Fully Alive is studying N.T. Wright's The Resurrection of the Son of God for the Easter season! Find out more here.
Part I: Setting the Scene of the book (p 3-206) is split into four chapters: one about studying the resurrection as history and Wright's methodology, one about ancient pagan beliefs about life after death, and two about Jewish beliefs about the subject. Check out the first article in the series here. This second article focuses on Part I, Chapter 2: Shadows, Souls, and Where They Go: Life Beyond Death in Ancient Paganism (pg. 32-84). Nothing, or Worse Pagan views of life after death were almost exclusively very grim, as Wright lays out in his exhaustive, 50+ page outline on the topic. For the ancients, Homer and Plato were the Old and New Testament. If you’ve ever taken a cursory glance at Homer’s fatalistic Iliad or Odyssey, you can intuit what Wright says: “In so far as Homer has anything to say about resurrection, he is quite blunt: it doesn’t happen” (32). Homer’s view of the world after death – if there is one – is scarcely more uplifting. Wright spends many pages (33-47) giving examples of the shady (pardon the pun) underworld of Homer, in which phantoms live in a gloomy, hopeless malaise. Plato's Move Forward Plato’s philosophy led him to a far different view of life after death, but one that is still far away from the idea of resurrection in Second Temple Judaism, much less the Christianity that sprang from it. For Plato, “death is not something to regret, but something to be welcomed. It is the moment when, and the means by which, the immortal soul is set from the prison-house of the physical body” (48). Hades, by this view, is a pleasant and benign home for the soul after death (49). Plato’s views led to Epictetus, who sees death as a nice thing that shouldn’t be feared at all, and the gnostics, who believed that the material world was bad-to-evil. The closest Plato gets to resurrection is his idea of transmigration: that after death a soul either lives pleasantly in Hades (which is among the stars) or is transmigrated into another body (59). Of course, as Wright points out, this is not the resurrection of a person body and soul who had died. Eating with the Dead, Empty Tombs, and Other Curiosities There were certain rituals in ancient paganism that denoted something like life after death. Dead family members were buried with trinkets and food for the journey. Families would even gather around graves to “eat with the dead.” Mediums could famously conjure the dead, and there are some stories in pagan literature of people leaving or attempting to leave the underworld – though they all end poorly for the person who tries. But none of this points to the idea that they anybody would someday rise body and soul a la the Christian idea of resurrection. The Scheintod motif in pagan novels around the time of Christ (p. 68ff) is particularly interesting. Empty tomb narratives are found in a number of novels from this era, although it always has to do with someone cheating death or people thinking that somebody is dead when they’re actually alive. The empty tomb scenes from these stories are eerily like those of the Gospel writers. As Wright points out: “If we suppose that strange, wild rumors of a real empty tomb were going around the ancient world in the middle of the first century, it is perfectly plausible to suppose that writers of fiction – in a very different genre to that of the gospels! - would have picked up and developed it within their own narrative worlds” (72). Very fascinating! It makes me think, though, of another, option that is far less palatable for Christians. Considering that much of the Koran is reportedly taken from Christian fiction of the era it was written in, and the Book of Mormon was clearly based on early science fiction, are the resurrection stories in the Gospels just the first in this venerable religious tradition? Other traditions about life after death from this era bound, and they are each interesting. There are stories of kings and gods being assumed into immortality (the deaths of Enoch and Elijah in the Old Testament are close parallels), many theories of transmigration, and gods and goddesses “resurrecting” to metaphorically represent the changing of the seasons and such. Life After Death in Ancient Paganism: Unwanted and Unrealistic Wright’s conclusion wraps all this up lucidly: ...if death, the separation of the soul and body, is seen as the problem – as it obviously was by the vast majority of people, as witnessed by tomb inscriptions and funeral rites throughout the ancient world – there was no solution. Death was all-powerful. One could neither escape it in the first place nor break its power once it had come. The ancient world was thus divided into those who said that resurrection couldn’t happen, though they might have wanted it to, and those who said they didn’t want it to happen, knowing that it couldn’t anyway. (82) Wright’s point is clear, and clearly laid out: pagans didn’t leave room in their philosophy for resurrection from the dead as laid out in Christianity. They are categorically different. That so many still carelessly conflate them, or assume they’re similar, or even think that Christianity “stole” their ideas from the pagans, is proof that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Erik Ritland is a writer and musician. The founder of Fully Alive Christian Media, he also created The Minnesota Sport Ramble and is a writer and copy editor for Music in Minnesota. He was Lead Staff Writer for Minnesota culture blogs Curious North and Hometown Hustle. Reach him via email.
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Fully Alive is studying N.T. Wright's The Resurrection of the Son of God for the Easter season!
