Here's a very interesting book
. And one of the authors, Rev. Rita Nakashima Brock, Ph.D., has agreed to do an interview, though we don't yet have it scheduled. I just got the book from Amazon yesterday — it's massive, mostly text, and will require some study. This is not, therefore, a book review. (Though I'd note the book is getting rave reviews from top rank figures in the theological community.) The authors' thesis: early Christianity, understood through the art of its liturgy, was about paradise on earth. It took a thousand years before the iconography of Christ that we think of today began to emerge — the obsession with atoning death and redemption through violence, i.e., Christ on the cross. Imagine that: A thousand years of Christianity without the crucifix! What the heck are today's Christians worshiping then? And why did they turn to an iconography of death? As I say, a very interesting book.
Comments
Actually this was well covered in Karen Armstrong's History of God, available at most bookstores and a fascinating read too.
The atonement/guilt thing really got going with Anselm of Canterbury, sometime around 1000 AD. A lawyer who thought like this. Not at all central to the faith. But governments liked it. Easier to control the guilty.
Posted by: D Ford | December 25, 2008 4:28 PM
I suppose I shall have to read the book to find out about the nature of the paradise these early Christians sought for earth. I thought this all began with the Nicene Creed which apotheosized the guilt/personal redemption antagonism, in the pursuit of continued subjugation. This involved the defanging of a Christianity that, like Islam, sought greater social justice and social amity.
Posted by: Gregorio | December 26, 2008 8:24 PM