language of his time to give the old war cries a totally new and broader
content. It’s not surprising that he ended on the Cross. His radical tidings of
redemption were at odds with so many interests and power factors that he
had to be removed.
When we talked about Socrates, we saw how dangerous it could be to
appeal to people’s reason. With Jesus we see how dangerous it can be to
demand unconditional brotherly love and unconditional forgiveness. Even in
the world of today we can see how mighty powers can come apart at the
seams when confronted with simple demands for peace, love, food for the
poor, and amnesty for the enemies of the state.
You may recall how incensed Plato was that the most righteous man in
Athens had to forfeit his life. According to Christian teachings, Jesus was the
only righteous person who ever lived. Nevertheless he was condemned to
death. Christians say he died for the sake of humanity. This is what Christians
usually call the “Passion” of Christ Jesus was the “suffering servant” who bore
the sins of humanity in order that we could be “atoned” and saved from God’s
wrath.
Paul
A few days after Jesus had been crucified and buried, rumors spread
that he had risen from the grave. He thereby proved that he was no ordinary
man. He truly was the “Son of God.”
We could say that the Christian Church was founded on Easter Morning
with the rumors of the resurrection of Jesus. This is already established by
Paul: “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain and your faith is
also vain.”
Now all mankind could hope for the resurrection of the body, for it was to
save us that Jesus was crucified. But, dear Sophie, remember that from a
Jewish point of view there was no question of the “immortality of the soul” or
any form of “transmigration”; that was a Greek—and therefore an Indo-
European—thought. According to Christianity there is nothing in man—no
“soul,” for example— that is in itself immortal. Although the Christian Church
believes in the “resurrection of the body and eternal life,” it is by God’s miracle
that we are saved from death and “damnation.” It is neither through our own
merit nor through any natural—or innate—ability.
So the early Christians began to preach the “glad tidings” of salvation
through faith in Jesus Christ. Through his mediation, the “Kingdom of God”
was about to become a reality. Now the entire world could be won for Christ.
(The word “christ” is a Greek translation of the Hebrew word “messiah,” the
anointed one.)
A few years after the death of Jesus, the Pharisee Paul converted to
Christianity. Through his many missionary journeys across the whole of the
Greco-Roman world he made Christianity a worldwide religion. We hear of
this in the Acts of the Apostles. Paul’s preaching and guidance for the
Christians is known to us from the many epistles written by him to the early
Christian congregations.
He then turns up in Athens. He wanders straight into the city square of
the philosophic capital. And it is said that “his spirit was stirred in him, when
he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.” He visited the Jewish synagogue in
Athens and conversed with Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. They took him