Re: Adam never met Eve

From: george murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Date: Sat Nov 04 2000 - 09:07:15 EST

  • Next message: Dick Fischer: "Re: Adam never met Eve"

    Inge Frette wrote:

    > Hei George,
    >
    > > It's a standoff only to the extent that "For Christ's sake God
    > > forgives
    > >you your sins" and "You'll go to Hell if you don't earn God's acceptance" is a
    > >standoff.
    > > I emphasized (below) that the heart of the Christian claim has to do
    > >with "the historical
    > >reality (N.B.) of the crucifixion of Jesus." Just this historical reality is
    > >disputed by Muslims, something that shows their unwillingness to pursue any
    > >historical investigation of religious issues. BUT - the
    > >theological claim associated with the cross - that the Crucified is the Son of
    > >God whose death reconciles us to God - is, like the goodness of creation, not
    > >something one can verify by historical investigation.
    >
    > I am just curious. When you stress that the heart of the Christian claim
    > has to do
    > with the "historical reality of the crucifixion of Jesus" you didn't say
    > anything about
    > the resurrection of Jesus. Was that intended ? Do you see a historical
    > resurrection
    > of Jesus as essential too Christianity, or do you limit it to the
    > crucifixion ? If you
    > don't see a historical resurrection as essential, why don't you do that ?

            The resurrection is indeed essential, & good arguments can be given for the
    truth of the NT claims about the appearances of the risen Christ & the empty tomb.
    But in the nature of things this is not open to the same type of support as the
    crucifixion. E.g., we _might_ find Roman records of the trial of Jesus, but there
    would be nothing corresponding to that for the resurrection. _Theologically_ I
    want to avoid the constant temptation to jump to Easter & avoid Good Friday.
    Unless the risen One is the Crucified then the whole things loses its
    significance. I go into this a bit more in my recent _Perspectives_ (Sept.2000)
    communication, to which I referred in my parallel post to Glenn _et al._
                                                        Shalom,
                                                        George



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