Jesus: Philosopher, Revolutionary or God

Printable PDF file of quotations used in the lecture

Early Days

• Winter solstice - "Birthday of the Sun"
  • Virgin birth
  • Descent from house of David
  • No formal education - carpenter by trade
• Preaching of John the Baptist
  • The Hebrew ascetic
    • Dedicates life to contemplative things at the exclusion of worldly things
    • Asian connection and similarity to aspects of Buddhism and Hinduism
    • Ashoka's missionaries
  • The coming "kingdom"
  • Jesus hears John the Baptist preach and is baptized
  • Arrest and execution of John the Baptist

The Man

• The continuation of John the Baptist message
• A Hebrew zealot vs a Greek sage (Jesus Vs Socrates)
  • Forgive any fault but unbelief
  • Charismatic and sensitive
  • Parables not syllogisms
  • Commoners and social outcasts
• Miracles and faith
• The organization surrounding Jesus
  • The 12 apostles - closest confidants and advisers
  • The 72 disciples to lay groundwork in villages to be visited in the future

The Philosophy

• The Kingdom - What did they hear him say?
  • Earthly kingdom
    • a new social order to replace Rome
    • Pervasive hatred for Rome fed into a desire for revolution
  • A metaphor for heaven
    • Not literal, but metaphorical
    • Kingdom of man Vs the kingdom of God
  • A metaphysical state of the soul
    • A state of awareness wherein the same world is now perceived differently
    • Similar to a Zen satori (awakening)
  • Caesar vs. Christ
• A new morality
  • The Beatitudes
    • A semi-monastic life
    • An anti-Roman morality
  • Humility, poverty, meekness, celibacy, faith, and love
  • Confronts, challenges, and transforms some Jewish codes
    • Pharisees denounced
    • Esoteric theological debate replaced with humanization

Who WAS Jesus?

• A social revolutionary
  • Society literally remade through a rejection of the Rome
  • A means to Israel's independence
• A prophet reborn
  • Reincarnation (samsara in Buddhist terminology)
  • Life as a cycle of transcendence rather than a beginning and an end
• The Christ
  • The anointed one - Messiah
  • The concept of the incarnation (in the flesh) of God

The Death

• The entry into Jerusalem
  • The Jewish perspective - a play for power
  • The Roman perspective - a concern for disorder
• The betrayal
  • Spies and secrete deals - Judas
  • Jewish Passover meal transformed into a self-memorial
    • The eventual foundation ritual of the Christian Church
    • Eucharist (Last Supper)
  • The execution becomes a sacrifice
    • The choice to accept death
    • Socrates as political martyr - Jesus as spiritual martyr
• A Jewish crime (blasphemy) and a Roman process (crucifixion)
  • Torture and humiliation
  • Last words - doubt or confidence?
• Resurrection
  • Apostles go into hiding fearing a purge after witnessing the brutality of the crucifixion
  • Fear turns to Fire as they speak of a resurrection
  • Resolute and committed they spread out preaching the Gospel

Afterward

• Apostles and the "Kingdom at hand"
  • Urgency and belief of Christ return
  • The affront to Rome
    • Infanticide
    • Abortion
    • The games
    • Homosexuality
    • Roman extravagance in general
• Nero and the burning of Rome 64 AD
  • The persecutions begin
• "Odium humani generis" - Hatred for the human race
  • Magic
  • Cannibalism
  • Secrecy and witchcraft
• Christians respond with a blessed defiance

The Triumph

• Late empire and a civil war (314 AD) - Two contenders
  • Constantine offers the stop the persecutions
  • Licinius is accused of seeking and extending the persecutions
• Constantine prevails and Rome is Christianized
  

Humanities Resource of Mark Hunter