The Jesus Problem: A Restatement of the Myth TheoryRobertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Religion
The Jesus Problem: A Restatement of the Myth Theory
Robertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Jesus Christ
In what respect, then, are we to suppose Jesuist monotheism to
have been an innovation? The argument seems to require that Jesuism
delivered the polytheist from belief in the existence either of his
daimon Gods or of his evil spirits. But obviously it negated neither
of these. Daimons of all sorts are constantly presupposed in Jesuist
polemic. The "freedom in Christ" proffered to Jews and Gentiles by
the Pauline evangel is, in the terms of the case, not a freedom from
the terrors of polytheism as such. It was certainly not regarded as
a freedom, from "demons," for exorcism against demons was a standing
function in the early church for centuries; and the fear of a demon
or demons is implicit in the "Lord's Prayer." What is proffered is
primarily a freedom from the Jewish ceremonial law, and secondarily
a freedom from fear in respect of the judgment-day and the future
life, the divine sacrifice having taken away all sin. We are told by
eloquent missionaries in our own day [336] that the Christian doctrine
gives a new sense of freedom and security to negroes, in particular to
the women; though we also learn on the other hand that where the two
religions can compete freely Islam makes the stronger claim in respect
of its exclusion of the race bar which Christianity always sets up
in the rear of its evangel. But here, if the fear of evil spirits is
really cast out, it is by a modern doctrine of their non-existence,
not found in the New Testament, but generated by modern science.
Whatever preaching of monotheism, then, entered into early Jesuism,
it gave no deliverance from belief in evil spirits: rather it added
to their number by turning good daimons into bad. What is more,
there enters into Christian polemic at a fairly early stage a use
of the terms "God" and "Gods" for the "saints" which is on all fours
with the common language of Paganism; [337] and this is a much more
common note than the "high" monotheism of the Apology of Aristides,
which has hardly any Christian characteristics. His monotheism is
rather Pagan than Christian. The broad fact remains that so far as
we can know the early Jesuist polemic from the gospels, the Acts,
the Epistles, the Apocalypse, or the patristic literature, it was
not a wide and successful assault on polytheism as such by an appeal
to monotheistic instinct, but just a proffer to Jews and Gentiles of
a kind of creed common enough in the pagan world, its inconsistent
monotheism appealing only to a minority of the recipients. [338] The
very miracle-stories which Professor Smith interprets as allegories of
monotheistic propaganda became part of the popular appeal as soon as
they were made current in documents; and they appealed (he will admit)
as miracle-stories, not as allegories. Peter and Paul in their turn
are represented as working miracles of healing. It was all finally
part of the appeal to primary religious credulity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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