Media on Jesus

As Easter approaches, we are in the middle of "National Write about Christianity" week. One of the most interesting articles in this vein appeared in Salon earlier this week.
It is an interview with the famous Biblical scholar Elaine Pagels about "The Gospel According to Judas." I read this gospel last year when it came out, along with the commentary included in the published version, but I guess I didn't totally get it. Pagels says the gospel was written around the same time as the gospel according to John (at the end of the First Century or early in the Second Century, or about 1900 years ago.)

Pagels helped me to put the gospel in context by explaining that the author (probably a fan of Judas, not Judas himself, who was long dead by then) was advocating an alternative position on Christian martyrdom. At the time this book was written, Christians were widely persecuted. According to popular Christian history, the "right" choice for Christians, if confronted by civil authorities and accused of being a Christian, was to publicly embrace your faith and just take the torture and even death that followed. Pagels says that the gospel according to Judas is advocating a "those who fight and run away live to fight another day" position.

My formal education in early church history was completed 19 years ago (I am getting sooo old) but I do remember what I learned about this topic. While martyrs (those who were persecuted and/or died for their faith) have always been celebrated and honored, the church made a provision for those who renounced the faith under the strain of persecution. Indeed, it was this very thing that apparently led the early church to create the act of penance. Penance was originally a one-time chance for a serious sinner to redeem him/herself. According to my Church History Professor (Mark Burrows, now of Andover Newton seminary) the sinful act for which a person received penance was usually cracking under the pressure of persecution and renouncing Christianity.

We think of this as something that only happened in the distant past, but I personally know people (not from the US) who were tortured for their Christian faith, so this is not necessarily a dead issue, though it is not really an issue in the United States today.

The other thing it brings up is the idea that there was never a time when all Christians agreed about major matters of faith. There have always been different ways of understanding and practicing faith.

Read the Salon article (you must watch a brief ad first.)


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