figure of Mary Magdalene
won't continue to be prostituted for polemical purposes as she has
been for centuries-but it does restore some dignity to this important
woman disciple of Jesus.
dichotomy is strictly feminine. There is no comparable masculine
equation. Thus women who are virgins are elevated but men who are
virgins are looked down upon; women who have more than one sex
partner are sluts, but men who do the same are studs. While this is
physical in its context, the spiritual equivalent is the same. As
long as the feminine is used exclusively as context, there will never
be balance.
There are those who argue that the physical context is what is
skewing the perception and we must look beyond it, but in practical
terms, that doesn't happen. That approach denies the very context
upon which the terms are built. The virgin woman had value in
patriarchy but the whore did not. This skewing happened because of
patriarchal sexual imbalance and remains because the imbalance
perpetuates itself by continuing to use terms that are sexual.
There is a literary equivalent: the constant use of male pronouns in
books and articles. A couple of decades ago, a female author who was
writing about sexual abuse used female pronouns exclusively. When she
gave readings, men objected, saying they could not relate. The author
replied, "Learn to change the pronouns. Women have been doing it for
centuries." Women are routinely expected to identify with being male in their
spiritual quests. If we cannot even change the pronouns in a book
aimed at women, how will we ever achieve balance?
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