tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9051910413872751516.post9139044857030713743..comments2023-09-06T01:31:38.653-07:00Comments on Comics, Beer, and Shakespeare: Personal JesusLance Christian Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14662783824480475026noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9051910413872751516.post-53555771549798661792013-08-17T15:59:53.990-07:002013-08-17T15:59:53.990-07:00Sounds like a book I should put on my "to rea...Sounds like a book I should put on my "to read" list, even though I'm not really clear on whether it has any "new" information to offer. The "historical" texts on Christianity seem to agree with each other a lot more than the "spiritual" texts do. As you say: "The whole religion is a laundry list of divisions and revisions, from Arianism to Trinitarianism, from Catholic to Orthodox, from Catholic to Protestant..." Just as "history is written by the winners", so the prevailing doctrines of Christianity were written by the "winners" of those arguments (who were not necessarily always those with the "truest" version of the "truth" but often simply those with the most political clout at the time.) And many of those early discrepancies still found their way into the very self-contradictory document known as "The Bible". I read one study where historical scholars worldwide were polled on who the most important figure in Western Civilization was. Alexander the Great was #1 and I believe Jesus was #3....right after Paul at #2, who is considered by many to be the true "creator" of Christianity. (After reading a lot of historical texts it is my personal opinion/conclusion that Jesus never intended to create a religion with himself at the center of it, and would in fact consider it blasphemy - but that's another discussion altogether.) It's interesting since there's some pretty good evidence that Paul himself never met or had a "personal relationship" with Jesus....he based most of his teachings on a "vision" (or dream) he had in which Jesus spoke to him. Any one of us could go out and found a religion on that basis...except we'd probably just get asked what kind of drugs we were taking at the time. Still it amazes me that people who want to base their whole lives (and afterlives!) on a certain book apparently have little to no interest in finding out just how that book actually came to be, never mind any actual historical facts about the (presumed) real person the religion was created around.Connie L.noreply@blogger.com