From: RFaussette@aol.com
Date: Sat May 24 2003 - 11:31:49 EDT
In a message dated 5/23/03 3:15:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
douglas.hayworth@perbio.com writes:
> However, my impression of the posts on
> this thread so far is that these theologians never clearly stated their
> positive theology for how we should understand the Gospel, including
> Christ's actual death and resurrection. Burgy's comment above shows that he
> has to guess at what these theologians actually believed about the
> resurrection.
I found Tillich's The Courage to Be a valuable analysis of "being" itself and
the nature of ontological anxiety, which provides a coherent structure for
the religious experience but does not address the corporeal nature of a
resurrected Christ but the transtional implications of overcoming ontological anxiety
through the courage to be as one's self and the courage to be as a part of a
community. Obstacles Jesus would naturally have surmounted.
Other assumptions could be made once I read tillich. For example, if one is
with God, has in fact surrendered the self to God, ontological anxiety should
rationally be at zero. In the gospel of Thomas, as I record in True Religion,
The Darwinian Interpretation of Biblical symbols, Jesus remarks, "When you
disrobe without being ashamed... you will not be afraid." In this remark, Jesus is
saying in the pre-fall state, before the exercise of free will, man was not
afraid and he was not ashamed. He has no ontological anxiety and of course, no
fear. Not being afraid for his self, man is also not ashamed of his "self."
Tillich says much about ontology, the nature of being, but having read him a
while ago I don't remember him helping me with the bodily resurrection, and maybe
he didn't.
I don't think you're going to get a lot of theologians stating their views
plainly about the resurrection. I see a trend to gnosticism, away from the death
tradition (entering the kingdom after death) as Crossan calls it and toward
the life tradition (entering the kingdom while alive). Since ontological
anxiety must go away at death, I've always felt that Tillich must be talking about
the courage to be while alive - the life tradition.
rich
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