Gospel Fictions

Gospel Fictions PDF Author: Randel Helms
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615922938
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description
Are the four canonical Gospels actual historical accounts or are they imaginative literature produced by influential literary artists to serve a theological vision? In this study of the Gospels based upon a demonstrable literary theory, Randel Helms presents the work of the four evangelists as the "supreme fictions" of our culture, self-conscious works of art deliberately composed as the culmination of a long literary and oral tradition.Helms analyzes the best-known and the most powerful of these fictions: the stories of Christ's birth, his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, his betrayal by Judas, his crucifixion, death and resurrection. In Helms' exegesis of the Gospel miracle stories, he traces the greatest of these - the resurrection of Lazarus four days after his death - to the Egyptian myth of the resurrection of Osiris by the god Horus.Helms maintains that the Gospels are self-reflexive; they are not about Jesus so much as they are about the writers' attitudes concerning Jesus. Helms examines each of the narratives - the language, the sources, the similarities and differences - and shows that their purpose was not so much to describe the past as to affect the present.This scholarly yet readable work demonstrates how the Gospels surpassed the expectations of their authors, influencing countless generations by creating a life-enhancing understanding of the nature of Jesus of Nazareth.

Gospel Fictions

Gospel Fictions PDF Author: Randel Helms
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615922938
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 154

Get Book

Book Description
Are the four canonical Gospels actual historical accounts or are they imaginative literature produced by influential literary artists to serve a theological vision? In this study of the Gospels based upon a demonstrable literary theory, Randel Helms presents the work of the four evangelists as the "supreme fictions" of our culture, self-conscious works of art deliberately composed as the culmination of a long literary and oral tradition.Helms analyzes the best-known and the most powerful of these fictions: the stories of Christ's birth, his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, his betrayal by Judas, his crucifixion, death and resurrection. In Helms' exegesis of the Gospel miracle stories, he traces the greatest of these - the resurrection of Lazarus four days after his death - to the Egyptian myth of the resurrection of Osiris by the god Horus.Helms maintains that the Gospels are self-reflexive; they are not about Jesus so much as they are about the writers' attitudes concerning Jesus. Helms examines each of the narratives - the language, the sources, the similarities and differences - and shows that their purpose was not so much to describe the past as to affect the present.This scholarly yet readable work demonstrates how the Gospels surpassed the expectations of their authors, influencing countless generations by creating a life-enhancing understanding of the nature of Jesus of Nazareth.

Gospel Fictions

Gospel Fictions PDF Author: Randel Helms
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780087955721
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


Gospel Fictions

Gospel Fictions PDF Author: Randel Helms
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615922938
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 154

Get Book

Book Description
Are the four canonical Gospels actual historical accounts or are they imaginative literature produced by influential literary artists to serve a theological vision? In this study of the Gospels based upon a demonstrable literary theory, Randel Helms presents the work of the four evangelists as the "supreme fictions" of our culture, self-conscious works of art deliberately composed as the culmination of a long literary and oral tradition.Helms analyzes the best-known and the most powerful of these fictions: the stories of Christ's birth, his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, his betrayal by Judas, his crucifixion, death and resurrection. In Helms' exegesis of the Gospel miracle stories, he traces the greatest of these - the resurrection of Lazarus four days after his death - to the Egyptian myth of the resurrection of Osiris by the god Horus.Helms maintains that the Gospels are self-reflexive; they are not about Jesus so much as they are about the writers' attitudes concerning Jesus. Helms examines each of the narratives - the language, the sources, the similarities and differences - and shows that their purpose was not so much to describe the past as to affect the present.This scholarly yet readable work demonstrates how the Gospels surpassed the expectations of their authors, influencing countless generations by creating a life-enhancing understanding of the nature of Jesus of Nazareth.

Fawkes

Fawkes PDF Author: Nadine Brandes
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
ISBN: 0785217355
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
Guy Fawkes’s son must join his father’s plot to kill the king in this magical retelling of the Gunpowder Plot that will sweep you back in time to a divided England where plagues turn victims to stone. In 17th-century London two forces rule the people: the color powers and the Stone Plague. Brown masks can manipulate wood. Black masks control the night. And red masks . . . Well, red is the color of blood. Thomas Fawkes’s Color Test is upon him, and he is sure his father, the infamous Guy Fawkes, will present him with a mask and Thomas will finally bond with a color. He desperately hopes for a gray mask so he can remove the stone that has invaded his body and will ultimately take his life. But when Guy refuses to give Thomas his mask or even his presence, Thomas has no place in school or society. His only hope is to track down his father and demand a mask to regain what he’s lost. But his father has other plans: to kill the king. Thomas must join forces with his father if he wants to save his own life. When his errands for the cause bring him time and again to Emma Areben, a former classmate, Thomas is exposed to a whole new brand of magic. And Emma doesn’t control just one color—she controls them all. Emma wants to show Thomas the full power of color magic, but it goes against everything his father is fighting for. If Thomas sides with his father, he could save his own life—which would destroy Emma and her family. To save one, he must sacrifice the other. No matter Thomas’s choice, one thing is clear: once the decision is made and the color masks have been put on, there’s no turning back. Praise for Fawkes: “An imaginative, colorful tale about choosing for yourself between what's right and what others insist is the truth.” —Cynthia Hand, New York Times bestselling author of My Lady Jane “Hold on to your heart as this slow burning adventure quickly escalates into an explosion of magic, love, and the truth about loyalty.” —Mary Weber, bestselling author of the Storm Siren Trilogy and To Best the Boys Full-length young adult historical fantasy Includes discussion questions for book clubs Also by Nadine Brandes: Romanov and Wishtress, coming September 2022

Primitive Christianity ...

