If we understand religion as a foundational social technology, where the stories and symbols and rituals change human behavior and are in fact the exclusive point of the religion, then the literal history does not matter for any spiritual purpose. It is of some interest to see how the religion developed for an anthropologist or historian, but there’s not going to be any important “history” to be discovered for the practicing Christian. The Christ that a Christian worships is the Christ that he learns socially, or in rare cases from self-study, but he’s “historical” only insofar as stories utilize history as a foreground. See how the renaissance painters of Europe depicted the Biblical scenes as occurring in their own day, their own ethnicity, their own fashion. Same with the early Japanese artists. The “real history” is only a distraction here.maryhelena wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2024 8:58 am
Seriously though, history is important not just for people today but also for the gospel writers. It is history that has the potential to throw its light upon the gospel Jesus story. All theology can do is lead the way to an intellectual graveyard.
It is actually the theologian who comes in to rejuvenate the religious symbols. Consider the apostle who wrote this decidedly non-literal passage:
There is no interest in history here. Christ’s act, real or imagined, though played out on a historical foreground is symbolically writ large. Noah is reinterpreted symbolically and numerologically. This is common among the early church fathers too, who are much more interested in understanding things allegorically than literally. And even the act of understanding something allegorically flies in the face of literal historical interest. Did God commit historical acts precisely so that they can be debated and reinterpreted by a theologian? Why not just explain the real meaning originally? Rather, the historical act is itself a symbol to draw people in, and then is understood allegorically for lessons depending on spiritual maturity.[1 Peter 3] For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water