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Original Research - Special Collection: A.G.van Aarde Festschrift
Opstandingsverhale en opstandingsdogma
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 67, No 1 | a874 |
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v67i1.874
| © 2011 Izak J.J. Spangenberg
| This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 26 May 2010 | Published: 11 April 2011
Submitted: 26 May 2010 | Published: 11 April 2011
About the author(s)
Izak J.J. Spangenberg, Departement of Old Testament & Ancient Near Eastern Studies, University of South Africa, South AfricaAbstract
Resurrection narratives and the doctrine of resurrection
The article examined the closing narratives of the four canonical gospels and argued that they should be read as stories and not as historical narratives. These stories, however, show a progressive development and it is evident that the narrators of the later stories embellished the earlier narratives. Christian theologians of later centuries developed these stories into a theology of salvation and linked resurrection to the idea of death being God’s punishment for Original Sin. By doing so, they changed the Gospel of Jesus into the Gospel about Jesus. Currently, people have a different understanding of themselves and the world in which they live. Death is seen as part of the cycle of life and humans, like everything else, will not be resurrected but recycled. That is one of the reasons why Christianity is in dire need of a new paradigm that will take into account the real position of human beings in the cosmos.
The article examined the closing narratives of the four canonical gospels and argued that they should be read as stories and not as historical narratives. These stories, however, show a progressive development and it is evident that the narrators of the later stories embellished the earlier narratives. Christian theologians of later centuries developed these stories into a theology of salvation and linked resurrection to the idea of death being God’s punishment for Original Sin. By doing so, they changed the Gospel of Jesus into the Gospel about Jesus. Currently, people have a different understanding of themselves and the world in which they live. Death is seen as part of the cycle of life and humans, like everything else, will not be resurrected but recycled. That is one of the reasons why Christianity is in dire need of a new paradigm that will take into account the real position of human beings in the cosmos.
Keywords
resurrection; resurrection narratives; grand narrative of Christianity; original sin; theological paradigm
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Crossref Citations
1. The doctrine on God, as demonstrated and confessed in the Heidelberg Catechism
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