Unsurprisingly, some Christians think it is important to believe that Jesus was resurrected. That seems intuitively plausible — for a Christian, at least. But in this post, I want to reflect on that intuition a bit. I will consider the possibility that everyone believed that Jesus never resurrected. Would that prevent the Christian religious, political, or social movement(s)? Would it undermine Christian faith? I don’t think that it’s obvious that it would. I explain why below.
1. Â A Resurrection of Jesus: How Important?
(Easter Thread)
Yesterday I thought about how things would be different if everyone believed that Jesus (of Christianity fame) never resurrected. Would that have prevented the massive social/political/religious movement(s) we know today? I doubt it. Here’s why and why I care:— Nick Byrd is more active on the other site(s) (@byrd_nick) April 2, 2018
Second, think about other widely memetic social, political, religious movements. Most of them do not seem to involve claims about resurrection (credible of otherwise). But many involve a martyr figure. So it might be enough for Jesus to be a martyr for his cause.
— Nick Byrd is more active on the other site(s) (@byrd_nick) April 2, 2018
B. It seems to imply that the motivation for Christian religious belief may require at least one fewer supernatural commitment than convention suggests. And that implies a few interests ideas.
— Nick Byrd is more active on the other site(s) (@byrd_nick) April 2, 2018
II. Some Christians could be one step closer to a naturalized (and secular?) version of their faith. (I’m thinking here of other secular faiths and of other movements among Christians to naturalize their creed (https://t.co/ksyxoqTYPC)).
— Nick Byrd is more active on the other site(s) (@byrd_nick) April 2, 2018
IV. Obviously, rejecting the resurrection might undermine a primary reason for accepting the deity of Jesus. But that reason might be undermined independently of beliefs about the resurrection (https://t.co/5DH4yqVDo4)).
— Nick Byrd is more active on the other site(s) (@byrd_nick) April 2, 2018
I’d be shocked if this is unassailable or original. Smarter people have spent much more time thinking about these things. I had these thoughts while pumping gas on a roadtrip yesterday.
— Nick Byrd is more active on the other site(s) (@byrd_nick) April 2, 2018
2. Â Clarification(s)
Obviously, I’m not making claims about whether someone named Jesus was or was not resurrected. Rather, I’m making claims about the consequences of what people believe about such a resurrection. E.g., How might the Christian movement be different? How might the world be different more generally? Could it be better off? Worse? For whom? So this is (intended as) an exploration of the implications of a counterfactual — as opposed to an argument for or against some view/belief.
I’ve probably not convinced many people that the resurrection is less important than convention suggests. But that’s a gargantuan task — not the kind of thing that a blog post can achieve. So my goal is more modest. I’m only interested in explaining why I think it’s not obvious why a resurrection of Jesus is essential to the Christian movement.
In a response, Kurt Jaros of Veracity Hill seems to concede this last point: “True, it’s not obvious. And that’s a fault against the Christian church.” Read more of Kurt’s post and you will see that Kurt probably disagrees with the rest of my thoughts on this. His response is titled, “Is the Resurrection of Jesus Necessary for the Jesus Movement?”
Also, my #fatThumbs are #notSorry for their typographical Twitter errors.
