A few weeks ago, went to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at UCLA.I was in the stand-by line to hear "Current Interest: The American Identity" with moderator Ronald Brownstein and authors Caitlin Flanagan, Chris Hedges and Joe Klein. Unfortunately, the room became full and a whole line of us were turned away.
I wandered around the various vendor booths. There were the big tents for Borders and Barnes and Noble. There were many smaller setups for various specialty book shops. I browsed in the Traveler's Bookcase so I could daydream about far away places I could visit someday.
In order to make it to the next panel discussion, I went to the stand-by line 30 minutes before the program, "Unearthing the Roots of Religion" with moderator Cathleen Falsani and authors Jonathan Kirsch, Jack Miles and Elaine Pagels.
Falsani is the religion writer for the Chicago Sun Times is on the right. Kirsch is to her right. At the center of the table is Miles. On the far end is obviously not Elaine Pagels! Falsani announced that Pagels was unable to attend the session and that the Festival of Books was fortunate enough to get Dennis MacDonald to substitute.I suspect many in the audience came to hear Elaine Pagels because she is a noted scholar in the field of Gnostic literature. The Festival of Books event occurred shortly after the news of the Gospel of Judas and before the anticipated movie The Da Vinci Code. Since she wasn't able to make it, each panelist made a few remarks about those two hot news items.
Jack Miles went first. His most intriguing comments came in regards to his book Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God. He made the point that the God of the Hebrew Scriptures was a warrior god and the Christ of the Christian Scriptures was the opposite. He wondered aloud does this mean that the god of the Old Testament is different from the god of the New Testament? Did it mean that god changed?
I don't know if I agree with his analysis but it is an intriguing idea!
Without a doubt the idea of god becoming human in Jesus is a very radical idea. It seems counter-intuitive that a god of great power would choose to use such an unglamorous and backdoor strategy as being born to an obscure and ordinary couple in Mary and Joseph.
However, this is not without precedent. In the Old Testament narrative, God operates in an unconventional way. God's choice of Abraham seems to make no sense! Abraham was hardly the most powerful man of his times and Abraham and Sarah grew old waiting (all the while trying I assume!) for children. God's birthing the nation of Israel out of Egypt follows God's apparent fondness for the underdog. God using Gideon and Deborah in the Book of Judges are two other examples of God taking an unusual route.
UPDATE: I bought a CD copy of the presentation and am listening to it a little bit at a time. Miles made the following interesting observation regarding the Gospel Judas. The question of Jesus is a big one. (1) The Jews and Muslims say, Jesus is not God. The God of our Scriptures is God and Jesus isn't. (2) The Christians say, Jesus is God and the God of Hebrew Scriptures is also God. (3) The Gospel of Judas along with the Gnostics say that Jesus is God and the God of the Hebrew Scriptures is not God. As such, though Gnostics superficially are Christian, their ideas are so different, it has to really be considered another religion.
Jonathan Kirsch made various remarks about the many books he wrote. However, what caught my attention most was he sharing about the next book he is working on. He is finishing up a book on how different modes of interpretation of Christian apocalyptic literature (Book of Revelation and other passages in the Bible with "end times" emphasis) has influenced the history of Western Civilization.
My interest in "end times" has waxed and waned over the years. Recently, I've been thinking more about it for two reason. First, in world affairs, Iran is in the news because it appears the President of Iran holds a particular Islamic "end times" theological view. If I understand what I have heard, the President of Iran believes that the 12th Imam and the end of the age will be ushered in amidst a political crisis in the Middle East. Therefore, how one views "end times" may have some serious real world implications. Second, I've been blogging through Matthew 24 and 25 which are "end times" teachings by Jesus. I recognize that I am not going to have much certainty about its complete meaning but I'd like to reach some provisional conclusions with the option of changing my mind!
Dennis MacDonald made some remarks about the Gospel of Judas. He felt it was an important historical find that tells us more about the beliefs of the Gnostics. However, he did not believe it tells us much about the historic Jesus. He remarked that all the media attention over the Gospel of Judas was overshadowing what is being done in New Testament scholarship in regards to "Q." Not Q of Star Trek fame but Q as in quelle the German word for "source." Ed. note - MacDonald did not reference Star Trek. The fault for that is mine.
Q is the hypothetical source for some of the material found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. It is generally believed that the Gospel of Mark was the oldest of the four Gospels and that when Matthew and Luke put pen to paper, they drew mostly upon Mark and Q.
Its an interesting idea but it has to be acknowledged it is speculative.
The other area that MacDonald addressed with his own work regarding how the New Testament has Homeric touches.
I don't think it would be surprising that the New Testament might have the flavor of the literature of the times. After all, St. Paul would tailor his approach depending on his audience. However, I think MacDonald goes further than that by claiming that the New Testament writers invented characters and events to co-opt Homeric mythology.
All in all, a very thought provoking session!
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