Page 33 - 200704 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - April 2007

The Mystery of Easter 33 The Mystery of Easter 33 The mystery of Easter The mystery of Easter Lunatic, liar or Lord? C.S. Lunatic, liar or Lord? C.S. Lewis's famous 'trilemma' is an Lewis's famous 'trilemma' is an uncompromising framework for uncompromising framework for the discussion of Christ's divinity. the discussion of Christ's divinity. Senior writer Robert Sibley Senior writer Robert Sibley considers the argument on this considers the argument on this Easter Monday, the day when 'all Easter Monday, the day when 'all the World is called to attention.' the World is called to attention.' Robert Sibley, Robert Sibley, The Ottawa Citizen The Ottawa Citizen When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing -- they believe in anything. -- G.K. Chesterton. It was not difficult to detect the undercurrent of malicious glee that greeted filmmaker James Cameron's announcement in empty." debatable, but unlike Mr. Cameron's, their late February that he and director Simcha Easter marks the Triduum Sacrum, the skepticism was based on the honourable pursuit Jacobivici had located the tomb of Jesus Christ three most sacred days of the year for of truth. They were responding to the perceived and his family. To publicize their documentary, Christians. These are the days -- Maundy failure of Catholic theology to account for the The Lost Tomb of Jesus, they held a press Thursday when Christ gave the command, the intellectual developments that resulted from the conference to proclaim that ossuaries found in mandatum, that we must love one another; rise of science and modern historical an ancient tomb in Jerusalem contained skeletal God's Friday, when He died on the Cross; and scholarship. remains and DNA testing indicated they were the Great Vigil of Resurrection, Easter Sunday, The modern age is particularly skeptical the bones of Jesus, his "wife" Mary Magdalene when He rose from the dead -- when, in the of the idea that a divine entity from "beyond" and "son" Judah. words of Richard John Neuhaus, "all the world entered this material world with a view to Never mind that the ossuaries were is called to attention." Only nowadays, many no "saving" its occupants. "The assumption that discovered in the 1980s, and archaeological longer pay attention, especially in western nature, history, and human consciousness can be experts have long since dismissed the idea that societies. Many no longer believe Christ is God. abruptly perforated by sacral manifestations they contain anything other than the bones of For them, the discovery of Christ's bones would from a realm beyond the ordinary has been ordinary mortals. That did not stop the director have demonstrated what they already assume -- rejected by modern skepticism," says theologian of Titanic and other sentimental Hollywood that Christianity has been little more than a John Haught. Somehow, though, this skepticism fictions from insisting his claims were honest 2,000-year spell of civilizational delusion, if not has turned from a pursuit of the truth to outright and sincere. madness. Unfortunately, few think through the hostility toward Christianity. When Friedrich The story had legs, of course. Much of immense consequences -- cultural, Nietzsche, the 19th century philosopher, the media abandoned any pretense to rational psychological, political and, most crucially, pronounced "God is dead" he meant that judgment, greeting the "news" with hyperbolic spiritual -- if Christianity's collapsed. Christianity had lost its moral and intellectual headlines and faux-serious broadcasts. The Moderns tend to think their values are hold over the mind of western man. Perhaps so: Miami Herald offered the smarmy headline: self-created projections of human will, and have Modern man has been very diligent in making "Documentary claims Jesus was dad." The nothing to do with some overarching divine sure He stayed dead. Daily Telegraph disingenuously asked "Is this authority. This mindset sidesteps the truth of Arguably, this Promethean impulse is the casket that contained Christ's bones?" The Christianity as the subterranean source of the source of contemporary anti-Christian Globe and Mail was positively giddy in giving western civilization, the feedstock for the rule attitudes. Not the fact that Christianity got so Cameron's story legitimacy: "If their evidence is of law, human rights, individual freedom, etc. many things "wrong," scientifically and verified, the film The Lost Tomb of Jesus, and a that we claim to cherish. In melding the Hebrew historically, but that we, as a civilization, feel companion book, would raise profound Biblical revelation and Greek philosophy secretly guilty about our deicide and fear the questions for Christians and their faith ..." (among other influences), Christianity possible consequences of such hubris. That we The story held up for a few days as the channeled the springs that nourished the should feel this fear produces the kind of media tracked down scholars who dismissed the western mind in all its dynamic spirit. resentment that expresses itself in quasi- matter as nonsense. And then the story faded Even if westerners don't recognize this, pathological behaviour toward Christianity and with no one, so far as I know, giving any non-westerners do. In his recent study of the the moral standards it represents. thought to what it would mean if anything close link between faith and reason, sociologist You might remember, for example, the to Cameron's claim was true. The fact is, the Rodney Stark quotes a Chinese scholar as uproar in 1987 over Andres Serrano's Piss Globe reporter was right, albeit for all the wrong saying, "The Christian moral foundation of Christ photograph showing a crucifix in a glass motives. In the words of theologian John social and cultural life was what made possible of urine. Why are contemporary artists so fond Galvin: If there was solid historical evidence to the emergence of capitalism and then the of depicting Christ in derogatory and even disprove some of the major tenets of successful transition to democratic politics. We obscene ways? Why is it acceptable to express Christianity -- Jesus's consciousness of his own don't have any doubts about this." contempt and hatred for Christianity -- the divinity, his miraculous and prophetic powers, I doubt Mr. Cameron ever heard this liberal intelligentsia defended Serrano's his crucifixion, the empty tomb and his bodily idea, but then he merely exemplifies the current freedom of expression -- when the same attitude resurrection, for example -- then "Christian faith fad for debunking Christianity. This fashion toward, say, Islam, would see you charged with would be seriously affected." Indeed, as St. Paul goes back to the 18th-century Enlightenment a hate-crime? said in a first-century A.D. letter to the philosophes -- Voltaire, Locke, Hume, etc. -- Corinthian church, "If Christ is not risen, then who thought Christianity was incompatible with .....To Be Continued In The Next Edition of our preaching is empty and your faith is also the new Age of Reason. Their claim remains The ‘X’ Chronicles