VERSION|0.5.1|NAME|Dinah|DATE|1361834467|CONTENT|On the face of it the statement ‘Jesus was not a Christian’ seems stating the bl**ding obvious, but it does lead on to the question of whether the historical Jesus actually intended to found a new religion, or whether that was left to St Paul.  What we describe as ‘Christianity’ today may be no more than the development of an imperfect response by humans to imperfect memories concerning a shadowy figure barely understood in his own time, still less in ours.  Jesus has become one of those archetypal figures of which we can, if we choose, overlay with our own prejudices, misconceptions and insecurities, as well as making him reflect the better part of our nature back to ourselves.

I do agree that in Giles there is somewhere an atheist longing to get out, but it has been this way for a long time, and I am beginning to lose hope that he will ever be able to acknowledge that he is too critical and too questioning to be satisfied with the tired old certainties of institutional religion.  Even so, today’s TFTD was thought-provoking and a challenge to those Christians who like their religion pre-packed and guaranteed controversy-free.  A change from the bland self-satisfied pap most speakers think suitable for this slot.
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