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It is unnecessary top believe in Christ's ressurrection to have faith in Christ. How do I, as someone who thinks of Christ as a philosopher and the Bible as a primarily historical and political document make this assertion?
It is because it wasn't until well after Constantine made Christianity the official religion of Rome that there was any uniformity in belief in Christ's divinity, and only then because, after the council of Nicea, it was official Roman doctrine, and to believe otherwise was heretical, and cut one off from the benefits of following the state religion (as well as subjecting one to the sanctions agains infidels.)
Now, how people could have been calling theselves Christian for 300 years, and suffering the displeasure of Rome (which tended to get deadly) and not have had faith is beyond me. However, not much more than half these folks believed that Christ had died and come back, and not much less than half took "Son of God" as something other than the literal interpretation it is given these days.
Therefore, to me Christian means having faith in Christ, divine or no; alive or dead; avatar, prophet, or philosopher.
Of course, to me a good Christian is one that 1) actually tries to live like Christ and 2) keeps his religion out of my politics. But that's something different.
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Light a man a fire, and he will be warm while it burns.
Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life.
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