Video 1 - Death of Jesus - He discusses here how the four gospels seem to rely entirely on one writer, Mark. Mark appears to be relying on the Old Testament. He is not questioning the history of Jesus, he is focusing on the elements of the history of Jesus. There are echos of his story in the Old Testament. It seems as though the overall story is modeled after the Old Testament. Behind the story of Jesus is layers of Old Testament text that has been formed into a narrative story.
Video 2 - Methodology - Cross-cultural anthropology involves many things. The major items are power and privilege. This creates a large discrepancy between the peasants and the elites. In a traditional agrarian society the elites take the surplus of the peasants. In a commercialized/industrialized agrarian society the elites take the land from the peasants. Taking the land makes it easier for the elites to take control of the peasants. This control basically destroys the lifestyle of the peasants.
Video 3 - Compassion and Jesus - Violence is something that plagues the world. Crossan describes how Jesus is not a god of violence. He describes how he says to Pilate that “His kingdom is not of this world.” He describes how if Jesus had his kingdom in this world that his people would be here and there would be no violence. He argues that since God is not a violent god, therefore we should also be non-violent. This is a radical claim because as we know, man is violent.
Video 4 - Fundamentalism - Literalism is someone who takes everything in the Bible literally. Anything that could be taken literally should be taken literally. Fundamentalists say that if you don’t take it literally you’re not Christian. And if you say it shouldn’t be taken literally you are an anti-Christian. He states that there is a “genocidal germ” that exists in fundamentalism. He states how we would need to kill all the people who don’t know the truth or think like we do so that the truth could be preserved and believed. He uses Hitler’s book “Mien Kampf” as an example. Hitler called the Jews a disease and a plague. This led someone to think that we need to eliminate the disease or plague. Thus the holocaust was born.
Personal Reflection -
Crossan, in my opinion, does not paint a picture of Christ that is incorrect. I do not believe that he is questioning who he was or what he stood for. I believe he is only questioning the actual stories and accounts of Jesus. I particularly enjoyed his depiction of Christ and how he is a non-violent god.
