The Idea of Jesus

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The Idea of Jesus

• An ontological study of why we believe

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Character Study The Son of Man, before Jesus,
there was Apollonius of Tyana

• Apollonius life shows us that there was a
  tradition of the Messiah before Jesus in the
  Jewish AND Roman world.
• Apollonius was a neo-Pythagorean (think right
  triangles) teacher who
• Prior to his birth a heavenly being appeared to
  his mother announcing that her child would be
  divine
• Was recognized as a spiritual authority in his
  youth

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Apollonius of Tyana cont

• Apollonius cont
• As an adult, he left his family for a life of
  itinerant preaching
• Went from town to town preaching a message of
  good news and that people should forgo their
  material concerns and focus on their soul
• Gathered disciples who became convinced that he
  was the Son of God
• His disciples confirmed the miraculous deeds he
  performed
• Reported that he could heal the sick, cast out
  demons, and raise the dead

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Apollonius of Tyana cont.

• Apollonius cont.
• Met his end by the Romans, tried for crimes
  against the state
• His disciples carried on his teachings through
  their own system of itinerant preaching and
  teaching
• Any of this sound familiar?
• All of this can be found in "The Life of
  Apollonius, and in The New Testament, by Bart D.
  Ehrman

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Apollonius and Jesus, discuss

• That their lives are similar and that they lived
  relatively within a short time span of each other
  indicates a messianic tradition developing
  throughout the world
• Note that we have studied several instances of a
  coming messiah within the Old Testament
• Apollonius was Roman and his story was widely
  known
• this shows a great transfer of ideas and
  histories the Greco-Roman world was closer than
  ever before (thanks mostly to better roads/travel
  ways and increased domestic safety)

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Apollonius/Jesus
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Apollonius and Jesus, discuss

• What does this mean to us as Christians?
• Gave Jesus stories contextuality and
  plausibility
• When told about a Son of Man or Son of God
  the idea was already planted into peoples minds
• Easier to grasp
• Seemed plausible or at least, understandable
• Stories of Jesus were not discarded as
  nonsensical
• Most importantly, why was it planted into peoples
  minds?

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Apollonius and Jesus, discuss

• This shows a connection between pagan, Jewish,
  and Christian traditions!
• Also, there is an inherent connection within all
  religions
• Religion is not created, nor exists, in a
  vacuum
• All ideas are related and interconnected somehow,
  shows the ubiquity (or universality) of the
  Savior/Redeemer Character within religion and
  culture
• The idea that someone will come and save us is
  common in apocalyptic religions/worldviews and
  hero legends and folktales

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The Superman Character and Nietzsche

• Nietzsche, a German philosopher (think God is
  Dead guy but theres more to that), argued
  that there was an ideal of a Superman or
  Ubermensch
• The Ubermensch is a projection of human
  aspirations unto one great and powerful being, a
  Superman
• The Ubermensch can be seen as the projection of
  all our hopes unto one man, a savior, a redeemer,
  the perfect man (or woman)
• Nietzsche argued that the Ubermensch, or
  Superman, is so perfect and otherworldly that
  he only exists in the future and represents our
  eschatological, or apocalyptical, goal

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Supermans in Popculture

• The comic book characters in The Watchmen
• Aeneas, Odysseus, Hercules
• Natty Bumpo in The Last of the Mohicans
• And last but not least

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Why this matters

• This is all to say that there exists an ideal
  character that is Perfect
• The redeemer
• The One
• The flawless human
• This figure often has a redemptive quality to
  them, they save us
• Since this character exists within our psyche,
  what does it say about God and actual, true life
  existence?

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Ontology and the Jesus Figure

• Ontology is the study of being and existence and
  can help us understand why the Jesus story is
  nothing new per se
• The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God
  goes as follows (From St. Anselms Prosologian)
• One can imagine a being than which none greater
  can be conceived.
• We know that existence in reality is greater than
  existence in the mind alone.
• If the being we imagine exists only in our mind,
  then it is not a "being than which none greater
  can be conceived".
• A being than which none greater can be conceived
  must also exist in reality.
• Failure to exist in reality would be failure to
  be a being than which none greater can be
  conceived.
• Thus a being than which none greater can be
  conceived must exist, and we call this being God.

