American Unitarian Conference Forum

It is really nice to see the things that we teach in church being given the publicity they deserve....and the NY Times no less.
Hoorah!! for truth over myth!  heh

Steve@ Autumn Creek

Yeah, people don't realize how much of orthodox Christian ideas are old hat; deifying humans as children of gods is very common in history (I mean just look at the traditional view of the Japanese Imperial family-descended from Amaterasu; the tendency of Romans to deify emperors; ditto Pharaohs). Osiris died and was brought back from the dead; Odin sacrificed himself on a tree in order to gain magical knowledge...

"To shed blood is not for the sins of people but to bring redemption to Israel.”

This really puts Jesus back into the very Jewish world he lived in....it recasts his whole mission and purpose.....

I doubt many Christians will see any need to change their theology...there is a long history of ignoring or coming up with alternative interpretations of inconvenient texts.

Indeed there is. I do think that this historical concept, however, will do a great deal to shed light on how Jesus may have thought about himself, a concept that orthodox Christians try to ignore (no reading of Scripture really seems to suggest that Jesus had a consistent, crystal-clear understanding of himself or his own mission). While I do believe that much of Jesus' mission and teachings transcend religions (the important parts) there is also a great deal that is tied into the Jewish culture of his time, and articles like these help shed light on the subject.