Introduction
The following is a preamble to a series of essays that will explore the subjects of belief, religion, theology, Christianity and the Bible from a modern academic perspective that will focus on the rational for religious beliefs. The faith of all believers generally evolves over time and this movement is commonly referred to as one’s spiritual journey. The general thesis of these essays is that while a person generally knows what they believe they don’t always know why or how they came to their beliefs; the rationale lost somewhere in the evolution of beliefs over time.
Some may wonder why these essays were written and published on this website. First, while I consider myself a scholar I hold no academic degrees in divinity, theology, bible or religious studies. One reason for writing these essays is simply to enhance my own learning. It is one thing to read and study something but another to compile, organize and record learning's and thoughts onto paper. In an early career as a teacher I was responsible for not only creating a course curriculum but also designing lessons that fit the curriculum. This required much research, reading and study but the greatest challenge in the learning process was organizing the information into a format that could be used to effectively teach others. The best way to learn is to teach. My hope is that others will benefit from my studies.
I came to the study of these disciplines simply as a student who wanted to learn more about his faith and to acquire a more comprehensive understanding of both the history of the Bible and Christianity; subjects that are rarely if ever touched upon in church liturgies, homilies, catechism classes or adult Bible studies. When I began my study I did so without skepticism or cynicism, I simply wanted to find answers to several questions that could be answered with research, like for example, how the early Church Fathers influenced the Christian faith and who wrote the Bible, when and why. I wanted to better understand the various philosophical theories of religious beliefs about God knowing that they were just that, theories that were speculative at best. I was also interested in the most current findings of professional academic scholars. It did not take long to discover some rather controversial findings of many credible scholars that I was totally unaware; conclusions that question key doctrines of faith that apparently have been known by scholars and theologians for decades.
The Cat Is Out of the Bag
The theological academy has had a long history of keeping their biblical research relatively private and not easily accessible to the lay public. This is common practice in most scholarly circles, especially in the science disciplines of study. However, in the last couple of decades many noted professional bible scholars have broken their fraternal silence and have begun freely publishing some of their research in books targeting the public, to the chagrin of the academic community and organized religion. Some of the research material extracted from these publications would be considered heretical to most traditional Christians, challenging the core doctrines of Christian beliefs, and if proven true, would shake the very foundations of the Christian faith. Several examples: 1) Jesus did not claim to be the messiah or to be divine 2) Jesus did not demand that people “believe in” him or worship him 3) Jesus did not intend to establish a church or found a new religion 4) Jesus did not believe that his death would be a sacrifice for sins 5) There is no historical evidence that Jesus had no human father 6) There is no historical evidence that Jesus’ corpse came back to life. Most of these assertions are in direct conflict to the established creeds of the Christian Church.
These findings would surprise, even shock, most churchgoers yet they represent a broad consensus of mainstream critical scholarship. Uncovering this information can be a difficult challenge because it is generally hidden deep within scholarly textbooks using theological terms unfamiliar to the average person, so the dissemination of new facts is slow to reach the public. While many traditional Christian apologists take issue with these findings the evidence against the orthodox traditional scriptural interpretation is substantial. One thing for sure, you most certainly will not hear mainstream Christian clergy bringing up these controversial issues or referring to them in public services and liturgies. I was anxious to understand the rationale behind these assertions.
The obvious question, why hasn’t this information been revealed to the general public by the Christian Church? It motivated me to dig deeper in an attempt to validate the credibility of some of these claims. While I found that some scholars disagreed with the findings, I could not invalidate the assertions. Obviously, a lot depends upon the professional integrity of not only the scholars involved but also the verity of their work as judged by their peers in the academic community. Another reason for writing these essays is to reveal these claims and to discuss their implications.
Reasons for Non-disclosure
Through the centuries religious scholars and theologians have learned a great deal about both the history of Christianity and the Bible, but for several reasons, this information was not shared with the general public. One reason, as alluded to earlier, is that most of the research findings of scholars were only accessible to other professional scholars in the academic community in the form of published journals, papers and textbooks. It was not generally shared with the public because the average untrained person would not know where to go to access it, and if they did, it was too difficult to understand the glossary of terms that academic scholars use or the various disciplines of study and methodologies employed in conducting research. The same is true with other professional subjects like medicine for example. The average untrained individual would find it extremely difficult to read and comprehend a professional journal or textbook of medicine written for and by medical doctors.
However, this code of secrecy among professional biblical and theological scholars began to break down over the past two decades when a few religious scholars began publishing their research findings targeting the general public. This required each author to present his or her material in ways that the untrained layperson could comprehend. It finally dawned on religious academic scholars that they could not only enlighten the general public with new information but they could also make a profit in writing and publishing books. This is also a popular trend for many other professional disciplines of study. The advent of the Internet has also provided a vehicle for the general public to acquire new resource and research information that otherwise would have been difficult to obtain in the not too distant past. However, while the Internet can be a resource of information one must be extremely careful in discerning what information is credible and which information is not.
Another more ominous reason why important information has been suppressed from the general public is that different elements of organized Christianity would prefer that lay folks not know the truth; unfortunately in this day and age it seems that there are many factions that have an agenda that make it even more difficult to discover the truth. If the average lay person knew the truth then this new information would not only undermine the authority of the church but may also threaten its very existence. While many Christian churches conduct Bible studies most of these courses purposely omit the findings of prominent academic scholars and theologians, and as mentioned earlier, little or no information is given about the history of Christianity or the Bible. The church knows that the average lay person will not go to the trouble of conducting their own comprehensive study of Christianity and the Bible because it would require a substantial effort to access, read, study, interpret and comprehend a variety of complex academic textbooks, journals and papers written by professional scholars. Fortunately, several new progressive Christian Churches have surfaced that are eager to share current research on the history of Christianity and the Bible with their congregations, and for them facts and the truth are essential in having a credible foundation for their beliefs. They want their faith grounded in reason and not in conflict with modern science.
Another reason why this information is not distributed to the public is that many fundamentalists’ Christian Churches reject any and all new information learned about the Bible because they believe the Bible is and always has been the infallible, inerrant and literal word of God. They often employ a ‘circular fallacy’ by using the Bible to justify itself…everything in the Bible is true because the Bible says so.
There is yet another less sinister and perhaps more altruistic motive for keeping the status-quo in religious education and that is simply not to undermine the overwhelming current belief and ‘faith’ that people have in God. Many believers don’t want anything to change because new insights might challenge their own sense of security. Many denominational churches are well aware of this and as a result do not want to ‘rock-the-boat’ so to speak because they may risk losing membership.
On top of this a new troubling trend in Christianity is developing, and that is people, generally the later generations, are slowly moving away from their faith.
TJA
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