It is paradoxical that literal beliefs answer the ‘so what?’ question far less meaningfully than mythical interpretations. Christians believe in the virgin birth of Christ. With all due respect to those who hold it dear, this belief fails to answer the ‘so what?’ question at all. It might suggest the idea of the unworthiness of human sex and reproduction, which is a rather morbid interpretation and bolsters already negative and damaged views of sexuality. When once asked by a senior Russian communist industrialist to explain the why? of the virgin birth I struggled and failed, realising myself that there hardly was any meaningful meaning. The belief is in any case shrouded in mystery – was divine semen implanted or a formed foetus etc? It really makes little sense.
On the other hand, the same hardy communist was most moved by the story of the resurrection of Christ and immediately saw its significance.
This is typical of Russian Orthodoxy whose strands may still have permeated his awareness despite its severe repression under the communist regime. For Russian Orthodoxy, resurrection is more important than crucifixion, whereas for Protestant Christians it’s almost the other way round, since they place such extraordinary theological emphasis on the death of Christ. On one occasion the American evangelist Billy Graham invited a Russian Orthodox priest to accompany him on this preaching schedule and to offer comment.
The Russian priest complimented Graham on his talks, which he had clearly found more enlightened than he had expected, but made this point that a Russian Orthodox Christian would put much more emphasis on the resurrection than on the crucifixion. One of Tolstoy’s great novels is entitled Resurrection and the Russian word for Sunday voskresyeniya also means resurrection. But the question is what is being believed here?
Western evangelical Christians insist that a literal resurrection of a physical body is an essential litmus test of Christian belief. If you don’t believe this you are not a Christian. But why? And what’s the point? Believing in a bodily resurrection seems rather pointless given that there is no body whose absence then has to be explained by a subsequent ‘ascension’ and since the only outcome is to believe in the spiritual aspects of this resurrection – the Christian believes that the Spirit came to replace Christ on earth but this Spirit is invisible and non-incarnate. Indeed insisting on a bodily resurrection and deriding the concept of spiritual resurrection as ‘gnostic’ seems pointless when the bodily resurrection was itself such a short lived and temporary phenomenon.
We can get to a very similar outcome by another route. To some it will be heresy to claim that belief in the physical resurrection of Christ has less implication than embracing the myth of resurrection. The onus is then on them to say The Power of Myth: Resurrection Geoff Crocker argues that with stories like the Resurrection, myth has greater power than literalism.
A leaping March hare was seen as a symbol of the risen Christ. what the implication of believing in the literal bodily resurrection is. Is it victory over death? The ‘O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory?’ of 1 Corinthians 15? But death remains, often in agonising ways, and any victory over it is relegated to an afterlife, which becomes a necessary adjunct to derive meaning from the literal interpretation of resurrection. In any case the claimed literal resurrection of Christ, as of Lazarus, was not in an afterlife but back to contemporary life.
On the other hand the myth of resurrection has huge interpretative potential. Christ himself makes use of this myth interpretation when he says in John chapter 12 verse 24, ‘Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces a lot of grain’. This offers a wide range of enlightening, meaningful and applicable interpretations, which is more than can be said for the literal interpretation of resurrection. For example, hope can ever arise out of despair, fresh joy from depths of sorrow. Failed initiatives can generate new and maybe different sprouting. It is worth forgoing consumption now to invest to build for tomorrow. A new dawn sees the sun resurrected daily, spring resurrects dormant plant life. And we as human beings can find the resurrections in this life which regenerate. Loved ones who have passed away would not want mourning to suppress our lives for ever thereafter but would rejoice to see our joy resurrected so that in this sense at least death is not victorious.
Here is one major example where myth has greater power than literalism. We can reasonably and justifiably claim that the very extensive use of parables by Christ in his discourse makes myth more central to Christianity than literal beliefs, some of which, like literal belief in the Trinity, have caused more havoc than peace, more confusion than enlightenment and more heat than light.
The article is an extract from Geoff Crocker’s book Enlightened Philosophy, forthcoming from O Books in 2010.
Geoff Crocker studied economics and philosophy in the UK. He has worked extensively internationally advising multinational clients in industrial strategy and speaking at conferences on issues of faith and values. He is currently reading an MA in philosophy at Bristol University .
The article is an extract from Geoff Crocker's book Enlightened Philosophy, forthcoming from O Books in 2010.