Well the time has rolled around for the second session tonight, titled "Why Did Jesus Die"?
It will be interesting to see exactly how much we address the "old ground" from last week moving forwards; we didn't seem to me to have reached a definitive and unilateral conclusion on the historical nature of Jesus, and I sense this will present problems tonight.
Much of the content seems to be designed with the same kind of logic as CS Lewis's quote - that if you accept the preface of the first session, then the second follows on with what appears to be the completely sound deployment of reason. It seems that the argument is a cumulative one.
Akin to standing on a bridge with several toll booths across it, I find that the price of even the very first is extremely expensive, and that I am supposed to make an enormous leap of faith that suspending my judgement is going to be worth the rewards on the other side. It's a metaphor that extends beyond the Alpha course...!
The structure makes sense from one perspective - how can any sensible discussion occur of what the death and resurrection of Jesus actually means if you don't accept that he existed in the first place?
So to continue in the spirit that the course intends, I suppose it's going to be an exercise in suspending these concerns (and dodging through that toll booth without paying) in the interests of getting a rounded overview of Christian beliefs, exactly the flexibility that Christianity does not itself afford - you can't selectively believe the bible after all.
They're beliefs. Not facts. This is where the water gets extremely murky.
I am still deeply undecided about this. Again, my own position was possibly hasty. I'm prepared to accept that Jesus was a man. I'm not prepared at this stage to accept he was the son of God, and crucially that he even claimed he was.
The comment from David last week keeps coming back to me - that I'm "in the right place" to address these concerns. I guess we will discover whether that's really true moving forwards.
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