Voting on the Resurrection

In a few moments, Stephen Patterson and Dominic Crossan are going to lead a seminar on the resurrection. Here is the theme:

Dominic Crossan will air a video of images of the resurrection in a presentation entitled: The Resurrection of Jesus in Eastern Christianity: A Challenge in Visual Theology. According to Crossan, Jesus rises individually, triumphantly but very much alone in Western Christianity. In Eastern Christianity he rises communally and raises with him "those who had slept." What, he will ask, are the implications of that very different theological vision? Saturday, 9 a.m. to 12 noon

For discussion will be Patterson's paper he wrote for the event, "Was the Resurrection Christianity's Big Bang?"





Answer? Probably not. Here are the statements we will vote upon:

1. The resurrection was not the "big bang" that started Christianity. Recommendation: Red
2. The resurrection proclamation, in its various forms,was far too ambiguous to have convinced anyone that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Recommendation: Red
3. The earliest creedal statements about the resurrection (in Paul) derive from a process of social formation in which Jesus' followers gathered for worship and reflected on Jesus' fate and their own. Recommendation: Red
4. The forms of these creedal statements indicate the use of traditional Jewish lliturgical and scriptural traditions to interpret the meaning of Jesus' death for those who were devoted to him. Recommendation: Red

Feel free to vote in the comments:

Red: Yes
Pink: Probably so
Gray: Probably not
Black: No

Enjoy!