Wright's essential book lays out the historical evidence for Jesus' resurrection in a fair, readable, and serious way. His reputation as a scholar and historian is undeniable, even to non-Christians. Notes and quotes from the book are featured on our Twitter account throughout the week. Every Friday, Fully Alive founder Erik Ritland posts an article summing up the chapters and giving insights on them. Find out more here. Thanks for your support! Part I: Setting the Scene of Resurrection (p 3-206) is split into four chapters: one about studying the resurrection as history and Wright's methodology, one about ancient pagan beliefs about life after death, and two about Jewish beliefs about the subject. This initial blog focuses on Part I, Chapter I: The Target and the Arrows (pg. 3-31). In Sum Throughout the years, both Christians (of all types) and non-believing scholars have given many reasons why studying the resurrection either doesn’t make sense or isn’t beneficial. Wright spends the first chapter of his book debunking each of them thoroughly. He also lays out his methodology and outlines how the book will unfold. Was Jesus' Tomb Empty? The entire thrust of his book is summarized on pages 7-8. Wright is out to show that, contrary to popular scholarship, a close look at the evidence proves that Jesus’ original followers believed and taught that he was resurrected bodily from the dead. This is over and against the idea that they could have meant the resurrection spiritually or as a metaphor for Jesus’ continued presence among them in his teaching. Wright is out to prove that this doesn’t make sense in the context of pagan and Jewish belief of the time. Separating History and Theology is a Pipe Dream The results of his findings are outlined on page 10: that “the best historical explanation” is the that tomb of Jesus “was indeed empty.” Some might argue that he is conflating history and theology. Wright expertly responds that they are “inevitably intertwined,” and that “not to recognize this, in fact, is often to decide tacitly in favour of a particular type of theology, perhaps a form of Deism, whose absentee-landlord god keeps clear of historical involvement” (5). To throw out the possibility that God can work in the world is as theological an assumption as the idea that he can. Can the Resurrection even be Studied as History? I wish that I had the time and space to describe what follows, but a short summary will have to do. Pages 11-30 are prime N.T. Wright. In this section, he decisively and thoroughly disproves every major argument against studying the resurrection as history. The two camps are those who believe that it can’t be done and those who believe that it can be but shouldn’t be. Each is cooly and systematically proven as inadequate. What's to Come Having dispensed with each reason not study the resurrection as history, Wright explains how is going to do it in The Resurrection and the Son of God on pages 28-30. Most studies of the resurrection begin with the texts that discuss it, the Gospels and the writings of Paul. Wright is going to begin a bit further back than that, laying out the pagan and Jewish beliefs about life after death in order to show what the Christian belief about resurrection could and couldn’t realistically be. Obviously, the Christian idea of the resurrection wasn’t taken directly from either the Jewish or pagan understanding. So the question becomes: what caused the Christian mutation of the resurrection? And then, finally: what happened at Easter? There is No Such Thing as Detached Objectivity Wright ends the chapter by outlining his methodology. In a way, this is a foundation of his genius. As if anticipating the claim that he can’t be objective because he’s a believing Christian, he lays out a clear and convincing case that “there is no such thing as detached objectivity”: This method recognizes that all knowledge of the past, as indeed of everything else, is mediated not only through sources but also through perceptions, and hence also the personalities, of the knowers. There is no such thing as detached objectivity. To say, therefore, that we can investigate other historical claims in a neutral or objective fashion, but that with the resurrection an element of subjectivity inevitably creeps in, is to ignore the fact that all historical work consists of a dialogue between the historian, in community with other historians, and the source materials; and that at every point the historians’ own worldview-perspectives are inevitably involved. But this does not mean that all knowledge collapses into mere subjectivity. There are ways of moving towards fair and true statements about the past. (29) Brilliant, eh? Getting the Whole Picture The final piece of Wright’s methodology is his emphasis on praxis, story, and symbol. It’s not just a community's ideas that explain who they were and what they believed: it’s their customs, the stories that they told, and the symbols of their culture. Each part of the book will use these benchmarks to get closer to the heart of what each group thought and believed. #2 in our study, which will cover Part I, Chapter 2, coming soon. Erik Ritland is a writer and musician. The founder of Fully Alive Christian Media, he also created The Minnesota Sport Ramble and is a writer and copy editor for Music in Minnesota. He was Lead Staff Writer for Minnesota culture blogs Curious North and Hometown Hustle. Reach him via email. Following our very successful Lenten Scriptural Commentary series, Fully Alive is delving deep into N.T. Wright's epic The Resurrection of the Son of God for the Easter season!
In addition to posting quotes from the book on our Twitter account throughout the week, we'll be releasing a weekly article every Friday featuring insights from the book. Here are the dates we'll be posting articles and the sections of the book they'll be covering (page numbers are in parentheses). Feel free to read along with us and let us know if you have any questions about the text! Thu 4/25 Ch. 1: The Target and the Arrows (3-31) Fri 4/26 Ch. 2: Shadows, Souls and Where They Go: Life Beyond Death in Ancient Paganism (31-84) Thu 5/2 Ch. 3: Time to Wake Up (1): Death and Beyond in the Old Testament (84-129) Fri 5/3 Ch. 4: Time to Wake Up (2): Death and Beyond in the Old Testament(129-206) Thu 5/9 Ch. 5: Resurrection in Paul (Outside the Corinthian Correspondence) (206-276) Fri 5/10 Ch 6: Resurrection in Corinth (1): Introduction (277-311) Wed 5/15 Ch 7: Resurrection in Corinth (2): The Key Passages (312-374) Thu 5/16 Ch 8: When Paul Saw Jesus (375-398) Fri 5/17 Ch 9: Hope Refocused (1): Gospel Traditions Outside the Easter Narratives (399-449) Thu 5/23 Ch 10: Hope Refocused (2): Other New Testament Writings (450-479) Fri 5/24 Ch 11: Hope Refocused (3): Non-Canonical Early Christian Texts (480-552) Mon 5/27 Ch 12: Hope in Person: Jesus as Messiah and Lord (553-584) Tue 5/28 Ch 13: General Issues in the Easter Stories (585-615) Wed 5/29 Ch 14: Fear and Trembling: Mark (616-631) Thu 5/30 Ch 15: Earthquakes and Angels: Matthew (632-646) Fri 5/31 Ch 16: Burning Hearts and Broken Bread: Luke (647-661) Wed 6/5 Ch 17: New Day, New Tasks: John (662-682) Thu 6/6 Ch 18: Easter and History (683-718) Fri 6/7 Ch 19: The Risen Jesus as the Son of God (719-738) Mon 6/10 Conclusion |
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