Sociology 3595: Sociology of Religion--Week Three
Reminder: By the beginning of week four, you need to have listened to a first program in the "Speaking of Faith" series on National Public Radio(see link on the index page for our course) and written a page or two of your impressions.
I. The Gospels: Memory and Testimony--Chapter 2 in Borg
A. The "product of early Christian communities in the last third of the 1st century"
B. Timing of early sources: a "developing tradition"
1. Mark the earliest gospel, around 70 CE
2. Matthew and Luke a decade or two later
3. Likely an earlier source, Q, that accounts for commonalities in Matthew and Luke that don't come from Mark
4. John... latest and quite different, more symbolic and metaphorical
Borg supports this view by looking at parallel accounts of the same events and trying to show "development"
C. Pillars of the emerging paradigm
1. The Gospels combine memory and testimony (post-Easter proclamations of Jesus's significance... "the news about Jesus for their time and place")
2. Pre-Easter and post-Easter Jesus: "Jesus as spoken of in the Gospels is different in important ways from the pre-Easter Jesus"
a. In particular, his "status as the Messiah and Son of God became part of their proclamation only after Easter"
b. What was Jesus's pre-Easter message about?
"It was, as I suggest in the rest of this book, about God, 'the way,' and the kingdom of God."
3. "Much of the language of the gospels is metaphorical" and such language "can be truth-filled, independent of its literal facticity."
a. Not "it's only metaphorical," as if metaphor were inferior to factual language. Jesus's own language full of metaphor... see examples, pp. 52-54... other examples: the cleansing of unclean spirits, the making of water to wine at the wedding in Cana, Peter walking on the sea, even the stories of Jesus's miraculous conception and birth (which are quite different in Matthew and Luke) ...versus the Roman emperor as the son of God...
b. What are the grounds for deciding whether a particular story is memory or metaphor.
1). For the Jesus seminar, a story will be viewed as memory if it's in two or more independent gospel sources, at least one of which is early.
2). Coherence with the stories that do get that kind of independent attestation
3). Spectacular events. Walking on water, turning water to wine, stilling a storm.
Borg: "One will never go wrong ...reading these stories as metaphorical narratives and setting aside the question of memory." For Borg, any stories attributing supernatural powers to Jesus is probably metaphorical. He is taking at face value the claim that Jesus was fully human.
4. What is the fourth pillar?
II. The Shaping of Jesus--Jewish Tradition in an Imperial World (chapter four)
A. Two Overlapping Social Worlds
1. A Jewish social world: "a preindustrial agricultural domination system"... had been a more egalitarian society for a few hundred years after the Exodus from Egypt, but a monarchy by around 1000 BCE
a. Political oppression... ruling elites that were urban, including kings, high priests, aristocracy
b. Economic exploitation. Vast majority the peasant class, including Jesus's family and most of those in his village of Nazareth. Jesus's father a manual laborer, probably from a family that had lost its land.
c. Religious legitimation. Judaism a religion of practice, not emphasizing beliefs. "To be a Jew meant to live as a Jew." see p. 96
1). Synagogue: a gathering of people for religious purposes
2). Torah: the first five books of the Hebrew Bible--Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
a). A narrative of becoming chosen by God, enslaved by Egypt, and liberated by God
b). The law, including not only the ten commandments, but a great variety of very detailed rules about how to conduct daily life
C). The Prophets: the rest of the Jewish Bible in Jesus's day, documenting the the rise and fall of Jewish Kings until the Babylonian conquest and exile and the prophets raised by God calling the people to repent and return to a life of justice (pp. 103-104)
3) The Temple in Jerusalem, "the center of Jewish devotion and the destination of pilgrimage"... the only place sacrifices to Yahweh were to be offered... an official monopoly on access to God
Borg: "Temple and domination system went hand in hand. Kings and high priests alike were part of the aristocracy, and the temple virtually became the chapel of the wealthy and powerful."
d. Organized violence as needed to maintain the system of domination
2. A Roman imperial world: took control of the Jewish homeland in 63 BCE and ruled through a series of native collaborators, including kings like Herod "the Great" (half Jewish) and his sons, and after them a series of governors sent from Rome, who worked through the Jewish high priest and Temple authorities
a. commercialization of agriculture, involving an increase in large estates and expropriation of smaller peasantst
b. monetization of the economy and growth of day laborers
c. cycles of revolt and suppression
A. Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited
Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No." Abe say, "What?"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done?"
God says, "Out on Highway 61."
B. Instructor's mother, after cancer death of my sister at age 36: "I love my kids more than I love God."
C. Qur'an, 3:65: "People of the Book, why do you argue about Abraham when the Torah and the Gospels were not revealed until after his time? Do you not understand? You argue about some things of which you have some knowledge, but why do you argue about things of which you know nothing? God knows and you do not. Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian. He was upright and devoted to God, never an idolater, and the people who are closest to him are those who truly follow his ways, this Prophet and (true) believers--God is close to true believers... Do (you) not believe that anyone else could be given a revelation similar to what you were given..?"
37: 102--"When the boy was old enough to work with his father, Abraham said, 'My son, I have seen myself sacrificing you in a dream. What do you think? He said, 'Father, do as you are commanded and, God willin, you will find me steadfast. When they had both submitted to God, and he had laid his son down on the side of his face, We called out to him, 'Abraham, you have fulfilled the dream. This is how We reward those who do good--it was a test to prove their true characters--We ransomed his son with a momentous sacrifice, and We let him be praised by succeeding generations: Peace be upon Abraham! This is how We reward those who do good; truly he was one of Our faithful servants."
IV. The Shaping of Jesus: His Experience of God (chapter 5 of Borg)
A. God as immanent in the world, manifested through what William James (The Varieties of Religious Experience) calls a "more," something that takes us beyond ordinary reality.
1. Visions and auditions (Paul on the road to Damascus)
2. Experiences of the sacred pervading this world... the world is "filled with the glory of God"
Both types play a major role in the Jewish tradition(pp. 115-117) and are a central part of Jesus's experience... his first reported vision after being baptized by John the Baptist, followed by more visions during his 40 day fast in the wilderness
B. Jesus teaches with "as one having authority, and not as the scribes"(Mark 1.22) ... not based on institutional authority but as one having special gifts of God (charisma: Weber)
C. A spiritual presence (see the discussion at the bottom of page 126)... "His family sees him as insane and his opponents as possessed by an evil spirit." (p. 128)
D. Solitude and contemplative prayer... part of the Jewish mystical tradition (experiential knowledge of God, often fostered by spiritual practices)
1. God as an intimate reality... "abba" rather than "Yahweh"
2. Illumination, a new way of seeing, experienced not just as an emotional state, but as a "knowing"
The book of Luke presents Jesus's mission in terms of language from the prophet Isaiah (see p. 135)