Jesus as Man, Myth, and Metaphor

Jesus as Man, Myth, and Metaphor
Author: Benjamin W. Farley
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2007-09-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1556354770

Current New Testament scholarship has done much to advance knowledge of Jesus's authentic words and message. The works of Crossan, Borg, Vermes, Mack, and many others attest to this movement. In this process, however, the Christ of the Gospels, or the so-called Christ of faith, has been caught in the crosshairs, forcing Christianity to reflect anew on the church's interpretation of his life and place in history. Has the church's dogma overreached the facts of Jesus's life? Farley's book addresses these issues and offers a feasible and illuminating context within which to reexamine Jesus's life and significance for modern humankind. His book probes the boundaries of Jesus as a historical person (as a man), as a figure of mythical proportions, and as a metaphor for today's Christian sense of wholeness. Along the way, Farley incorporates the insights of Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Paul Tillich to demonstrate the ways that psychology, mythology, and symbolism contribute to an appreciation of Jesus that moves beyond the debate of Jesus's historical status alone.

Mary Magdalen

Mary Magdalen
Author: Susan Haskins
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 546
Release: 2011-09-30
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1446499421

A dramatic, thought-provoking portrait of one of the most compelling figures in early Christianity which explores two thousand years of history, art, and literature to provide a close-up look at Mary Magdalen and her significance in religious and cultural thought.

Resurrecting Jesus

Resurrecting Jesus
Author: Adyashanti
Publisher: Sounds True
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014-04-01
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1622031628

For almost two millennia, the story of Jesus has shaped the lives of countless people. Yet today, even though the majority of us grew up in a culture suffused by the mythos of Jesus, many of us feel disconnected from the essence of his teachings. With Resurrecting Jesus, Adyashanti invites us to rediscover the life and words of Jesus as a direct path to the most radical of transformations: spiritual awakening. Jesus crossed all of the boundaries that separated the people of his time because he viewed the world from the perspective of what unites us, not what divides us. In Resurrecting Jesus, Adya embarks on a fascinating reconsideration of the man known as Jesus, examining his life from birth to Resurrection to reveal a timeless model of awakening and enlightened engagement with the world. Through close consideration of the archetypal figures and events of the Gospels, Adya issues a call to “live the Christ” in a way that is unique to each of us. “When the eternal and the human meet,” writes Adya, “that’s where love is born—not through escaping our humanity or trying to disappear into transcendence, but through finding that place where they come into union.” Resurrecting Jesus is a book for realizing this union in your own life, with heart and mind wide open to the mystery inside us all. With an all-new foreword by Episcopalian priest and scholar Cynthia Bourgeault.

The Metaphor of God Incarnate

The Metaphor of God Incarnate
Author: John Hick
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780664230371

In this groundbreaking work, John Hick refutes the traditional Christian understanding of Jesus of Nazareth. According to Hick, Jesus did not teach what was to become the orthodox understanding of him: that he was God incarnate who became human to die for the sins of the world. Further, the traditional dogma of Jesus' two natures--human and divine--cannot be explained satisfactorily, and worse, it has been used to justify great human evils. Thus, the divine incarnation, he explains, is best understood metaphorically. Nevertheless, he concludes that Christians can still understand Jesus as Lord and the one who has made God real to us. This second edition includes new chapters on the Christologies of Anglican theologian John Macquarrie and Catholic theologian Roger Haight, SJ.

Fairest Lord Jesus

Fairest Lord Jesus
Author: Benjamin W. Farley
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 113
Release: 2013-05-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1620329522

The Gospels portray Jesus as one who often sought solitude, whether for himself or in quietude before his Father. To do so he had to withdraw from both his disciples and others. Such moments enabled him to renew his inner strength, to find God's consolation for himself, as well as to imbue him with insight and courage for the inimitable journey that God had selected him to travel. We too need those same personal moments with God, those quiet occasions for withdrawal and reflection. If you have ever hungered for such, Fairest Lord Jesus, filled with simple, direct, and uncomplicated meditations, will speak to you. Within its pages, you will journey with Jesus across the Gospels to his Cross, hear his voice of solace and commission, while resting with him in village after village as he pauses to mend the hearts of the contrite and the lonely and heal the broken, dispirited, and ill; and, finally, on that Morning of mornings, stand with him in that Sacred Garden of the soul, where he fills all hearts with the joy of his presence and his eternal love. In addition, enriching the collection are numerous vignettes, drawn from Farley's years of teaching philosophy and religion courses, along with poignant stories of the passage of time.

A Thematic Access-Oriented Bibliography of Jesus's Resurrection

A Thematic Access-Oriented Bibliography of Jesus's Resurrection
Author: Michael J. Alter
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 602
Release: 2019-12-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1725252732

The keystone of Christianity is Jesus’s physical, bodily resurrection. Present-day scholars can be significantly challenged as they forage through voluminous documents on the resurrection of Jesus. The literature measures well over seven thousand sources in English-language books alone. This makes finding specific sources that are most relevant for specific scholarly purposes an arduous task. Even when a specific book is relevant, finding the parts of the book that are most relevant to the resurrection rather than other topics often requires additional effort. A Thematic Access-Oriented Bibliography of Jesus’s Resurrection addresses these challenges in several ways. First, the bibliography organizes more than seven thousand English sources into twelve main categories and then thirty-four subcategories, which are designed to help you find the most relevant literature quickly and efficiently. Embedded are pro and con arguments which support efficient access through brief annotations and then annotate the diversity and complexity of the field of religion by including sources that represent a diverse range of views: theistic (e.g., Christian, Jewish, Muslim, etc.), agnostic, and nontheistic. The objective of this bibliography is to provide convenient access to relevant sources from a variety of perspectives, allowing you to browse or find the one source accurately and with ease.

