I thought I might share something I discovered a few weeks back that I found interesting. It is a video talking about talmudic debate. Considering what I have learnt about Judaism in the first century as well as my own personal journey in thinking about the purpose of Christianity, I found it quite interesting.
Interpreting Talmudic Debate - How the Sages Derived Torah Law - Chabad at Oxford
Christianity, for example, isn't driven by debate. Some would argue that it was right that one's relationship with God should not be intellectual. But that could also be a weakness.
I think because Judaism was based on debate, through continual refinement of the Jewish thought system the rabbis sought to make Judaism a rational tradition. I think this is also where we may have misunderstood the Pharisees from which Rabbinic and Talmudic Judaism is descended.
Why do I say that? It is because I am disappointed at the way Christianity works. There is a strong anti-intellectual culture among Christians. Christians by habit do not seek the most rational ideology. That is because they believe that "salvation" should not be based on something intellectual, because not everyone is smart enough to rationalise or justify their relationship with God on deep and esoteric thinking.
I would agree that God should not require someone to leap over such a difficult hurdle.
But to "dumb down" theology and to tell people "not to think deeply" about their tradition is to encourage the development of a community and culture that lacks discipline, sophistication and thoughtfulness. This is the reason why Christianity has split up into so many denominations. It is why there are so many schisms and divisions in Christianity.
Because of anti-intellectualism, Christians are an undisciplined and unsophisticated group that often cannot agree. The reason why they can't agree is because Christianity has been "dumbed down" and many of its adherents actually believe that "dumbing down" is actually a good thing!!!
Everybody is a product of their environment and in a "dumbed down" culture, people don't look any further or beyond what they already know. They think they already know what they need to know, but this arrogance of thinking one has sufficient knowledge leads to conflict with others and sometimes this conflict is with other Christians. Insufficient and incomplete knowledge is what leads to divisions in Christianity. Resistance and discouragement of further acquisition of knowledge keeps Christians from rising above this level of communal cohesion.
But I have decided this isn't truly a weakness or flaw in Christianity. That was what its founders intended. That's because Christianity was never supposed to be an independent religion. Christianity was "dumbed down" so that it could grow quickly and reach more of the world's population in a short time. Christianity was never supposed to be a "rational tradition" that had to make sense to everyone. It was about extending God's mercy to as many people as possible.
Jesus reached out to the common people, to the uneducated underclass. He created a new group. There were at least four main groups in Judaism at the time: the Pharisees, Sadduccees, Essenes and Zealots. The Pharisees and Jesus' followers survived the destruction of the Second Temple. The others did not.
The Pharisees went on to establish Rabbinic/Talmudic Judaism. Jesus' followers, which I call "Nazarenes" went on to establish Christianity. This is where I would like to highlight what I consider the distinctive characteristic between the Pharisees and the Nazarenes. Most people think of the Pharisees as legalistic, dogmatic, arrogant and self-righteous, but I have learned that not all groups of Pharisees were like that. The Pharisees could be quite rational, thoughtful and humble. The Pharisees, basically, were the students and experts of the Torah. They were the intellectuals of Judaism, just like the imams and theologians of Islam and Christianity today are "experts" on Islam/Christianity.
The Nazarenes were not experts on the Torah. Jesus' followers were not Pharisees. He didn't want them to be Pharisees and by that I mean he didn't want them to be intellectuals. The distinction between Judaism and Christianity therefore is the difference between the "learned" and "unlearned." The Jews today are "spiritual descendants" of the Pharisees (intellectuals) and the Christians today are "spiritual descendants" of the Nazarenes (simple-minded). I think this is the dominant trait that runs in the two "families."
I believe there is a place for both the intellectual and simple-minded within a religious community. What happened in the first-century could be thought of as a "split" between the intellectual and simple-minded segments of Judaism. The intellectual half survived to become the "fully intellectual" Judaism of today. The other half branched away into the Gentile world to become the "fully dumbed down" Christianity today. Deep thought is encouraged in Judaism but discouraged in Christianity. This helped Judaism retain its identity but helped Christianity to grow.
Salvation should not have high hurdles, however .........
A good community needs "wise leaders." Because Judaism was driven by careful study of the Torah and was an intellectually-driven tradition, not only would their leaders (rabbis) be rational and sophisticated people, but so would the common Jew.
Christianity being a "dumbed down" tradition has often been a huge undisciplined monster. Maybe we would benefit from the leadership of so-called "modern-day Pharisees" (Jews).
Christianity is unlikely to ever be unified, at least not independently. God's people should be unified, but it is unlikely that the leaders of Christianity will ever create such unity. An undisciplined mob is more likely to bicker and quarrel. Maybe these modern-day Pharisees (also God's people) can help us.
From what I have heard some say, maybe that's our destiny!!!
Just my thoughts. I thought I might put that out there. I've been itching to share it.
