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How the Christian religion was born

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The Christian religion was formed in two stages, what happened when Jesus was alive, and what happened after his death. The Christian faith takes for granted that there was a harmonious continuity between the two stages. Many gospel scholars challenged this belief. They stressed the conflicting nature of those two stages. But, so far, this question has remained debatable. We do not know to what extent the Easter revelation had a retroactive effect on the way the disciples told what happened during the life of Jesus. In other words, the quest for the historical Jesus has remained, to a great extent, inconclusive. This prompted a Gospel scholar like Dale Allison Jr. to write as recently as 2009:

“After years of being in the quest business, I have reluctantly concluded that most of the Gospel materials are not subject to historical proof or disproof.”

The quest for the historical Jesus was conducted, so far, by scholars who followed the methodology that is used by historians. This methodology is good for the study of ordinary events. It is highly inadequate for the study of extraordinary events, such as the sudden birth of a new religion. The resurrection of Jesus can be compared to a massive volcanic eruption. It radically transformed the religious landscape of Judaism. Jesus, the Jew, became Christian without his knowledge and without his consent. During his life, he controlled his disciples. After his death, they controlled him. They made him, after his death what he was not during his life. The most important point that is missed by historians is the role that is played by the mystical experience in the birth of Christianity. The expert here is Michel de Certeau. He studied the mystical experience in a book entitled The Mystic Fable. In my book, The Christian Fable, I follow his guidance.

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