Stephen Bedard

It is often assumed that a bodily resurrection is a Jewish concept and that a disembodied afterlife is a Greek concept.  Some scholars have claimed that Greco-Roman ideas could not have influenced the development of the bodily resurrection as they had no such concept in their tradition.  It will be demonstrated that the Greco-Roman concept of apotheosis is an equivalent to the Jewish resurrection and that some of the earliest Jewish reflections on the resurrection are in terms of angelic transformation.  As certain sons of Zeus could become full gods at death, so Israel (as sons of God) could be transformed into angels.  The innovation of the Jewish view of the resurrection was not in the form of the afterlife but in the availability of this eternal hope.

Not every person communicates with spoken language. Such nonverbal individuals may find themselves on the margins, even in the church. The prologue of John's Gospel speaks of "the Word made flesh." This concept has the potential to challenge people to embody both their communication and relationships.

While many Christians have seen the options for the identity of Jesus as the 'trilemma' of Lord, liar or lunatic, there is an increasing trend to see the story as legend. This is not the Bultmannian view of seeing mythic aspects within the Gospels, but rather seeing the Gospels as completely mythological. The existence of a historical Jesus is denied and pagan parallels are presented as the sources for the Gospels. This Jesus myth hypothesis is flawed at its basic methodological foundation. These errors include misuse of both biblical and pagan texts, forced parallelism, and an artificial combination of myths.

Abstract: In a recent article, New Testament scholar Zeba Crook argues that in order for the study of Christian Origins to be taken seriously alongside other academic disci-plines, a naturalistic philosophy must be adopted. Currently, there is a blend of openness, agnosticism and rejection among New Testament scholars with regard to miracles in the New Testament. This article responds to the concerns about an openness to the supernatural and offers a suggestion on how the study of religion can remain an academic discipline apart from theology and yet still be open to supernatural explanations. Résume ́:Dans un article récemment publié, le spécialiste du Nouveau Testament Zeba Crook maintient qu’une philosophie naturaliste doit être adoptée afin que l’étude des origines chrétiennes soit prise au sérieux parmi les autres disciplines académiques. On constate actuellement un mélange d’ouverture, d’agnosticisme et de rejet de la part des spécialistes du Nouveau Testament en c...

consistent with God’s plan’’ (25). Further, to help counter the divisiveness of both contemporary nationalist ideologies and the current structure of the nation-state, he proposes political reform emanating from civil society and devolved local government actors’ efforts to reach across frontiers, with the goal of bringing about a global democratic future. Connecting the UN’s Millennium Development Goals to the eschatological visions in the Christian, Jewish and Muslim scriptures, Bennett holds that bringing religions into the service of peace, so that they might help in this political transformation, requires a non-exclusivist religious response to pluralism focused on positive inter-faith relationships, which recognize the possibility of truth in other traditions and are geared towards improving all human life through the ‘‘ethic of the higher principle’’ manifest in nonviolence, love and justice. He understands such an approach to faithful living as not only violence intervention but also violence prevention, arguing that as humanity matures and more people come to endorse such peace affirming understandings of religion, ‘‘the few’’ will find recruiting for the cause of violence increasingly difficult. Even though this volume’s editing breaks down at points, In Search of Solutions is well crafted for classroom use in graduate and upper-level undergraduate courses because of Bennett’s inclusion of (1) annotated lists of source material relevant to the case studies, (2) breaks in the text for reflection questions, and (3) point form mapping of key events in the history of conflicts under consideration. Although instructors familiar with the case study contexts will wish to update some of his information and make further nuanced commentary on a few of the examples found in the text, Bennett’s analytical contribution will certainly provide a good basis for classroom discussion. His approach to the subject matter also helps to make the monograph a stimulating read for a more general audience. On the whole, In Search of Solutions is thought provoking, combining ideas from theology and a variety of sources not normally linked together in the academic literature dealing with religion and violence. As a result, Bennett is able to at once deconstruct reductionist notions of the roles of religion in conflict, while also acting as an internal voice that challenges people of faith to provide an indication of the continuing relevance of their religious traditions by affirming the value of diversity, nonviolence and justice for all peoples. This particular combination of analysis and argument alone makes In Search of Solutions worthwhile reading.

Finding a New Land: From Canaan to the Resurrection Stephen J. Bedard McMaster Divinity College Master of Arts (Christian Studies) 2007 An examination of sources of hope within the Old and New Testaments reveals that the OT focuses on land and the NT focuses on resurrection. This study traces out the development of both land and resurrection within biblical texts and important nonbiblical Jewish texts. The idyllic traditions of the OT demonstrate the pivotaI role of the Promised Land of Canaan. Texts that describe events before the exile have very little emphasis on resurrection. As Israel faced and experienced exile, they were forced to reflect on how that fit with beliefs in a Promised Land, including themes of judgment and restoration. It was during this exilic period that ideas about the afterlife began to increase. As Judaism developed in the so-called "intertestamental period," the land began to decrease in importance. It was during this formative stage of Judaism th...

In a recent article, New Testament scholar Zeba Crook argues that in order for the study of Christian Origins to be taken seriously alongside other academic disciplines, a naturalistic philosophy must be adopted. Currently, there is a blend of openness, agnosticism and rejection among New Testament scholars with regard to miracles in the New Testament. This article responds to the concerns about an openness to the supernatural and offers a suggestion on how the study of religion can remain an academic discipline apart from theology and yet still be open to supernatural explanations.