Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth

In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.

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Obsession X

Oh gods. Yet another ex-Christian wants to tell me who Jesus really was.

(There's no mistaking them. Oh, they may call themselves something else now, but their first and foremost identity is Ex, with a capital X: the Jesus obsession gives them away every time.)

I've seen the scholarship. (It's hard for anyone in the field of religion to avoid seeing it.) The scholars agree on virtually nothing. Over the years, I've drawn three conclusions of my own.

  1.  About the historical Jesus of Nazareth, we know—and can know—virtually nothing.
  2. Therefore, all Jesuses—and we really do need to speak in the plural here—including those of the canonical gospels, are essentially fictional characters.

  3. Albert Schweitzer was absolutely correct in his observation that "Those who go looking for Jesus down the dark well of history will never see anything but their own reflection looking back at them."

We got along just fine without Jesus for oh, say 150,000 years or so, thank you very much, and when the day comes (as it certainly will) that nobody remembers Jesus any more: well, somehow or other I suspect that we'll manage to muddle along just fine on our own.

So no, in fact I really don't want to hear what you think about Jesus.

 We've already wasted too much time on that topic as it is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Poet, scholar and storyteller Steven Posch was raised in the hardwood forests of western Pennsylvania by white-tailed deer. (That's the story, anyway.) He emigrated to Paganistan in 1979 and by sheer dint of personality has become one of Lake Country's foremost men-in-black. He is current keeper of the Minnesota Ooser.

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