Primitive Christianity ... PDF Author: Joseph Rodes Buchanan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bible and spiritualism
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
Contents: v.1. the lost lives of Jesus Christ and the apostles and the authentic gospel of St. John--v.2. the religion of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel According to the Novelist

The Gospel According to the Novelist PDF Author: Magdalena Maczynska
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 178093775X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Why have so many prominent literary authors-from Philip Pullman and José Saramago to Michèle Roberts and Colm Tóibím-recently rewritten the canonical story of Jesus Christ? What does that say about our supposedly secular age? In this insightful study, Magdalena Maczynska defines and examines the genre of scriptural metafiction: novels that not only transform religious texts but also draw attention to these transformations. In addition to providing rich examples and close readings, Maczynska positions literary studies within interdisciplinary debates about religion and secularity. Her book demonstrates a surprising turn of events: even as contemporary novelists deconstruct the traditional categories of “secular” and “sacred” writing, they open up new spaces for scripture in contemporary culture.

The Epistemological Basis for Belief according to John’s Gospel

The Epistemological Basis for Belief according to John’s Gospel PDF Author: David A. Redelings
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1630879649
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
This book, a revision of the author's dissertation, describes the grounds on which knowledge about God is possible according to the Gospel of John. In response to modern questions and doubts about the possibility of religious knowledge, John's answers are identified and illuminated using standard historical method. A major part of this investigation is spent showing that, for readers of all persuasions, it is clear that certain parts of John's Gospel were never intended as either fiction or metaphor. From these parts, the basis on which John thinks that people can have religious knowledge is inferred and described.

If God Meant to Interfere

If God Meant to Interfere PDF Author: Christopher Douglas
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501703528
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
The rise of the Christian Right took many writers and literary critics by surprise, trained as we were to think that religions waned as societies became modern. In If God Meant to Interfere, Christopher Douglas shows that American writers struggled to understand and respond to this new social and political force. Religiously inflected literature since the 1970s must be understood in the context of this unforeseen resurgence of conservative Christianity, he argues, a resurgence that realigned the literary and cultural fields. Among the writers Douglas considers are Marilynne Robinson, Barbara Kingsolver, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon, Ishmael Reed, N. Scott Momaday, Gloria Anzaldúa, Philip Roth, Carl Sagan, and Dan Brown. Their fictions engaged a wide range of topics: religious conspiracies, faith and wonder, slavery and imperialism, evolution and extraterrestrial contact, alternate histories and ancestral spiritualities. But this is only part of the story. Liberal-leaning literary writers responding to the resurgence were sometimes confused by the Christian Right’s strange entanglement with the contemporary paradigms of multiculturalism and postmodernism —leading to complex emergent phenomena that Douglas terms "Christian multiculturalism" and "Christian postmodernism." Ultimately, If God Meant to Interfere shows the value of listening to our literature for its sometimes subterranean attention to the religious and social upheavals going on around it.

Secret Scrolls

Secret Scrolls PDF Author: Robert M. Price
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1610970756
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
Secret Scrolls is the very first examination of some forty novels in which someone discovers a new gospel. Sometimes it turns out to be a hoax; will it be debunked before it can work its mischief? If it proves genuine, will it be brought to light? Or will corrupt church officials manage to prevent it? The book evaluates what each author has to say about historical Jesus scholarship or New Testament research in general. Sometimes the authors have done their homework; other times they haven't bothered, and they wind up dishing up crazy rewrites of history and outlandish theories. These novels deal with abiding issues of faith, even without some new discovery. As soon as one engages in biblical apologetics, one has stepped onto the marshy ground of probabilistic arguments, an entirely different epistemology that automatically replaces simple faith. And so one comes to hold one's religious convictions more tentatively, having become genuinely vulnerable to new evidence. One may not remain a believer for long. On the other hand, one invites fanaticism if one's faith is dangerously predicated on the assurance that no new discovery will send one back to the drawing board. Secret Scrolls assesses what each author imagines it would take to derail and debunk Christianity. How mighty a blow must be dealt before the religion would fall? Dan Brown's notion that a married Jesus would debunk the Nicene Creed is laughable. As Wilbert Francis Howard once argued in his brief and fascinating history of New Testament research, there is a genuine romance of New Testament scholarship, and many of us are delighted to have the adventure continue in the speculative imaginations of capable novelists. These books can both entertain and educate, and so will Secret Scrolls.

Is the Gospel Fiction?

Is the Gospel Fiction? PDF Author: Rodolfo Martin Vitangcol
Publisher: Rodolfo Martin Vitangcol
ISBN:
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
I am a strong believer and follower of Jesus. If you open my heart, the image you will see there is Jesus. However, in answering the question—“IS THE GOSPEL FICTION?”—I chose the way of the objective person; meaning as I take the side of the gospel as being FACTUAL, I also give the other side the benefit of the doubt that perhaps the gospel may really be just FICTION. I don’t like it to appear that I am only defending the gospel because I am a strong follower of Jesus and therefore must defend the gospel by all means, despite of the presence of evidence to the contrary; in the same way that a father will defend his son accused of a crime, just because he is his son and therefore must defend him at all cost, regardless of whether his son really committed the crime or not. Biased people always argue from the standpoint of half-truths and half-lies. I cannot do that! I am a great lover of absolute truths, as absolute as the Father of Jesus is the only true God and no other else like Yahweh. Happy reading!