NEWS FEATURE: Author traces Christianity’s early spread

c. 1998 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ In the two decades following the crucifixion of Jesus, the nascent Christian community spread from Jerusalem and the Galilee region of biblical Palestine to Damascus and Rome. John Dominic Crossan thinks he knows why: timing and the promise of a good meal. Crossan, a 64-year-old, ex-Roman Catholic priest, […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ In the two decades following the crucifixion of Jesus, the nascent Christian community spread from Jerusalem and the Galilee region of biblical Palestine to Damascus and Rome.

John Dominic Crossan thinks he knows why: timing and the promise of a good meal.


Crossan, a 64-year-old, ex-Roman Catholic priest, has for nearly 30 years been a leading figure in the often acrimonious debate over the historical Jesus _ the scholarly attempt to distinguish the facts of Jesus’ earthly existence from the beliefs traditional Christians consider theological, if not literal, truth.

In 18 books (including three religion best sellers), scores of articles and untold media interviews, Crossan has sought to spread the latest academic findings about Jesus’ life and deeds.

A co-founder of the Jesus Seminar _ the body of scholars that has outraged Christian traditionalists by arguing much of what the Bible has Jesus saying, not to mention his physical resurrection, is unsubstantiated _ Crossan has had something to say on virtually every detail of Jesus’ life and the movement that coalesced around him. “If you want to be an educated Christian, you have got to get into the debate,”said Crossan, now retired from a quarter-century’s teaching at Chicago’s DePaul University and living near Orlando, Fla.

His latest book _”The Birth of Christianity: Discovering What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus”(Harper San Francisco) _ is an exhaustive, 650-page look at the first two decades after the crucifixion, the period immediately preceding the Apostle Paul’s letters to the nascent Christian communities included in the New Testament.

It’s a period most scholars have chosen to overlook. “With Paul’s letters, written in the 50s, you’ve got something to work with. Scholars like that,”Crossan said during a recent interview in Washington.”With the 30s and 40s, there is no similar documentation. You’ve got to engage in massive reconstruction.” And so he has.

Methodically building his case by drawing on a variety of academic disciplines and recounting much of what he and others have said previously about Jesus and the environment in which he lived, Crossan has concluded that the Jesus movement’s initial success rested with its radical rejection of the oppressive Roman rule imposed on first century A.D. Jewish society, the world in which Jesus preached.

In an unjust society, the movement advocated faith in a God of justice, as had Jesus. It proved to be an enormously attractive ideal for the mostly poor, downtrodden peasants and former slaves who became the first Christians and who were already familiar with the teaching from earlier Jewish writings, Crossan wrote. “Focusing on the sins of society rather than individual sins was a key element”in the movement’s success, he said.


Jesus’ execution, rather than stomping out the movement as the Romans had hoped, created a martyr that made his teachings all the more attractive. Moreover, the early Christian custom of gathering for shared meals _ ritualized today in the symbolic meal of the Eucharist _ proved effective for attracting new members, Crossan continued. “If I’m a peasant, belonging to this community tells me that God is a God of justice, a God of sharing,”he said.”In this group once a week we eat the Lord’s Supper, which means we must share food. “It also means that if I might not get another good meal all week, this is a God worth worshipping. If you’ve never been hungry, you can’t appreciate the importance of a shared meal. No one gets something going saying I have a dogma alone. It’s the interrelationship between the dogma and the practical that works.” In short, said Crossan, the necessary elements _ Judaism’s religious tradition of a covenant between a just God and a just people, plus the disruptive impact of Roman exploitation _ were present for wider acceptance of Jesus’ message, despite the devastating impact his execution had on the early movement. “The time and place were now ready for the baptism-in-the Jordan movement of John and the kingdom-of-God movement of Jesus,”said Crossan.

In the immediate years after Jesus’ death, two distinct but complementary Christian movements developed, Crossan added _ the Life Tradition and the Death Tradition.

In the small towns and rural areas of Galilee (the region around Nazareth) and in western Syria, followers _ some of whom were”wandering itinerants”_ sought to emulate Jesus by focusing on his sayings. Helping to spread the movement was the preservation of Jesus’ sayings by unknown scribes that had joined the movement almost from its inception, Crossan said. “Roman commercialization produced a need for scribes and there’s no reason to expect that some of them would not also have been on Jesus’ side. Because Jewish culture respected writing, it helped spread the movement,”he continued.

In Jerusalem, where Jesus’ execution had occurred, the emphasis among the more urbanized, communal-living Christian community was on the death and Resurrection of Jesus and his vindication through his expected imminent return, explained the Irish-born Crossan. “It was living like Jesus as opposed to waiting for Jesus, but the two traditions weren’t really at odds,”he said.”It was just a matter of subtle emphasis. Both sought to emulate Jesus.” Together, the two parallel movements numbered perhaps”a couple of hundred individuals,”said Crossan, who was featured in the recent PBS TV series”From Jesus to Christ,”which traced Christianity’s growth from Jesus’ time to the embrace of Christianity by the Roman Emperor Constantine almost 300 years later.

More important than its size, however, was the early Christian community’s rapid dispersal around the Mediterranean, Crossan said.”Without the spread the numbers wouldn’t be important,”he said.”There is a big difference between being in one place and being in several places, even if its just a cell of 20 people.” In”The Birth of Christianity,”Crossan spends a great deal of time answering critics of his earlier works who have dismissed him as a non-believer bent on tearing down traditional Christianity. “I’ve been resoundly criticized in the past by other scholars for not coming out to play,”he said.”`Crossan doesn’t answer his critics,’ they said. Well here’s my defense of all I’ve said before. This book is both a challenge to my peers and the intelligent lay person willing to do a little hard work.” As for his psycho-social approach toward Jesus and the early church, Crossan _ who still considers himself Catholic despite his rejection of Bible literalism and many traditional church teachings _ said he has no trouble seeing Jesus as divine”as a way of expressing when you look at Jesus do you see God at work.” Nor is that much different than the concept of Jesus’ divinity held by the first Christians, he added.

Jesus’ era was a time when the division between the earthly and heavenly was not drawn as sharply as it is in today’s more rationalist society, said Crossan. In addition, Greek and Roman mythology offered the Jews of ancient Palestine numerous examples of gods coming into the earthly realm, and even mating with humans.”Jesus could be seen as divine by the early Christians who as Jews were used to understanding the (Jerusalem) Temple as the dwelling place of God,”Crossan maintained.”Jesus became the mind of God walking around on two legs.” DEA END RIFKIN


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