Theologicamol Questions

[Pastor Josh]

Some folks sent me some theological questions in the chat the other night, but it was hard for me to follow the show and the chat.  So, since I don't have anything productive to add to the discussion, I thought I might open this topic to such questions.  Anything, no matter how ridiculous, will recieve a thoroughly researched and mostly made up answer.  Ignore me, and face the wrath of God.  Or wrath the face of Boe.

[oilcantim]

So, the Book of Revelation... that's a joke, right?

[steve davidson]

do you ever get tired of people bashing xtians all the time and never really giving zoroastrianism the once over?

[Pastor Josh]

They way people read it now is.  It's a part of a genre called "Apocolyptic" that we don't have anymore, but as riddled with rules as buddy cop movies.  Contemporaries would have understood it to be a criticism of Rome with a message about God's ultimate victory over evil, not as a prediction of the end of the world.  It really doesn't have much to say to us, mainly because it is riddled with sexist and violent imagery which illustrates a theological claim that we no longer connect with.  In fact, we're Rome.  It was written by a truly oppressed minority as a warning to people like us.  (By "us", I mean the typically white, Western, normatively Christian capitlistic monolithic culture in which we all take part.)

[Pastor Josh]

do you ever get tired of people bashing xtians all the time and never really giving zoroastrianism the once over?

Sure.  All we're trying to do is take away personal freedoms, indoctrinate your children, and burn away anything that makes us think. . . er, offends us.  Damn Zoroastrians always trying to steal your money.  Oh, wait.  That's us, too.

[oilcantim]

Wow, awesome answer!  I always figured people who literally interpret that part of Ye Olde Bible were missing the point.  Hooray for me!

[oilcantim]

PJ: Do you recommend any histories of Christianity/Jesus?  One that's, say, analytical without being smarmy and overly critical.

[Pastor Josh]

That bit about genre is actually true for most of the bible, as is the bit about being written by an oppressed minority struggling for survival.  When we read Exodus, for instance, we need to remember we're more like Egypt than the Israelites.  That's one reason I think the prophets are more relvant to us than maybe even the gospels.  The prophets spoke to a powerful society corrupted by greed and warfare, stealing from the poor in order to fund illegal wars and filling their Temple with empty piety about how great the USA--I mean Israel--is.

[erika]

Hey pastor does your church do anything for Passover along with Easter? I know some do and I'm always curious...

[steve davidson]

what do you think of mythologists like joseph campbell who suggest that the characters and heroes of religious texts are carried down ancient fairy tales wrought with moral significance due to sometimes uncanny similarities in other religious figures biographies (jesus/horus et al)

[Pastor Josh]

PJ: Do you recommend any histories of Christianity/Jesus?  One that's, say, analytical without being smarmy and overly critical.

WHat are you looking for, exactly?  I recently finished a book called _Meeting Jesus Agian for the First Time_ by Marcus Borg, and it was an interesting discussion of how the historical man Jesus became the being we confess as CHrist.  I don't agree with the whole book, but it's an interesting read.  The Jesus Seminar has some good books that look at the actual historical reality in which Jesus lived, although there isn't much about Jesus himself in most of them since there's almost no non-biblical evidence for his existence.  Justo Gonzalez wrote a pretty good series called _The History of Christianity_, which is a good but non-proselytizing summary of our history written by a believer.  Does this help?

[Pastor Josh]

Hey pastor does your church do anything for Passover along with Easter? I know some do and I'm always curious...

I don't.  I don't like the idea of religious voyeurism.  It seems to suggest that Judaism is simply unfinished Christianity, when they are still a vibrant and God-centered tradition.  Christians often think of Jews as our retarde older brother we have to take care of, like Mormons baptizing victims of the Holocaust.  Judaism is a wonderful and ancient tradition, and it isn't right for us to treat them as a curiousity.

[oilcantim]

Yeah, that helps.  I read a fair amount of stuff at university that was straight-up critical of Christianity, and Saint Paul in particular, and I'd kind of like to get the opposite perspective.  So those are perfect recommendations.

[erika]

Ah I never thought anyone did it out of sheer curiosity. I thought they did it because Jesus celebrated it...

[Pastor Josh]

what do you think of mythologists like joseph campbell who suggest that the characters and heroes of religious texts are carried down ancient fairy tales wrought with moral significance due to sometimes uncanny similarities in other religious figures biographies (jesus/horus et al)

I haven't read Campbell, but I think there's some truth to that.  Most ancient mythologies were trying to answer the same questions, so they invovle similar stories.  I don't think that the historical truth behind the stories are as important as the stories themselves and what they have to say to us, though.  Man, this is great.  It's like practicing for my ordination interview.