Much in the Resurrection story is set in the context of cosmology. Those persons who encountered Jesus after he died did not claim to have seen “the historical Jesus” but “the risen Lord,” i.e., the Cosmic Christ. A cosmological victory over the pessimism of death and destruction is announced by the Resurrection events. Angels are part of the stories and, as we have seen, they are part of the Cosmic Christ events from the Nativity to the “glory” of the first Easter Sunday. In Matthew’s Gospel, an earthquake accompanies the Resurrection and an “angel of the Lord” rolls back the stone from the tomb in which Jesus was interred. (Mt 28:2)
As theologian Edward Schillebeeckx said, “In antiquity, anthropology and ethics are seen against a cosmic background, i.e., one determined by heavenly spirits. Therefore, Jesus’ resurrection is ipso facto an enthronement of the Lord Jesus over all angelic powers.”
The resurrection answers an age-old fear that psychologist Otto Rank calls the number one issue for humans–it dictated the building of the pyramids and the construction of empires and the ancient cries of “God save the King.” It is the fear of death, and the issue of immortality. Do we survive after this life or not? Is all we do for naught? Is there an afterlife?
Do we have to build empires and pyramids to somehow insure our immortality? The Egyptians believed that by burying the Pharaoh just right, the rest of the community might participate vicariously in his afterlife, thus, the great project of the pyramids. Rank said that Jesus and Paul’s teachings about resurrection “democratized immortality,”—now all were eligible for life after death. Resurrection is not just for kings and pharaohs, but for everyone.
Podcast episode here.
This means, above all else, that we can get on with living now, because even the simplest among us need no longer fear death or take on grand projects to stave off mortality by way of a participation mystique. That release of fear, Rank felt, was the deeper meaning of the Resurrection—and that is why he called the Resurrection “the most revolutionary idea” humans have ever come up with. (Incidentally, Rank was a Jew and not a Christian). To believe in resurrection is to surrender our fear of death and the power that that fear holds over us. It follows that one becomes critical of “immortality projects” and “lives in order to live” as Meister Eckhart teaches. One enters eternal life in this life and not another.
Theologian Thomas Aquinas taught that there are “two resurrections”—the first is waking up in this lifetime and if you do that you do not have to worry about the second resurrection.
In my recent dialogs with Bruce Chilton on his important new book on the Resurrection, he points out that Paul, the first gatherer of New Testament resurrections stories, essentially equates resurrection with a mystical experience of waking up—like he did on falling off his horse. to be continued
Adapted from Matthew Fox and Bishop Marc Andrus, Stations of the Cosmic Christ (Unity Books, 2016),
See, Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, pp. 144ff.
pp. 128-132. Matthew Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas, pp. 167-172.
See also: Bruce Chilton, Resurrection Logic: How Jesus’ First Followers Believed God Raised Him from the Dead.
Banner Image: Rays of light shining on Daytona Beach, FL. Photo by Ravi Pinisetti on Unsplash.
What does the Resurrection mean to me and to my community? Have we moved beyond our fear of death—and fear of life? How much a part of Resurrection are we? How unafraid of death? How willing are we to live fully and love fully, and act creatively?
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe.
“This book is a classic.” Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth.
Resurrection Logic: How Jesus’ First Followers Believed God Raised Him from the Dead
Bruce Chilton investigates the Easter event of Jesus in Resurrection Logic. He undertakes his close reading of the New Testament texts without privileging the exact nature of the resurrection, but rather begins by situating his study of the resurrection in the context of Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek, and Syrian conceptions of the afterlife. He then identifies Jewish monotheistic affirmations of bodily resurrection in the Second Temple period as the most immediate context for early Christian claims. Chilton surveys first-generation accounts of Jesus’ resurrection and finds a pluriform–and even at times seemingly contradictory–range of testimony from Jesus’ first followers. This diversity, as Chilton demonstrates, prompted early Christianity to interpret the resurrection traditions by means of prophecy and coordinated narrative.
Stations of the Cosmic Christ
By Matthew Fox and Bishop Marc Andrus.
This is a book of meditations on the Cosmic Christ, accompanying the images of 16 wonderful clay tablets by Javier Ullrrich Lemus and M.C. Richards. Together, these images and meditations go far beyond the traditional Stations of the Cross to inspire a spirit awakening and understanding of the cosmic Christ Consciousness, Buddha consciousness, and consciousness of the image of God in all beings, so needed in our times.
“A divinely inspired book that must be read by every human being devoted to spiritual and global survival. It is cosmically brilliant.” — Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
Stations of the Cosmic Christ
By Matthew Fox and Bishop Marc Andrus.
This is a book of meditations on the Cosmic Christ, accompanying the images of 16 wonderful clay tablets by Javier Ullrrich Lemus and M.C. Richards. Together, these images and meditations go far beyond the traditional Stations of the Cross to inspire a spirit awakening and understanding of the cosmic Christ Consciousness, Buddha consciousness, and consciousness of the image of God in all beings, so needed in our times.
“A divinely inspired book that must be read by every human being devoted to spiritual and global survival. It is cosmically brilliant.” — Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
2 thoughts on “Easter, 2021”
Taking the resurrection of the physical historical Jesus literally would raise many obvious questions about his post resurrection life: did he marry, work as a carpenter, become a father, die in old age, get reburied…..
Taking the doctrine of ‘virgin birth’ and Mary [Miriam’s] perpetual virginity literally also raises many questions. A first major question occurred to me while I was reading about the witch hunts: Did the Dominican authors of the Malleus Maleficarum – which gave explicit directions on how to torture women – retreat to their chapels after a successful torture session and kneel before a pristine statue of the Blessed Virgin to pray for blessings on the souls of the females whom they had suspected of every carnal sin generated by their own hard core ecclesial biases?
Gwen, you have questions and rightly so. There was a time in history when it might have seemed as if accepting everything we were told to believe made one a better person–more worthy of salvation (because you weren’t a heretic). But I have learned that to question is the beginning of wisdom and the beginning of deciding for ourselves what it is that WE believe. The Dominicans have produced some excellent theologians and mystics such as Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckhart and Matthew Fox but the two Dominicans who wrote the Malleus were definitely not two of them !!!