Liberal Christianity

Lesson 3: Jesus: History, Mystery and Doubt

Jesus and Paul

Gnosticism, among other things, has been described as existing prior to Christianity and as the single pagan religious belief system that had the greatest impact on and conflict with early Christian thinking. Arguments have been made the Paul was in fact a Gnostic; that one reason why there is very little biographical reference to Jesus or his dramatic activities and sermons in Paul's writings is because Paul was more focused on a "Christ concept" than on the actual life and acts of historical Jesus.

It has been suggested that to Paul, the historical Jesus was incidental to the religion Paul worked to establish.

Exercises: 1. Using your Internet search engine, make several searches using the words "Gnosticism", "Paul and Gnosticism", "Gnostic Christian heretics", "Gnostics inquisition."

a. Christian Gnostics believed in a historical Jesus. How did this belief differ from the Christian Catholic majority or dominant view?

b. Why were Gnostics perceived as a threat to the Roman church and labeled heretics?

c. Do you think Paul might have been Gnostic or had Gnostic leanings?

2. Pre-Roman Catholic Christians did not have the Nicene creed and did not view Jesus as God. Jesus was in fact "voted up" as God by Catholic Fathers after 300 A.D. How do you think the earliest Christians perceived and preached Jesus in addition to a profound belief that he was the Jewish Messiah?

a. Gnostics declared that they experienced a more powerful faith because, rather than being God, Jesus was mortal himself and showed them the way to know God. Why do you think they felt that way?

b. If Jesus was the Jewish Messiah who had been expected to lead the Jews to an overthrow of Rome at that time, what changed for early Christians? Why do you think they did not abandon Jesus as a false messiah living or dead?

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