Duluth, MN (OpEdNews) February 25, 2010
In the spirit of circling the wagons for the sake of a more effective defense against an attack, the male chauvinists in the Vatican have issued a risible new document to help conservative Roman Catholics defend themselves from possible temptations of so-called "New Age" spirituality. The document is titled JESUS CHRIST THE BEARER OF THE WATER OF LIFE: A CHRISTIAN REFLECTION ON THE "NEW AGE."
But the title itself is risible because the conceptual construct "Jesus Christ" is a myth, not a fact. It's time for Christians to stop perpetuating this myth and to start living in historical time and space, instead of living in mythic time and space.
The historical Jesus was not the messiah, so Christians should stop using the Greek-derived term "the Christ" to refer to Jesus. The Greek-derived term "the Christ" is used to render the Hebrew term that is translated into English as "messiah." It is simply a myth to refer to Jesus as the Christ (or the messiah); it is not an historical fact.
The historical Jesus was crucified under the authority of Pontius Pilate at the time of the Passover festival in Jerusalem. But Pontius Pilate most likely ordered his crucifixion as a way to control the crowd so that there would be no protest rallies around Jesus. In any event, Jesus did not die for the sins of the world. That's a myth. In short, Jesus' death did not result in anybody being saved. That's a myth, not an historical fact.
Moreover, Jesus did not rise from the dead. Reports about apparitions of Jesus after his crucifixion were based on hallucinations. So the claim about his alleged resurrection is a myth, not an historical fact.
In addition, the claim about his supposed divinity is a myth, not an historical fact. He was a holy man, but he was not God, he was not divine, but fully human. As a result, the claim about the supposed divine trinity is a myth.
However, certain positive psychological developments may appear as the result of believing the myth about the supposed Jesus Christ. When we believe this myth about the supposed Jesus Christ, we may use our imaginations very actively to suppose a suitable male figure that we can regard as Jesus.
When we use our imaginations in this way, we may learn how to draw on the energies of the archetypes of maturity at the archetypal level of our psyches. In a series of five books published in the 1990s, Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette detailed a complex account of the four masculine archetypes of maturity at the archetypal level of the male psyche. (There are also four corresponding feminine archetypes at the archetypal level of the female psyche.)
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