by Ernest Renan, a review.
I will start by saying here that I believe that Jesus of Nazareth whose story is given in the gospels did not live. By this I mean, a man whose mother was a virgin, father unknown and performer of miracles, who was killed on a cross and resurrected. This Jesus I have no belief existed. I would end this post here. There are those who have another Jesus, a preacher man. This Jesus is strange and I don’t know how many believers worship this Jesus.
The Jesus of Renan is the second type of Jesus, a man of his age. His Jesus does not perform any miracles, his Jesus was a moral teacher of his time. He bases his history of his hero on the gospel of John which in his view is the most authentic biography of Jesus. Further than that, he sanitizes his hero. To him the story of miracles are the imaginings of the biographer.
His Jesus is a real son of man of low birth but filled with a revolutionary mind. He makes his Jesus a victim of religious intolerance or rather that Jesus meets his death for opposing the old Mosaic or Jewish law. I almost liked his Jesus.
His Jesus, in calling himself a son of god does not imply that he is divine, on the contrary that in the imagination of this hero, he is one with god. He sees no distinction between himself and the god he worships. He, Renan, tells us, Jesus was aware that anyone who believed in god is a son of god. There is no special requirement. To be a son of god is to believe in god.
His Jesus doesn’t see himself as a god. In fact, he doesn’t see himself as a fulfillment of OT prophecy. He is aware of this prophecies and only uses them to his advantage when pushed by his disciples.
He has his Jesus inferior to John and only gets to rise to prominence with the arrest and eventual death of John. To Renan had John not died, Jesus would have remained an obscure rubble-rouser as many a man have been.
The Jesus of Renan is ignorant of Greek philosophy, is limited to a nondescript village where his congregation is composed almost entirely of the credulous of the nation. No learned men of science, of philosophy grace his meetings. Philo does not hear of him. Josephus born in 37 doesn’t mention any Christians.
He believes however that Jesus was the greatest moral teacher. That all of humanity has participated in forming Christianity. That Jesus’ greatest lesson was to teach a spiritual kingdom separate from the secular. A worship of the spirit.
In his view, the bloodshed we have had in the name of Jesus, is but an error of the enthusiasts and the priestly class. He believes a day will come when the true worship as started by Jesus will be resumed.
After reading this book, it is understandable why Renan couldn’t have been popular with the people of the church of his time. He paints a human Jesus on filled with great imagination of his power, who goes to his suicide willingly with a grandiose sense of his power and his mission.
This book is in my estimation a nice read. I enjoyed it.
Random thoughts 
I’ll have to read this. Sounds good. And it sounds like a book “real” Christians would hate. Gotta be good then. I’m writing a book on The Golden Boot called, “Read This Or The Golden Boot’ll Kick Yer Arse!” I’m crediting you and me as the last prophets of this great god. $Amen$
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True Christians would hate the book without a doubt. It is an easy read and quite good. He makes his Jesus a man of his time and brings to mind that post by John about him saying anything new, he couldn’t, he was ignorant of anything beyond the simple village he lived in.
Oh yes, that book deserve to be written
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Ha ha. I always chuckle at the thought of the Golden Boot. It’s a brilliant idea. Write that book, and I’ll read the hell out of it. 🙂
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I think we need to start kicking arses
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On a serious note, by the way, we totally do. Kick the rears until the bearers start thinking.
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I’ll send you a first edition and Mak and I will autograph it for you. For we two are the last prophets of The Golden Boot and we seek profit in the spreading of his foot to arse theology. $Amen$
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With all the compromises that Renan has apparently made in that book about Jesus, he might just as well have been describing Buddhism. And in fact, if you remove the ridiculous claims of miracles from the life and works of Jesus, he immediately attains an eerie similarity to Buddha – due to his new-age teachings. So is Renan trying to convert Christianity to Buddhism?
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No he is freeing Jesus from miracles and just having a great moral teacher.
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But what’s the difference between Buddha, and a Jesus who doesn’t perform miracles anywhere?
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The Jesus who did not perform miracles is not in the bible and no blood has been shed in his name
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Oh. I see. So Renan is actually referring to an entirely different Jesus, altogether. But if this is the case, doesn’t it raise the question of: “Why even bother describing a Jesus that’s supported by even lesser evidence than the biblical bible?”
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There are many who have gone the same route. The likes of Bert Erhman with a Jesus who is an itinerant preacher is not any different from the one of Renan.
Once it becomes difficult to prove the miracle working Jesus, a jesus must be invented
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Incredible. These religious people have almost limitless imagination and bullshit resources. Kill one of their key characters, and they’ll pull one from their rears almost immediately after. It’s like a hydra – chop off one of the heads, and another one grows immediately.
Thanks for your review of that book. Now I’m going to hunt for it, and read it.
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Talk to me nicely, I may just email you an epub version.
That is the one place the religious are most creative at, making up explanations
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Do you have a way of converting the epub into a PDF format? Currently, I don’t have an epub reader.
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I could see if I can get you a pdf sometimes tomorrow
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Alright. If you source that, send it over through email. Thanks.
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Not yet, brother, but I’m raising an army as we speak, and blood will flow soon enough! $Amen$
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I should not celebrate too soon? We should have people dying in the name of Golden Boot
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Not dying, per se, just receiving a bloody arse booting.
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Ah cool, that we can arrange
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The real Jesus also was as fat as f*ck, like Buddha. He supposed had a severe binge eating disorder. The apostles were FOREVER trying to drag his arse out of all you can eat restaurants. I read about all this in the long lost “Gospel of Bubba.” It was found with the Dead Sea Scrolls but few know about it. Now you do. Praise be The Golden Boot! $Amen$
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This sounds legit especially given the crowd he kept
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Renan should be careful. Seems his views on Jesus make sense. We can’t have that….
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No, we can’t have it
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He believes however that Jesus was the greatest moral teacher.
I believe my last post ruins this rather fanciful idea
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I think your post does.
I was hoping Jesus could at least have left us with the recipe for making wine from water
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Or Schnitzel!
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Sounds rather interesting. I’ll look out for it and perhaps give an unusual Christmas gift to some Christians.
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I think it would make a good Christmas gift especially to some of the visitors to your spot
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Really nothing to add about your review. Always like reading them. 🙂
There are so many good men/women who have lived and are still living to look up to and revere as a models. They are men/women who have made mistakes and errors. But they have admitted such and learned from them. We admire them for their truthfulness and willingness to help others. We only think of them as men and not as gods. We accept them as they are and do not falsely attribute nonsense powers to them.
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Here we have two problems, especially if we were to adopt renan’s views; a guy who had a grandiose idea of himself and biographers who give little care to honesty.
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One would think after 2000 years, the problem would be solved. 😦
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This is one of those problems that I don’t see ever being resolved. It’s too late in the day to entertain such hope
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Never say never. 🙂
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I agree, I omit the never but maintain chances are getting slimmer if they ever were any bigger
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Thanks for the review, my Nairobi brother! This son of a supposed omnipotent deity sounds as though he was a likeable fellow, and believable. Did you read it over the weekend? 🙂
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It has taken me quite a while to finish.
This was no son of a deity, omnipotent or otherwise
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