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| Terry Eagleton |
Not all Christians believe in God. Back in the 1960s, a cult of so-called religionless Christianity briefly thrived, along with people who called themselves Christian atheists. This meant that they accepted the moral teachings of Jesus, but rejected what they saw as the theological baggage with which he had been lumbered.
Christian atheism leaves Jesus as a dispenser of moral maxims, in a long tradition from Confucius to Billy Graham. Yet as Julian Baggini recognises, not much of what he said was original. The injunction to love your neighbour as yourself goes back to the Old Testament. Jesus was a Jewish prophet who taught that the kingdom of justice and comradeship was at hand, and that a sign of its arrival would be the poor coming to power and the rich being sent away.
Outrageously, one of his parables suggests that the riff-raff of the back streets will take precedence in his kingdom over pious Jews who obey the Mosaic Law. He preached a kind of love that is ruthlessly impersonal ...
Continue reading @ The Guardian.
Outrageously, one of his parables suggests that the riff-raff of the back streets will take precedence in his kingdom over pious Jews who obey the Mosaic Law. He preached a kind of love that is ruthlessly impersonal ...
Continue reading @ The Guardian.
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