Letter to the Editor: Battle Creek Enquirer
I enjoyed the recent article on the Jesus Seminar. In my opinion, Robert
Funk and his colleagues are performing a very important work. Many are put
off by this work because they fear it will result in a loss of faith by
those who explore it. In contrast, I believe that when faith is based on
a deliberate ignorance of known facts it remains weak and ever subject
to collapse.
We live in a society which emphasizes the importance of studying a
matter out in order to understand it as fully as possible. Doubt is an important
part of that process and must accompany faith in order to give balance to
a person's beliefs and outlook. As medieval philosopher Peter Abelard
once said, "By doubting, we come to examine, and by examining, we perceive
the truth."
Funk and his colleagues founded the Jesus Seminar after
having spent many years of frustration teaching at institutions who feared
the facts that could be gained from a historical study of
Christianity. Anyone who has studied the matter in any depth knows that
Christian scripture and doctrines have been subject to abuse by powerful
men for centuries. The Gnostic gospels, for example, are believe to have
been repressed not because of any false doctrines they contained but
rather for their subversive content.
The Jesus Seminar's goal is to get at the core of Jesus' life and words
by filtering out politically motivated and other inaccuracies that
have crept in over the centuries. It was Jesus himself who taught
that knowing the truth would set us free.
David Harris,
Eaton Rapids, Mich., Nov. 2000
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