The Great Omission and Two Visions of Resurrection
A video gift for the season
Do you struggle with Easter? Does the Resurrection make sense or baffle you?
Yesterday, I was invited by my friend Tripp Fuller of Homebrewed Christianity to be part of a conversation with the great New Testament scholar, John Dominic Crossan, on the topic of the Resurrection. Homebrewed Christianity (with the Westar Institute) hosted a five week lecture series with Crossan — The Historical Jesus: The Evolutionary Challenge of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant.
As many of you know, Tripp Fuller is my podcasting partner in good theological trouble! And Tripp and Dom asked me to step in following the final lecture for a live discussion.
The videos are wonderful. Dom’s lecture on what he calls the “Great Omission” in the New Testament — and how both the Western and Eastern churches tried to fill the gospels’ gap with (conflicting) theological metaphors for Jesus’ exaltation — is original, stimulating, and theologically eye-opening.
It was an honor to join them for the live conversation (this was my only contribution to the series) following the lecture. It was supposed to be an hour — but we honestly were enjoying ourselves and the topic so much that we couldn’t stop! The penultimate moment in this wide-ranging, theologically rich discussion was when Dom Crossan said clearly and passionately what he really thinks about the Resurrection. I’ve known him for years — and his moving answer surprised me.
If you think the only options for understanding the Resurrection are a literal bodily one or a spiritual de-mythologized one, hold on to your theological bonnet. A new wind blows — and the Holy Spirit was at work in these recordings.
These videos were behind the Homebrewed paywall. But we think the ideas here are so important that Tripp gifted them to the entire Cottage community. We hope you will take some time and listen to one or the other or both before Easter.
Lecture: Jesus’ Vindication: How is that Exaltation to be Imagined?
John Dominic Crossan, the Historical Jesus series from Homebrewed Christianity and Westar Institute
Livestream: The Resurrection of Jesus with John Dominic Crossan, Tripp Fuller, and Diana Butler Bass
Produced by Homebrewed Christianity and Westar Institute as part of the Historical Jesus series
If you enjoy this free lecture and conversation, you can register for the entire course HERE. There is a voluntary donation fee for access (that goes to Homebrewed Christianity, not the Cottage).
INSPIRATION
Not soon, as late as the approach of my ninetieth year,
I felt a door opening in me and I entered
the clarity of early morning.
One after another my former lives were departing,
like ships, together with their sorrow.
And the countries, cities, gardens, the bays of seas
assigned to my brush came closer,
ready now to be described better than they were before.
I was not separated from people,
grief and pity joined us.
We forget - I kept saying - that we are all children of the King.
For where we come from there is no division
into Yes and No, into is, was, and will be.
We were miserable, we used no more than a hundredth part
of the gift we received for our long journey.
Moments from yesterday and from centuries ago -
a sword blow, the painting of eyelashes before a mirror
of polished metal, a lethal musket shot, a caravel
staving its hull against a reef - they dwell in us,
waiting for a fulfillment.
I knew, always, that I would be a worker in the vineyard,
as are all men and women living at the same time,
whether they are aware of it or not.
— Czeslaw Milosz, “Late Ripeness”
God wills that we see ourselves as God’s beloved.
God wills our resurrection, our passage from death to life.
God wills for us food and drink that satisfy our hunger and thirst.
God wills, comprehensively, our well-being — not just my well-being as an individual but the well-being of all of us and of the whole of creation.
— Marcus Borg
Let all creation rejoice, and all the earth be glad; for Hades and the enemy have been spoiled. Let the women meet me with myrrh; for I redeem Adam along with Eve and all their descendants, and will rise on the third day.
— Canon of Great Saturday, Eastern Orthodox tradition
Thank you, Diana. You, Dr. Crossan and Rev. Fuller are part of a vanguard of emergent Christianity.
The Resurrection is one of the difficult parts of the NT. Dom Crossan provides the most rational and believable explanation to date--in the past 2,000 years. And his take is grounded in scholarship.
The three of you are "doing the Lord's work."
I have no words to describe the impact this discussion has had on me. But I am so grateful to you three, Diana, Tripp and Dominic for sharing your knowledge, wisdom and faith with all of us. Of course I will have to return to these recordings a few times to get a better, fuller understanding of this mystery. THANK YOU ALL!