Even though both St. Ignatius Loyola and Dr. Jung were known in their own times as gifted guides to the inner world of psycho-spiritual experience, neither of them is reported to have been famous for using his own distinctive narrative proverbs and proverbial expressions in the agora -- as the historical Jesus did.
JESUS' CRUCIFIXION AND DEATH
In my view, the historical Jesus was not advocating armed rebellion against the Roman Empire. Instead, he was advocating, on the one hand, that his fellow Jews should just let the Roman Empire be, so to speak, and, on the other hand, that they should experience the kingdom of God (or the reign of God) as he understood this experience.
However, even though the historical Jesus was not preaching armed insurrection against the Roman Empire -- because that would have been suicidal -- the local authorities of the Roman Empire executed him on trumped-up charges of supposedly being the king of the Jews -- that is, the supposed warrior/king of the Jews who presumably would lead them in insurrection against the rule of the Roman Empire in the Jewish homeland.
For an accessible scholarly discussion of the crucifixion of the historical Jesus, see Paula Fredriksen's book JESUS OF NAZARETH: KING OF THE JEWS (1999).
THE EMERGENCE OF THE CHRIST MYTH
After the historical Jesus had been crucified by the local authorities of the Roman Empire, his followers were understandably grief-stricken. During their time of grief, some of his followers had apparitions -- visual and auditory hallucinations. As a result, his followers constructed the myth about the supposed resurrection of Jesus after his death.
Unfortunately, Bishop Spong is not yet willing to face the truth about the apparition experiences being hallucinations. Instead, he uses mumbo-jumbo about some kind of supposed bodily resurrection. No doubt Bishop Spong would prefer not to be burned alive, figuratively speaking of course, by all those famously loving Christian zealots who still cling to the worn out old idea of the resurrection -- and who famously hate to see their ideas challenged.
Now, just as St. Paul's profound mystical experience involving visual and auditory hallucinations about the dead Jesus prompted his personal transformation, so too the mourning followers of the dead Jesus were transformed by their understanding of their hallucinations as the supposed resurrection of the dead Jesus. They were personally transformed into religious zealots. Their religious zealotry has reverberated down through the centuries. This shows that personal transformation can include transformation into religious zealotry.
In addition to making enthusiastic claims about the supposed resurrection, the grieving Jewish followers of the historical Jesus examined the Jewish scriptures. From various hints in Jewish scriptures, they constructed the greatest story ever told -- the Christ myth.
THE EMERGENCE OF ST. PAUL
Based on the Christ myth they had constructed, the Jewish followers then enthusiastically proclaimed their views about the mythic Christ among their fellow Jews. But many of their fellow Jews were not receptive, but irritated by their extraordinary claims about the mythic Christ -- the supposed Christ figure who was also supposedly divine, a God-man..
For example, one Jew, Saul of Tarsus, later known as St. Paul, set out to persecute the followers of the historical Jesus who were making such extraordinary claims about the mythic Christ.
But then this Jewish persecutor had one of the most dramatic mystical experiences in history -- complete with visual and auditory hallucinations. As a result of his profound mystical experience, he subsequently turned around and embraced the Christ myth that he had previously been persecuting. What a turn around!
As a preacher of the Christ myth, St. Paul preached about the supposed nearing end-time. In this way, his preaching was similar in spirit to John the Baptist's preaching about the supposed nearing end-time. Some orthodox Christians today use this similarity to argue that the historical Jesus was most likely also preaching about the supposed nearing end-time. Nevertheless, as I mentioned above, certain critical biblical scholars have used textual evidence in the New Testament to argue that the historical Jesus was not preaching such a message.
For an entirely materialistic way to under St. Paul's imagery of spirituality, see Troels Engberg-Pedersen's book COSMOLOGY AND SELF IN THE APOSTLE PAUL: THE MATERIAL SPIRIT (2010).
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