Reflections on Realisations behind the Resurrection

[Thomas]

This obviously follows the post by @otherbrother, and subsequent comments by himself and others. I city them here not to oppose or refute them, but rather to offer a response from my particular Christological perspective, and for three reasons:
1: It seems to me that responses align with a tendency to rationalise the meaning of Scripture to suit a contemporary self-referential neo-spirituality that is largely agnostic with regard to the religion and the cosmos.

2: In offering my responses I hope to bring out some perhaps less immediate aspects of Christian contemplation for the general benefit of anyone who happens to read my posts.

3: To help me get my thoughts in order.

Comments and criticisms welcome, but don't expect me to stand on the same spot, because this is a work-in-progress.

And let me repeat I am not refuting or belittling anyone in my comments – that is not my intention. I do rebut the positions I highlight, but only to reason how and why I see things from my position.

When Christian references are made, I reserve the right to comment. As I hope I will make clear, I think the reflections put forward are not dependent on the doctrines of Incarnation or Resurrection, which reflects back to my original question: If the resurrection never happened, would that make any difference?

 

[Thomas]

As an afterthought, I have mentioned a book "Magic and Melancholia"

That has some relevance, as a foreword, and so I've posted a couple of the reviews which highlight a salient point in my first reflective point:

"McCormack’s achievement is ... a clear philosophical critique of secular and mechanistic assumptions"
Stephen R. L. Clark – Professor emeritus of philosophy, specialising in the philosophy of religion and animal rights, a Christian Platonist.

"McCormack challenges the reduction of the soul to the mind, and the self-referentiality of therapeutic practice, by realigning therapy with its mystical, metaphysical, and magical foundations: genuine wellbeing requires more than the mind’s reorientation to the body; it requires the soul’s relation to the entire cosmic order."
Marcus Pound, Associate Professor of Theology at Durham University, where he specialises in the intersection of theology, continental philosophy, and psychoanalysis. Author of Theology, Psychoanalysis and Trauma.

"Between the psychological subject ... and the living soul ... is a vast qualitative difference."
David Bentley Hart.

 

[Thomas]

As examples, I have listed below where I think the 'reduction of the soul to the mind' loses sight of the 'mystical, metaphysical and magical' (to which I might add 'mythological', a tautology for the sake of emphasis) significance of the biblical texts.

I will be returning to the '4M view' in later posts.

Jesus Christ death on the cross and His subsequent resurrection didn’t give us anything we didn’t already have …

John 15:5-6 "I am the vine, you are the branches; the one remaining in me and I in him, this one bears plentiful fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Unless someone remain in me he is like the branch that has been cast outside and has withered ... "

Jesus Christ death on the cross and His subsequent resurrection didn’t give us anything we didn’t already have …

John 13:36 "Where I go you cannot follow now, but you will follow later."

My overall takeaway was that the realization behind the resurrection story is that we, like Jesus Christ, our teacher by example, each have a spirit.

But that was not unknown to the Jews or the Greeks – In fact I'd say it was more real to them than to us. Antiquity had a far more real and concrete sense of the immanent spiritual worlds and the transcendent abode of God.

Since the word and concept of “spirit” is derived from the word and concept of “breath” ...

When speaking of the spirit, such as the Hebrew ruah (רוּחַ), then Scripture holds a range of meaning, from the common idea of the wind, be it a gentle breeze or a fierce storm; the breath, as the sign of physical life in humans and animals, that which distinguishes the living from the dead; or a particular individual or collective disposition, being the fruit of the will, intellect or emotions.

None of these indicate a divine aspect, and to interpret 'the spirit' as such requires context.

+++

If, on the other hand, we come to acknowledge, know/understand, befriend, and utilize our own spirits, we begin to see something different ...

Granted, that’s way easier said than done because as physical beings, notwithstanding our significant spiritual potential, we are nailed to an earthly and earthy reality. It’s not easy to be in it and beyond it at the same time. The key seems to be to develop a consciousness of a deeper reality.

This consciousness, like the sermon delivered in my head, comes automatically once we get to know our spirits or Connected Selves...

While flesh manipulates, spirit orchestrates. It transcends despair and loss, even as it includes it. Nothing is overcome except the unnecessarily high resistance and friction of identifying too much with the physical aspect of our being.

These all read as self-affirmations to me.

What it really really means to be Easter People is to know our own spirit and to learn how to let it guide us in our lives. Christ did. We can too.

This, however, is in stark contrast to the meaning of the Gospel.

In effect this has written Father, Son and Holy Spirit out of the Gospel narratives.

As opposed to the views of one such as John:
"In him was life, and this life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it... It was the true light, which illuminates everyone, that was coming into the cosmos. He was in the cosmos, and through him the cosmos came to be, and the cosmos did not recognize him. He came to those things that were his own, and they who were his own did not accept him... " (1:4-11)

In short, the message of the Gospels is, we cannot save ourselves.

This is not to refute of birthright, our origin in the Divine, nor the consequent idea of our arising, as beings, into the world of beings, from out of the Divine Darkness ... that is not contested ...