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Ontology

• Lets break it down
• Imagine The Greatest BEING EVAR! An entity that
  can do everything, see everything, know
  everything, be everything, be everywhere
• Now think, if this being (lets call him
  Simthembile, or Sim for short) only exists in
  your mind, then any being that does exist is
  greater than Sim.
• But this cant be, because Sim is the Greatest
  BEING EVAR!
• Therefore Sim MUST exist! Because we can think of
  him
• The argument here is not to convince you that God
  exists, though it may do that, the point is to
  show you the relationship between existence and
  ideas or thoughts

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Ontology and Monsters

• Another example
• Think of a great big monster, the biggest and
  ugliest thing you can think of (Kinda like the
  game, Spore)
• Now describe it
• He Had 50 Eyes on 20 Heads and ate high school
  kids, most notably Catholic School kids (theyre
  crunchier)
• He had 4 feet and 14 toes on each foot
• He had 10 hands
• Etc.

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Ontology and Monsters
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Ontology and Monsters
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Ontology and Monsters
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Ontology and Monsters

• Did it sound familiar? Did you use things like
  50 hands, fingers, or toes to describe him (or
  her? Note that gender plays a role)?
• We use things/objects within our existence to
  describe the imaginary and the ontological (or
  sense of beingness)
• WE ARE INCAPABLE OF DESCRIBING THINGS THAT DONT
  EXIST OR DONT HAVE THE POSSIBILITY TO EXIST

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Other Christ-like figures weve discussed

• The Epic of Gilgamesh
• Gilgamesh, our hero, must go through to the
  netherworld, or the afterlife, to save his friend
• Orpheus
• Orpheus, our hero, must go through to Hades, or
  the afterlife, to save his love, Eurydice
• Cool Hand Luke
• Luke serves as the embodiment of freedom against
  the systemor the worldand dies as a result.
  His disciples escape their chainsor
  bondagethrough his death and in his stories
• Can you think of any other ones?

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Ontology and the Vorgriff

• The Christ-figure is all around us, it is
  immediately understood by us when we see it
• Shows our understanding of God and Jesus hinges
  upon our soul, or our souls imagination, already
  knowing or experiencing God and the Jesus
  figure
• This is why we see God popping up in every
  culture via religion, god-like figures included
• Also why the Christ figure or savior is so
  ubiquitous, or everywhere, because it is built
  into our pre-conscious (or, to get theological,
  our vorgriff, to quote Karl Rahner)

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I Know, this all sounds crazy follow me here

• Vorgriff explained
• Rahner believed that our souls were tilted
  towards God or we were always attempting to
  return to God (remember the exitus/reditus
  argument when we went over creation? We exit from
  God and we spend our lives returning back to God)
• Because of this, we had an ingrained
  understanding of God and the Trinity (which he
  called the vorgriff, or preapprehension)
• ALL SOULS HAVE THIS! WHICH IS WHY MOST RELIGIONS
  HAVE MORE SIMILARITIES THAN DIFFERENCES
• They come from the same source God

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The Vorgriff, Ontology and the World

• Why does this matter?
• Because it shows the universality of Christ
• The Christ figure is relatable to all persons,
  regardless of the culture
• While not every culture has a Christ like figure,
  the idea is easily transferable because of common
  elements between ideas and cultures
• Rahner used this to justify his anonymous
  Christians beliefthat other religions and
  cultures were Christian in essence, but they
  didnt know it
• The Catholic Church upholds the universality of
  the Truth in Christ through Vatican II
• Lumens Gentium, an document written in Vatican
  II, illustrates how all have access to God
  irregardless of Tradition and that all have the
  hope of heaven
• So, you may ask, what makes the Catholic Church
  special?
• THE EURCHARIST!

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Christ Figures and the Eucharist

• Most religions and cultures may have savior,
  Christ like figures but Catholicism holds the
  tradition to its truest form through the
  Eucharist
• The Eucharist, according to Sacred Tradition, is
  truth incarnate, it is the center of the Catholic
  faith
• Truth incarnate because it is the Body and Blood
  of Christ, second part of the Trinity, and the
  Light and Truth of the World (Read John, chapter
  1)
• It is what separates Catholicism, and also
  Christianity, from other religious narratives

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To Recap

• There are other Christ-like figures
• Apollonius for example
• These Christ like figures enhance our
  understanding of Christ because it shows how
  ubiquitous the Christ story is to our
  consciousness
• Through ontology we can see how the idea of God
  and Christ are transmitted to each and every soul
• This is called the Vorgriff
• This shows us the universality of God, how all
  souls are tilted toward God
• Therefore, all religions are interconnected
  toward finding a greater understanding of our
  relationship with God
• The Catholic Church believes and teaches it has
  the greatest understanding because it centers its
  teachings and beliefs around Christ incarnate
  through the Eucharist

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Questions?

• Did all this make sense?