1. The Resurrection: Myth or Reality
To list challenges against the claim that the resurrection really happened
To describe & evaluate views of Bultmann & NT Wright (prot.)
R Bultmann
NT Wright present

2. How could you oppose the claim that Jesus resurrected?
The Jesus Appearances
Hallucinations, from grief (eg sense of a loved one’s presence)
Wish fulfillment: did not want Messiah they had believed in to be dead
Fraud: disciples did not want the Jesus-movement to die, so invented appearances.
No corroborating evidence: no external historical documents record resurrection eg Tacitus, Josephus (do mention crucifixion)
No impartial witnesses eg Jews, romans
Others myths of resurrection eg Mithras
The Missing Body
Someone could have just taken the body away, to give the impression he had risen
It could have been the wrong tomb
Swoon theory - Jesus never died, just “swooned” and recovered later, so he was not buried

3. He always had a smile, and it would put me in a good mood…
Bultmann
“Form” critic - analyses the “form” the gospels to find that they are written in (hymns, sayings, prophecies, parables..not by one single author writing history!)
concluded that the gospels DO NOT record Jesus’ actual personality or teaching.
Rather they show the way Christians remembered and passed on who Jesus was to them.
No point in trying to find actual historical facts about Jesus from the gospels.
Is this “lack of hard facts” a problem for faith?
Bultmann thinks this lack of historical fact is not a problem.
The gospels use mythical language to communicate deep, life-changing truths.
We today need to uncover these truths, and pu them into our own way of speaking, so they can mean something to us.
He always had a smile, and it would put me in a good mood…

4. the central meaning of the gospel message for today. Demythologised.
DON’T FRET ABOUT THE FACTS
No facts you can be sure of.
Facts by themselves don’t lead to faith - faith comes from hearing the apostolic preaching: without this, facts mean nothing.
How Bultmann sees the gospel
Early Christians “tell” the story of Jesus in mythical language (eg “Son of God”, Jesus “died for our sins”, Jesus “walks on water” etc)
Today, we need to demythologise – strip away the mythical language, to get back to the inside “truths” they were trying to tell us
The demythologised gospel makes better sense to modern minds. But we won’t ever get back to the “bare facts”. The “bare facts” do not teach us anything by themselves anyway. We need the apostolic preaching. (the kerygma)
Gospel as Myth
Eg heaven/ hell/ resurrection. Jesus is as the Son of God. Jesus’ death is death for our sins. This is all mythological language. Not helpful..
Kerygma
the central meaning of the gospel message for today. Demythologised.
Myth = the use of imagery to speak about other worldly realities. Myths are true when properly understood.

5. No certain facts myth The kerygma demythologising
Explain what Bultmann’s project is.
Do you think demythologizing the gospel is a good way to read the gospel?
Do you stand to lose anything if you do this?
The kerygma
demythologising

6. What do you get, if you try to “demythologise” the resurrection?
An other-worldly afterlife
God’s wrath
What are the “mythological elements” you might need to strip away?
What do you get left with?
Heaven / hell
Resurrected bodies
Jesus the divine Son of God
there is a higher power (God)
this power sees and judges human actions
it vindicates the just
Resurrected life is life of a different kind: defeating death in the hope and power of the spirit.
Human life now has the possibility of having the life of God within it.
we can live this resurrected life now if we are baptised in Jesus’ name

7. Which alternative? Believe the mythological:
Reduces to ethical teachings:
The resurrection, like the rest of the gospel, is to teach us ethics – truths about living in our life today.
And tells us about our final hope as humans: (eschatology) the resurrection reveals God’s ultimate judgement, forgiveness and gift of resurrection life (hope and love that defeats death & despair)
Believe the mythological:
ignore the scientific evidence
Believe in people rising from the dead
Believe in another actual life apart from biological life
Believe in heaven/ hell

8. Harry Potter gets told that “it’s all happening in his mind” – but is it less true for that?

9. The Resurrection as Truth
Can the resurrection be seen as a “truth”, rather than a fact?
Do facts matter?
Or believing the kerygma the key to faith?
Whatever the “facts” of the resurrection might be, we can never know. We only know that it happened. The resurrection is a truth about reality. (God’s judgment, saving presence, forgiveness)
Faith is not faith in facts, but belief in the preaching of the Apostles. The Apostles preached the kerygma, not facts
You cannot know that we have been forgiven from sin, from just looking at the fact that Jesus died on a cross.
You cannot know that God gives us resurrected life, just from the fact of the resurrection. You need the Apostles’ preaching for this.
What matters is believing the kerygma - the gospel message preached by the disciples. They knew Jesus, what he meant for them. It changed them. We put our faith in their preaching.

10. NT Wright : Resurrection as Reality ….let’s recap Bultmann first..
myth
demythologising
No certain facts
Facts don’t “mean”
The kerygma

11. NT Wright – Historical Reliability of the Resurrection
We looked at how you might deny that the resurrection happened. - the missing body - the Jesus appearances
Bultmann thought the only way to make sense of the gospel is to demythologise it – extract the kerygma. Faith is not faith in facts, but in the Apostolic preaching/ kerygma: that alone enables you to understand the “facts”.
NT Wright argues that facts DO matter. Because the missing body + the appearances are persuasive – Bultmann’s “myths” are actually facts !! Only because it happened, do we turn our ears to hear the apostolic preaching about it.
What evidence or arguments could be used to show that the resurrection must have happened?

