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Thomas Jefferson ranks as one of our nations greatest intellects but not many people know that he rejected the notion of miracles. When he approached the scriptures he could not tolerate those passages which dealt with the supernatural. So what did he do? He wrote his own bible.
In the Thomas Jefferson Bible you will find only the moral teachings and historical events of Jesus' life. No virgin birth. No healing of Jairus' daughter. No walking on water. And, no resurrection. Here is how the his bible ends: "There laid they Jesus and rolled a great stone
at the mouth of the sepulcher and departed." Jefferson which you can read online (http://www.sullivan-county.com/deism/jeff_bible.htm) was titled: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted Textually from the Gospels.
The ethical Jesus as very important to Jefferson, proportionally as the Christ God was nothing but delusion to him. It is not like he did not believe in God, but he did not believe in the incarnation of God in Jesus.
On another tack, in the town of Guantanamo, three children of my congregation died during a fire, set accidentally by a candle lit to the memory of some saints by the children’s grandmother. Their mother went out to have a beer and padlocked their home door to prevent the kids from leaving while unsupervised. During the funeral which I officiated, harsh words were hurled at God.
Second slide
Thomas reaction to the question of faith is closer to the mother in Guantanamo than to Jefferson’s. Thomas has already lowered his expectations, Thomas, probably from a psychological stand point, was on his way to wholeness, by accepting the incontrovertible truth, that the man they have managed to believe was God, has just died like everybody else does. Thomas mourning had began, mourning for the tragic and shameful death of a delusional friend, friend nevertheless, mourning for the time and life lost in a futile enterprise of following Jesus. Probably feeling very embarrassed for having believed in someone, when the truth is that people should not be trusted. Thomas can not get his head, or perhaps his heart around the idea that God is a wounded God, that God is suffering God.
Although Jefferson’s unbelief and Thomas’s come from different strata of the edifice of faith, meaning the cognitive and the affective, Jefferson’s, namely Deism, come perhaps from a similar source buried in time.
Both for the mother in Guantanamo and the empiricists, the fundamental problem is Divine efficacy, if Jesus is true God he would have come down from the cross, he would have died, not suffered, he would have not be subject to other people’s wills and evil intentions, subject to the limitations of space and time. If Jesus was true God, he basically could not like us, vulnerable, toy of forces greater than our own wills.
Third Slide
The Black Death was one of the deadliest pandemic in human history, peaking in Europe between 1347 and 1351, around 40 to 50% of the European population died, with some countries averaging 70% of the population. Church response to the pandemic, prayers, ceremonies, masses and so on, had minimal impact, so the burning of Jews and witches. The prestige of the church and of God to certain extend was greatly affected. It marks the end of the Middle Ages and the transition to the Modern Era.
In 1492 Christopher Colombus travels to America and creates the idea of Europe, it also marks the emergence of the modern state and national languages. In 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis and initiated Protestantism. In 1564 the emergence of the scientific method in Europe was championed by Galileo Galilee. These are the headwaters of empirical knowledge. These are the headwaters of Jefferson’s thinking when hi put his Bible together.
So although for Jefferson Deism was the fashionable intellectual position to hold while involve in scientific research and the creation of a new nation, his position and the attitude of the mother in Guantanamo and by extension the response of Thomas all come from the same source; Divine efficacy.
Fourth slide
Year c. 1621-23 Artist Hendrick ter Brugghen predecessor of the great Dutch painters, one of the first and most influential caravaggists chiaroscuro technique in Utrecht, 1620 was the year that Europe was in full swing at expansion, the Mayflower pilgrims departed in September of that year,
1600 were also a time of profound change in thinking, in 1620 after being disgraced Francis Beacon wrote the Novum organon, the new organ that tries successfully to change the method of philosophical reflection,
incidentally he is the author of the aphorism "knowledge is power"
from deductive syllogism to interpret nature he believed that philosophical method should go
guided by inductive reasoning from fact to axiom to law.
Depicted on the painting: Jesus has appeared at the disciples a week earlier, incidentally scaring the beejezesus out of them, while they were meeting as the defeated shards of Jesus family, afraid -behind close doors- Thomas, the Twin was not present at that meeting and when he shows up, he refuses to believe what the other disciples were telling him and he utters the now famous words: unless I see and touch, I will not believe
The painting we are seeing here depicts the second appearance of Jesus, presumably done for the only purpose of convincing Thomas
There are four men around the central person of Jesus, he holds with one hand his robe open so the wound and the blood staining it can be seeing and the other he holds Thomas’s hand, like guiding it and controlling it at the same time
By the use of light, the central person is Jesus, and two other people at each side, his right and left sides, the other two disciples in the background praying and praising.
Fifth slide
One is obviously Thomas, at Jesus’s right your left, nicknamed The Twin (Dydimus) the one with the finger, whose eyes are so intent on the wound and his own finger, his face shows some repugnance at the idea of touching a wound, presumably of dead person, serious taboo for any observant Jew, his face is weathered and aged in part by following the man whose risen status he was about to prove
Sixth slide
The other person at Jesus’s left and your right I am puzzle by it. Has not being identified as far as I know. It does looks like a disciple, he is wearing glasses, an anachronistic device probably used to indicate learning, he is in a Thomas-state, finding out, he also wants to know and he is looking at Thomas probe with equal or more interest, his hands looks like the a bird of prey, and so is his face,
there is some jaded delight in his face as he follows the Thomas probe.
Seventh slide
The other two disciples in the background have being done with, they now believe, because they have seeing a week earlier. The one cover with the tallit or prayer shawl have his eyes closed and the other his eyes opened and gazing up above. They could stand for the church, now distanced to the back of the group, while religious intellectual pursuit (Thomas) and the world scepticism of the church claims (represented by the old man with his eye glasses) flack Jesus on his right and his left.
Eight slide
Dorothy Sayers: It is unexpected, but extraordinarily convincing, that the one absolutely unequivocal statement in the whole gospel of the Divinity of Jesus should come from Doubting Thomas. It is the only place where the word God is used ... without qualification of any kind, and in the most unambiguous form of words .... And this must be said -- not ecstatically, or with a cry of astonishment -- but with flat conviction, as of one acknowledging irrefutable evidence: '2 + 2 = 4,' 'That is the sun in the sky,' 'You are my Lord and my God!'
It is in the place of doubt that faith has found its birthplace.
The Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote an ambitious poem entitled 'The Wreck of the Deutschland.' It commemorates the death of five Franciscan nuns drowned on the German ship Deutschland at the mouth of the Thames in the winter of 1875. One half-line especially intrigues me: 'Let him easter in us.' Let Christ 'easter' in us. A rare verb indeed, but it suits this sacred
season, ... How does Christ easter in us? In three wondrous ways: (1) By a faith that rises above doubt. (2) By a hope that conquers despair. (3) By a love that does justice.
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