Jordan Alcasas
Social Media Editor
The Socrates’ Cafe lecture Monday focused on reflecting on Jesus Christ’s life and the diverse views that people hold regarding religion.
About 30 University community members attended the event in the Quay Davis Executive Boardroom.
Jonathan Reed, a professor of philosophy and religious studies, was the speaker.
He focused on the evolution of how Christianity is viewed and how views have changed over time.
“The paradigm of Christianity was seen as a trunk with branches,” Reed said. “Now people see Christianity as being very diverse at the very beginning.”
Christianity is a religion with many different denominations and beliefs among different churches. As such, the tree metaphor Reed provided was to explain that while there are core beliefs at the center of every denomination that make up the trunk, the leaves are the differences between denominations and churches.
Additionally, this tree metaphor can explain how Christians view Jesus differently. There is a central belief in Christ in the religion, but how he is portrayed can be very different from book to book in the New Testament. The best way to understand is by looking at the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, which are both believed to be written based on the Gospel of Mark.
One example of these differences is the terminology used in the books. Where Mark would write the term ‘Kingdom of God’ numerous times in his book, Matthew would use the term ‘Kingdom of Heaven’.
Reed also provided the story of the Gospel of Thomas as a further example of interpretations of Jesus. The Gospel of Thomas was initially found in 1945, as it was likely believed to be heretic writings at the time it was written.
“There’s a bit of a focus on spirituality and knowledge that’ll set you free,” Reed said. “It’s in the other gospels, but more in Thomas.”
The Gospel of Thomas sees Jesus as someone focused on enlightenment and someone who is similar to Buddha in belief. Other gospels of the New Testament have different focuses.
The Gospel of Mark has a large focus on the end times. The Gospel of Matthew has a large focus on preserving teachings, while the Gospel of Luke focuses on portraying Jesus as a figure of social justice. Interpretations change, but Jesus remains with a lot of his core traits in every book.
“Many people choose and emphasize or combine these in a way, but whatever Jesus you lean towards, they have to make sense in Judaism and the time to make sense,” Reed said.
Reed continued into the lecture from there with the goal of explaining how the context of Judaism may have shaped how Jesus was viewed at the time. For example, Judaism has a large focus on the idea of purity, both physically and spiritually.
Later on, he talked about the way history solidifies our views and understandings of figures such as Jesus.
“The stories I’m talking about don’t get totally calcified but they get pretty set,” Reed said. “They get retold, and if you read it, they get told in like six minutes. So, I’m sure he was telling similar stories in different ways at different points.”
Audience members also had a bit of commentary regarding this topic during a portion of the lecture time where Reed took comments.
“There’s stories that are rooted in location, and things like the Gospel of Mary where they try to match miracles and supernatural things to Jesus-like behaviors,” Marcia Godwin, public administration professor, said. “There was this miracle of things in the temples and things that seem much more like myths and fables than chronologies in a location.”
Jordan Alcasas can be reached at jordan.alcasas@laverne.edu.
Jordan Alcasas is a sophomore journalism major with a concentration in print and online journalism. He is the news editor for the Campus Times, and previously served as social media editor and a staff writer.