12. NT Wright’s counter arguments
Based on two arguments
That only Jesus’ real resurrection solves some puzzles that can’t otherwise be explained
Jesus’ appearances: hallucinations theory not convincing. The 4 gospel accounts. Women. Style.
Early Christians’ behaviour
Christians beliefs in the resurrection differed from Jewish notions - the 7 mutations: there must be a reason why..
You have 5 post-its
Go around the room, and for 5 of the arguments, write and leave a comment about it (explaining why you agree/ disagree)
Which arguments score most against Bultmann

13. How did NT Wright score? Were his points persuasive for you?
Style of narrative
Jewish Messiah beliefs – would die
Reaction – go preaching
Women witnesses
Behaviour of Christians
Hallucinations? - unlikely to deny J died
Disciples following
Jewish - no resurrection belief
Empty tomb AND appearances

14. B. The 7 mutations Christian belief in the afterlife began to show significant differences from Jewish beliefs.
Read the 7 mutations, then abbreviate them onto a mindmap
Summarise in a paragraph some of the arguments in his mutations.

15. B. The 7 mutations Christian belief in the afterlife began to show significant differences from Jewish beliefs.
In Judaism, belief in the resurrection is not very important.Resurrection is central to Christian belief. “If Christ has not been raised then your faith is in vain, and we are the most pitiable” (St Paul)
Christians claimed Jesus was the Messiah, precisely because of the resurrection. But in Judaism, the Messiah was not even meant to die, let alone resurrect, as his task was political liberation and rule.
There is a new metaphorical concept of resurrection, referred to as being “born-again”. In Judaism, resurrection simply meant return from exile, coming home, in a literal way.
In Christianity, if Jesus is resurrected, then Christians must work to transform the world towards this future of resurrection. There is a new view of what collaborating with God means.
no diversity of belief among Christians about resurrection – unlike in Judaism
In Judaism, the resurrection takes place on judgment day in a general resurrection as a large-scale event happening to all God’s people, or the whole race. Never would Jews believe that resurrection had happened to one individual person in the middle of history.
In Judaism, it is vague what sort of body the resurrected body will be. For Christians, it will be definitively an incorrupt, transformed body with new properties. It is a new creation by God.
Subtitle these and rank them according to most different from Jewish ideas

16. NT Wright recap
The 7 mutations – how Christian beliefs differed from Jewish ones
Reasons why the resurrection must have happened
`born-again”
Diversity Jewish resurrection belief, not central
Type of resurrected body
Fact of individual resurrection
Messiah expectations
Working in world
style
Jewish Messiah belief
women
preaching
behaviour
Disciples following
Jewish resurrection belief
Empty tomb AND appearances
Claim based on real experience

17. Myth or Reality? Did the resurrection actually happen ?
Bultmann – his demythologising approach, to uncover the kerygma - more reliable and relevant than facts
NT Wright – the resurrection is more than myth – only if it really happened can we explain changes from Jewish afterlife beliefs, and explain puzzles in the actual story.
Debate:
Opening statements, main arguments, conclusion (responding to opposition).
Bultmannians
NT Wrightians

18. The nature of the after-life

19. The resurrected body – A, B The soul – C The after-life: B, D
Highlight the evidence for each of the 4 topics.
Summarise this info, using quotes. You can do it as a detailed A3 poster.
eg for Death, highlight in texts B and C. Then summarise. (Why death happens, what it means for us etc)
Death – B, C
The resurrected body – A, B
The soul – C
The after-life: B, D
A. John 20-21
The Resurrection appearances/ resurrected body of Jesus (what he could do/ how disciples responded to him).
B. 1 Cor 15
Paul on why we die (vs16-19; 50)
what is the afterlife we can hope for (vs.21-28).
vs on resurrection of the body.
C. Matthew 20:28
Jesus on the immortality of the soul
D. Philippians 1:21-24
The afterlife as Paul sees it

20. The nature of death & the after-life
A. John The Resurrection appearances.
Unlimited by space/ time: goes through locked doors, appear at relevant moments.
All knowing – knows thoughts of Doubting Thomas even though was not present.
Eats at will, not from necessity: physical body following will of the spirit. Handles physical objects eg food, walking on a road.
Same human form: recognised as same person. Wounds. Same voice (Mmagdalene). Same memories / relationships.
Unexpectedly humble form: not “shining brightly” like an angel, other-worldly figure, as might expect a victorious Messiah to be. Even mistaken for a gardener, or a fellow traveller. Not immediately recognised.
B. 1 Cor 15 The Resurrected Body
As Adam died, so we, like him can only expect physical, biological life. But if joined to Christ, like him, can expect new-physical, eternal life. A new creation.
If sins are not forgiven, then Christ is dead to God, and we are dead to God. But if in Christ they are forgiven, then we can have life in God. (cf. Mt 10:28 The devil/ sin can kill).
The 4 characteristics of resurrected body (PIGS):
Powerful: no longer depends on limitations of this physical world
Imperishable: can no longer die
Glorious: shares in holiness and splendour of God
Spiritual : it is a heavenly body ie body animated by an eternal spirit