I just thought it was amusing considering how we've been talking recently of the bible as fiction.
I thought it was interesting today when we talked about how the idea of heaven as the Kingdom of God came from a need for a reward for enduring the toils of life as a Jewish peasant thousands of years ago, and how class influenced the ideas of the Kingdom of God to fit the needs of each class. It appeared to me like a spiritual coping mechanism to survive the difficulties of living in that time period. We seem to live much less spiritually now, if we're unhappy with our government, it seems like we'd be much more likely to host physical protests than search spiritually for an answer like Heaven.
Thoughts?
I think that's a really good example of how Jesus has changed with time and the different cultures that worship him. It makes sense that western Europe and America would, for lack of a better word, whiten Jesus because of the idea of white supremacy.
ReplyDeleteIt's also important to remember that the Jewish people really could not host physical protests because they were so controlled and suppressed by the Romans. When they did try to fight, they were brutally defeated.
Easy for the author of the Tumblr author to be snide. It's important to remember, however, that when we speak about the texts and tradition as myth or literature we don't mean anything trivial; rather, we mean something that is of central importance to people's lives, embodying deep truth despite (or because of) not being literally true.
ReplyDelete