Genesis

Genesis
Author: John H. Walton
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
Total Pages: 750
Release: 2016-01-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310527554

Many today find the Old Testament a closed book. The cultural issues seem insurmountable and we are easily baffled by that which seems obscure. Furthermore, without knowledge of the ancient culture we can easily impose our own culture on the text, potentially distorting it. This series invites you to enter the Old Testament with a company of guides, experts that will give new insights into these cherished writings. Features include • Over 2000 photographs, drawings, maps, diagrams and charts provide a visual feast that breathes fresh life into the text. • Passage-by-passage commentary presents archaeological findings, historical explanations, geographic insights, notes on manners and customs, and more. • Analysis into the literature of the ancient Near East will open your eyes to new depths of understanding both familiar and unfamiliar passages. • Written by an international team of 30 specialists, all top scholars in background studies.

The Awakening Guide

The Awakening Guide
Author: Bonnie Greenwell
Publisher:
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2014-05
Genre:
ISBN: 9780962732744

Waking up spiritually is a life-altering event that shifts the world view, and changes the perception of what it means to be human. It is a significant grace in anyone's life, bringing the potential for profound peace, unconditional love and intuitive wisdom. However, spiritual "seekers" rarely have a clear understanding of what it means to become Awakened or Self-realized, nor do they recognize the natural tendency to become stuck in various cul-de-sacs along the way, or know how to cope with the challenges that arise in this process. Awakening is both sudden and gradual, often beautiful and ecstatic, but it can also be disorienting as the "seeker" falls away. Few spiritual systems or therapists are able to offer guidance to those in this process, and this can lead to confusion, detours and lengthy periods of darkness before embodiment and freedom are established. "The Awakening Guide" reveals how the search for love, wisdom and wholeness unfolds for those who meditate, and also those who have sudden awakenings to expanded consciousness, radiant emptiness, Oneness and the realization of Self. This might happen following breathing or energy practices, transmission or diksa, traumatic or near-death events, drug experiments, biofeedback, or spontaneously while walking down the street. Consciousness shifts. Wham! Another reality is opened, and the world you know changes before your eyes. Consciousness is invited to recall itself as Source. An initial awakening is seldom permanent, and many seekers are disappointed to discover that this first flash of insight was only a glimpse, and the subsequent months and years require trust, patience and a commitment to living in Truth if they hope to be stabilized in an awakened state. This inspirational book, written by a non-dual teacher and therapist who has explored the path of spiritual awakening for more than 40 years, and witnessed the spiritual emergence of over 2000 people, is a companion to support a new perspective as an old identity falls away. It offers some guidelines for awakening, descriptions of the varieties of experiences that have been called awakening, comments by people who have had glimpses of awakening, and a revelation of the primary issues and resolutions an awakened person may need to face. It is a companion to Dr. Greenwell's book "The Kundalini Guide."

God and the Creative Imagination

God and the Creative Imagination
Author: Paul Avis
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2013-01-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1134609388

'A mere metaphor', 'only symbolic', 'just a myth' - these tell tale phrases reveal how figurative language has been cheapened and devalued in our modern and postmodern culture. In God and the Creative Imagination, Paul Avis argues the contrary: we see that actually, metaphor, symbol and myth, are the key to a real knowledge of God and the sacred. Avis examines what he calls an alternative tradition, stemming from the Romantic poets Blake, Wordsworth and Keats and drawing on the thought of Cleridge and Newman, and experience in both modern philosophy and science. God and the Creative Imagination intriguingly draws on a number of non-theological disciplines, from literature to philosophy of science, to show us that God is appropriately likened to an artist or poet and that the greatest truths are expressed in an imaginative form. Anyone wishing to further their understanding of God, belief and the imagination will find this an inspiring work.

The Truth Behind the Christ Myth

The Truth Behind the Christ Myth
Author: Mark Amaru Pinkham
Publisher: Adventures Unlimited Press
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2002-04
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9781931882026

Return of the Serpents of Wisdom and Conversations With the Goddess author Pinkham tells us the Truth Behind the Christ Myth and presents radically new information regarding Jesus Christ and his ancient legend, includes: The legend of Jesus Christ is based on a much earlier Son of God myth from India, the legend of Murrugan, the Peacock Angel; The symbol of the Catholic Church is Murrugan's symbol, the peacock, a bird native to south-east Asia; Murrugan evolved into the Persian Mithras, and Mithras evolved into Jesus Christ Saint Paul came from Tarsus, the centre of Mithras worship in Asia Minor. He amalgamated the legend of the Persian Son of God onto Jesus' life story; The Three Wise Men were Magi priests from Persia who believed that Jesus was an incarnation of Mithras; While in India, Saint Thomas became a peacock before he died and merged with Murrugan, the Peacock Angel; The Emperor Constantine, the first 'Christian' Emperor of the Roman Empire, was a lifelong devotee of Mithras. He was baptised Christian on his deathbed; The myth of the One and Only Son of God originated with Murrugan and Mithras.