maestroxl

I saw a movie this week called The God Who Wasn't There. I was somewhat disappointed, not because it wasn't effective in parts, but because it didn't feel ultimately to me like what it purported itself to be.

I was raised Christian, in an Evangelical household. Church three times a week, daily prayer, constant awareness of sacred/secular conflict in everyday life. My parents and a couple of my three siblings are still very devout. I love them dearly and have the utmost respect for them. I don't want to ridicule them or presume to know more about the ancient mysteries of life than they. But I do want to explore and ask questions and be open to the truths that I find along life's path.

It was in this spirit that I went to the film, and I was very interested in the comparisons of the story arc of the historical Jesus and that of other pagan gods and heroes that pre-date the Christian era. It's easy to make fun of believers because they must rely on faith to make their arguments. Unfortunately, the movie also relied too heavily on this crutch and focused ultimately on the film-maker's own personal resentment against a Christian school he attended as a child. I would have preferred it continue to focus more on the historical and scholarly issues, which I think would still have found an audience.

The best thing I got from the movie were some points to follow up on in my own personal explorations and research. One of these was the comparison of plot points in the life of Jesus to those of earlier pagan savior-figures, like Osiris-Dionysus. Another is the absence in contemporary historical record of Jesus, who first surfaces as a historical figure almost a full century later. Today I perused a brief, highly readable summary of some of these points at Jesus Puzzle.

I continue to be very interested in the topic and look forward to reading, among others, A History of God, Holy Writ as Oral Lit, The Jesus Mysteries and Incredible Shrinking Son of Man.

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Zeraph

I think this poll was already posted, fyi.

maestroxl

fwiw, I did look. Apparently not hard enough

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Xazy

Yep I believe he was a jewish guy.