The Popularity of Views that Deconstruct Jesus

One of the things I like most about my spiritual formation class on Sunday mornings is the fact that we get to pose all kinds of questions about traditional faith. One of the things I like least about the class is the fact that we get to pose all kinds of questions about traditional faith. It seems that, because of fifty or so years of training in a Southern Baptist church, I fall into an unusual category of believers: I am biblically conservative but socially liberal. The Bible has always been the source of authority for my faith, and I have been taught that it was written by a number of authors who were inspired by God. In my current class, there is an overt effort to deconstruct not only the Bible of us traditional believers but also even Jesus Himself.

For example, for the past few weeks we have continued a series of videotapes by two liberal theologians, Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg. It's called "Living the Questions." Last week's lesson centered on the week before Jesus' death and indicated that Jesus' Palm Sunday ride into the city on a donkey was not a triumphal entry at all but simply a mocking demonstration of the power of the Roman Empire. Also, the cleansing of the temple by Jesus as he overthrew the money changers' tables obviously made little difference to the powerful Jews of the day. It too was but was a simple demonstration much like those in our day who protest war: impressive but not faith-changing.

While I am familiar in literature and other disciplines with the theory of deconstruction as an academic tool for analysis, I myself prefer traditional scholarship. I would like to see, for example, a number of moderate and traditional scholars presented who believe that Jesus was the Son of God and that the Bible is Truth and Inerrant. That way we can have opposing viewpoints and make our own decisions regarding our faith.