Book

Spong, John Shelby.

Resurrection : myth or reality? : a bishop's search for the origins of Christianity / John Shelby Spong.

1st ed.

[San Francisco, Calif.] : HarperSanFrancisco, ©1994.

xix, 320 pages ; 22 cm

The Episcopal Bishop of Newark compares the New Testament witness to antecedents in the Hebrew scriptures, arguing that many of the details of Jesus' life and his crucifixion are not historical, but derive instead from the Jewish tradition of Midrash, expository teachings that employ the retelling of sacred stories from the Jewish past in order to understand the powerful experience of God in the Jewish present.

Jesus Christ -- Resurrection.

Christianity -- Origin.

Future life -- Christianity.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-307) and index.

[Approaching the Resurrection] The Method Called Midrash -- The Impact of Easter -- A Place to Begin -- The Vehicle of Words -- An Unsteady Ship. -- [Examining the Biblical Texts] The Witness of Paul -- Mark: The Kerygma Is Joined to the Sepulcher -- Matthew: Polemics Enter the Tradition -- Luke: The Turn Toward Gentile Understandings -- John: Sometimes Primitive, Sometimes Highly Developed -- A New Starting Point. -- [Interpretive Images] The Primitive Interpretive Images -- The Atoning Sacrifice -- The Image of the Book of Hebrews -- The Suffering Servant -- The Image of 2 Isaiah -- The Son of Man -- The Image of the Book of Daniel. -- [Clues That Lead Us Toward Easter] The First Clue: It Occurred in Galilee, Not in Jerusalem -- The Second Clue: The Primacy of Peter -- The Third Clue: The Common Meal -- The Fourth Clue: The Third Day -- An Eschatological Symbol -- The Fifth Clue: The Burial Tradition As Mythology. -- [Reconstructing the Easter Moment] But What Did Happen? A Speculative Reconstruction -- Grounding the Speculation in Scripture -- Life After Death -- This I Do Believe.

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232.5 Spong