In responding to a recent comment on one of my blog entries, I found myself referring to the fact that throughout time (including today), there have been many varied beliefs within Christianity.
Along that line of thinking, I found myself in my local book store tonight flipping through a new book by Bart Ehrman (those who have read my earlier blog entries may recall me referencing one of his previous books, Misquoting Jesus). Ehrman's new book is called The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot. Now I haven't read much on the many other gospels (e.g. Thomas, Peter, Judas) or other gnostic writings that have been found in recent centuries, so I sat down and perused Ehrman's book.
What I found was fascinating. I read a gospel written around the second century which purports to describe Judas Iscariot's experience with Jesus. This is one of the gospels declared heretical by Bishop Irenaeus around A.D. 180 in his treatise Against Heresies. It's quite obvious that this gospel isn't like Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, which Irenaeus declared worthy of Biblical status. This gospel includes a description of creation involving a "god" which is many hierarchies below the "ultimate devine"; this creator "god" was the one who created humanity; and part of Jesus' teaching to Judas was that worship of this creator "god" was pointless and that when some humans die, they will have their spirits released to dwell with the "real" God; so the rationale behind Judas betraying Jesus was to let Jesus' spirit go free to dwell with the "real" God...well, something like that anyway.
Now the point of this entry isn't to talk about the validity of this gospel (since I think it - along with the Bible and other texts - says more about the author writing the text and his perspective or "take" on things than anything else). My point here is just to highlight that (especially) in the early centuries of Christianity, there were many VERY DIFFERENT points of view about Christianity. It just so happens that the Rome-based version of Christianity won out at the end of the day (yes, that's how we get to Roman Catholic Christianity), largely due to the wealth and power-base within Rome, no doubt. And that's why we see a more streamlined view of what Christianity is today (although there are still many differing viewpoints within Christianity today) .
So when people talk about today's Christianity (or their version/denomination within Christianity) as being the single truth, I think this is too simplistic a view. There have been, and continue to be, many different beliefs (within Christianity, and obviously between religions). To state that the one set of beliefs that you happen to have been taught is most certainly the correct one would be a somewhat naive belief in itself, in my opinion. This isn't to say that you can't find some truth in the beliefs you have been taught, but I think our real challenge is moreso to determine how to leverage our beliefs to truly experience "the sacred" and undergo a personal transformation...not to be fundamentalist about the correctness of our beliefs and our certainty of their being the single truth.
In any event, for more on the gospel of Judas, its discovery, pictures, expert views, and more, see this National Geographic website.
1 comment:
Wow Cold Mol, you have really set me on yet another Door-Opening excursion in the Hallowed Hallway of the Mysterious Mansion of Renaissance-Renegade theology!
[Wow! Check out my alliteration & Caps there. Am I Turning into William Blake now?]
I too, am at the bookstore right now, even as I write this.
And so, I have gone to yonder shelf, and have unshelfed [as it were] that Erhman book.
Fascinating stuff. Really.
I have also had a look at this other book, published by National Geographic, and containing additional commentary in it, by Erhman. He calls this discovery of the Judas document the most important archaeological discovery of the last sixty years. So here I am, wondering if I should buy any of this stuff. I just got a book yesterday, by Jonathan Kirsch, about the Book of Revelation. I am overhwlemed with the amount of stuff that is worth reading!
But thank you for this amazingly relevant and insightful blog, just the same.
I always think it is better to be overwhelmed than underwhelmed!
Anyone who has not yet clued in to the fact that these are exciting, groundbreaking days, in the realm of Theology... well, that person is.... ummm.... back in the Dark Ages!
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