clarym29Historically speaking......Wed Apr 25, 2012 18:06108.193.201.141At first value there are many unreasonable things about the beliefs of early Christianity, and, as the organized church developed, those individuals who possessed the key of interpretation, the gnostics, were forced out by the ecclesiastical authorities. Historically speaking, as Christianity developed, it could have both embraced and sanctified the classical quest for knowledge and learning, and several of the early church fathers actively worked toward this end. However, as things turned out, the developing church, as a political body, found it more expedient to emphasize unquestioning belief in dogma rather than the principles of open inquiry. One church father proclaimed that he believed in the teachings of the church for the very reason that they were absurd (Tertullian). Irenaeus, a bishop who wrote against the gnostics, claimed that bread and wine were literally transformed into the body and blood of Jesus, and that by feasting upon this substance our own physical bodies would be miraculously transformed into an immortal state. Paul's belief in an entirely spiritual afterlife stood in sharp distinction to the materialistic views of some later church fathers who insisted on a literal, physical resurrection of the dead.
Interestingly, while the matter is not capable of proof, it is likely that the historical Jesus was himself some sort of gnostic teacher; indeed, if this was the case, it would help account, at least in part, for his personification as the "Gnostic Reveler,in early Christian tests...........................Jesus thus followed a model similar to that of the Greek bards and the Pythagorean philosophers, who used symbolism, mythology, parables, and other entertainments, while simultaneously transmitting a higher message for those who had ears to hear. Interestingly, some of the earliest and most important Christian writings--including one used by the authors of the New Testament--portray Jesus exclusively as a teacher of heavenly wisdom, with no mention whatsoever of his fate by crucifixion nor belief in his subsequent resurrection....................Like the initiated composers and transmitters of the Greek myths, the Christian gnostics expressed the insights of esoteric cosmology--that "hidden pattern of creation which underlies the foundation of the world"--in the myths and legends of the new religion.
The above is a short excerpt from Jesus Christ Sun of God by David Fideler.
Apparently, politics has been alive and well as long as religion and philosophy has. It seems to e that, in the finished product of Christianity, the materialists won out, or at least won the upper hand, for the gnostic message was not totally erased from the tests of the Bible. I would also say that Jesus simply was not real, but an amalgam of many different teachers and philosophers. Fideler suggests one way in which this could have happened.
