The Puzzle of Christianity. Peter Vardy

Orthodox Christians have traditionally been suspicious of Western Christianity and have sought to remain faithful to the tradition of the early Church, whilst liberal Christians in the West have often diluted traditional Christian beliefs to such an extent that not much remains.

      The history of Christianity has been full of disagreements, with so-called ‘heretical’ groups being persecuted because of their deviance from what was accepted as orthodoxy. There was no unity in the early centuries of Christianity, with a considerable range of different interpretations and beliefs. Forging unity and then seeking to maintain this has also been a challenge and it has particularly occupied the main Christian churches. There has been violence, torture and persecution as well as fierce attacks over what may seem to be small points of doctrine. It would be easy to reject the whole of Christianity on these grounds and many critics have done so. And yet, beneath the tensions and the sometimes violent disagreements, like the De profundis or the deep tone of a bass bell, there is something profound, significant and important happening – something of enormous contemporary relevance and something on which hundreds of millions of people down the centuries have been willing to stake their lives. Christianity has been responsible for some of the greatest art and the greatest acts of heroism and altruism, as well as compassion, nobility and virtue – as well as, it must be admitted, terrible persecution and suffering. Christian thinkers have generated some of the most profound philosophy as well as science and business practice. European culture has been founded on Christianity and this has been exported around the globe. Many of the internationally accepted values endorsed by the United Nations have Christian origins.

      To understand Jesus of Nazareth it is important to understand the culture in which He lived. The Roman Empire 2,000 years ago covered most of central and southern Europe as well as North Africa. Its armies were dominant and its civilian administration, although reasonably fair, was harsh and unyielding, as well as viciously cruel to those who dissented. Being a Roman citizen carried great privileges and most of the inhabitants of the territories that Rome conquered longed to share in the wealth, power and prosperity of the Empire. Slaves were common and slavery was accepted. Slaves often came from the nations conquered by Rome in battle but they could rise to positions of influence. Most, however, were desperately poor and appallingly treated. Society was clearly hierarchical with the great families of Rome at the top. Money was of central importance, as in most societies, and a certain amount of social mobility was possible, but always within fairly narrow limits. Any resistance to the Imperial power of Rome was suppressed viciously and effectively. The Roman Senate and the Emperor had ultimate power, but this was delegated to administrators and officials in the various territories of the Empire. However, these officials all recognised that they were fully accountable to Rome for keeping order, for sending taxes back to Rome and also for ensuring that Roman values and Roman religion were maintained. Rome had its own pantheon of gods, and emperors were sometimes deified. The Jews held a special position, as their religion was tolerated. Rome occupied Palestine and what had been, in the remote past, independent Jewish territory. Unlike many subservient peoples, the Jews were proud and continually dreamed of regaining their freedom. Their lands had been frequently conquered in the past but, eventually, they had always regained their independence, and at the time of Jesus there were many who dreamed that this independence would come again.

      Jesus was a Jew and this culture was second nature to Him. Jews were the first monotheists – the first to worship a single God. Jews were proud of their identity. The Roman authorities left them free to practise their religion, provided they obeyed the laws of Rome and paid the very considerable taxes that were demanded of them. The Temple in Jerusalem had recently been rebuilt but Rome asserted its domination by occupying one of the corner towers. Rome had little time for Jewish religion and practices but they were tolerated, not out of sympathy but because it was the easiest way of keeping a potentially troublesome people quiet. There was a vassal king, Herod, who was allowed a limited degree of autonomy, and the Jewish priests were also allowed a certain amount of freedom to manage religious affairs.

      In understanding any period in history the cultural context is important and this is undoubtedly the case when seeking to understand Jesus of Nazareth. In the case of Jesus, however, His national background was even more important than that of almost any other historical figure. To say that He was a Jew does not begin to capture what this meant; the depth of culture, theology, civilisation, expectations, disappointments, resentments and hope that lay behind this single word was massive. Jews, more than almost any other nation, are a people with a long history. They saw history as the arena in which their God, the God of the whole creation, cared for and looked after them in spite of great suffering. Jews saw themselves – and still do – as a people chosen by God, the chosen people whom God would always protect and, in the last analysis, preserve. This hope and expectation has always been borne out in spite of the most terrible persecution and oppression as well as systematic attempts at genocide. The other nations and sects of the ancient Middle East have all disappeared; the Moabites and Assyrians, the Philistines and the Babylonians, the Romans and Greeks have all been swept away, to be replaced by nation states with changing boundaries and identities. However, Jewish identity has been preserved.

      Figure 1: A Torah scroll is the holiest book in Judaism. It is hand written by a scribe in Hebrew and contains the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures. Every synagogue has such a scroll and Jesus would have read from one like this (see Luke 4:16–20).

      In order, therefore, to begin to understand the person of Jesus of Nazareth it is essential to understand something of Jewish history – or at least history as it was seen by the Jews and recorded in the Torah and the other books which Christians refer to as the Hebrew Scriptures. These Scriptures tell the story of the history of a people and their interaction with their God: of their origins, their faith, their failures, their hopes and disappointments. Modern scholars differ about the extent to which this story is historically accurate but there is no doubt that it was considered as true by Jews at the time of Jesus and, indeed, by many Jews and Christians today. In the next chapter a very brief account will be given of this history, and this is not mere background. It is not possible to understand what Christianity is until one has understood that Jesus was a Jew and He was seen as a fulfilment of the Jewish Scriptures. Jesus, Christians believe, is the highest point of God’s love for, and interaction with, the world. It is no mere coincidence that He was born as a Jew. God’s relation with the people of Israel goes back to the dawn of recorded time and, as history develops and God interacts with human beings and human affairs, it is Jesus who brings to fruition all the long history and expectation of the people of Israel.

       TWO

       From the Beginning of the Universe

      Christians see the world as created by God and dependent on God. God sustains the universe in existence and, were it not for God, there would be no universe. The universe is incredibly orderly and behaves according to mathematical and physical laws. These laws are intelligible to human beings and the universe as a whole has meaning and purpose grounded in the will of God. This is one of the most important Christian beliefs and it is shared by Jews, Muslims and many others around the world. For Christians, God is loving as well as personal and wills the universe into existence as a free act of love for the whole of creation.

      We now know that the universe began to exist from a singularity – the infinitely small, dense matter which suddenly expanded in the ‘Big Bang’ and from which the present state of the universe can be traced. The dating of the universe is generally agreed by scientists to be about 13.7 billion years ago and scientists also agree that the specific conditions which enabled the ‘Big Bang’ to occur had to be unbelievably precise for a universe to form at all. There are various possible ways of seeking to explain the incredible improbability of the singularity. One explanation is to say that ‘it just happened’. Extraordinary and improbable things do happen and the universe is just one of those improbable things. Another is to say that there are a near-infinite