Posted by from Fr. Steven Kostoff (dcalvert) on 5/10/2007, 4:06 pm
Dear Fathers, Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ,
Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!
After Pascha, I try and make a point of reading at least one book dealing with the theological and historical aspects of Christ's Resurrection. This year, I turned to a book that I had already read some years ago, entitled Knowing the Truth About the Resurrection - Our Response to the Empty Tomb, written by William L. Craig. The cover itself is rather clever, because it is a drawing of a contemporary man, wearing a suit with briefcase in hand, peering into the empty tomb from which the stone has been rolled back. He seems rather tentative, hesitant and uncertain. This captures the dillemma of the modern or post-modern person: still remotely aware and interested in the implications of the empty tomb, but uncertain as to what to make of it. People want to believe in something beyond the space and time continuum of this world, but are afraid to commit to "Truth claims," especially of a religious nature, in an age increasingly dominated by scientific claims to only trust the empirical.
This book can be characterized as an example of "Christian apologetics," a genre of Christian theology that has as its goal a reasonable and coherent presentation of the claims of Christianity and the plausibility of those claims. This can cover anything from the existence of God to, precisely, a convincing and detailed refutation of the many theories proposed to explain away the resurrection of Christ. Positively, Christian apologetics will then build up a strong case for the plausibility of the resurrection when all of the "data" is studied as a whole. Craig does this remarkably well in chapters entitled: "The Burial of Jesus," "The Empty Tomb," "The Appearances of Jesus," "The Origin of the Christian Faith," and "Resurrection Life." Of course, the end result may be that he only succeeds in enforcing the already-existing belief of traditionally-minded Christians, for whom the bodily resurrection of Christ is the very foundation of Christian Faith to begin with. Be that as it may, he does cover the topics above in a tightly-reasoned and convincing manner, and in a non-scholarly style that makes the book quite accessible. Craig offers a compelling book-length argument in support of the book's basic thesis:
The empty tomb, the resurrection appearances, and the orgins of the Christian faith
are independently established facts that together point with unwavering conviction to
the same unavoidable and marvelous conclusion: Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead. (p. 123)
However, what I would like to share in the remainder of this meditation is the provocative and challenging opening chapter to the book, that acts as something of a "preface" to his study of Christ's resurrection. Craig begins his opening chapter, "The Cosmic Orphan," by stating that we can only fully understand the significance of Christ's resurrection when we come to terms with our human "predicament." (Craig borrowed the phrase "the cosmic orphan" from the writer Loren Eiseley). We are now convinced that we are "cosmic orphans" due to a seismic shift in worldviews ocurring slowly but steadily over the course of the last few centuries - a seismic shift that has moved us from a theistic to a non-theistic or openly atheistic perception of the cosmos. The result of blind and purposeless evolutionary forces, we are doomed to die. Craig summarizes the "predicament of modern man" in the following manner:
Lost in a universe without God, he is truly the Cosmic Orphan. He was thrown into
life as an accidental byproduct of nature, and he faces inevitable extinction in death.
His lot is all the more bitter and more tragic because, he, of all creatures, is aware
of it. (p. 3)
To make this all the more poignant and representative of our status as "cosmic orphans," Craig quotes Nietzsche's celebrated phrase: "God is dead, and we have killed him." Without God, our orphanhood is finally and irrevocably sealed. And the hope of immortality has now evaporated as no more than a naive and passing dream:
Just as the modern man has lost God, he has also lost immortality. The prospect
of eternal annihilation robs life of its meaning and fullness. It makes the life of man
no better than the life of a cow or a horse, only more tragic. In light of death, the
activities which cram our life seem ultimately trivial and pointless.. .
Herein lies the horror of modern man: because he ultimately ends in nothing, he is
nothing. (p. 4)
That last sentence can spoil your day - even if it is sunny and warm. Life itself, adds Craig, is "a mixed blessing." Before the finality of death, we must face 1) "the evil in the heart of man;" 2) "the problem of disease;" and 3) "the problem of old age." His description of these ubiquitous "plagues" makes the over-all picture even less pretty. Craig reinforces his point by turning to the historian Stewart C. Easton's own conclusion of our human predicament:
Thus modern man is hag-ridden by fear and worry, in spite of all the pleasures that
his society through its ingenuity and industry provide him. (p. 7)
Now, William Craig is not some kind of Christian pessimist or doomsday soothsayer, determined to drain life of the joys and pleasures that if affords because he himself is 'hag-ridden by fear and worry." Actually, he comes across as a Christian filled with faith, hope and love based upon his conviction that Christ has been raised from the dead. That is the ultimate event that revealed God's love for the world manifested in the gift of His only-begotten Son and His victory over the "last enemy" - death itself. But in his opening chapter to a book devoted to a study of Christ's resurrection from the dead - "The Cosmic Orphan" - Craig is determined that we open up our eyes to all of the implications of a world without God. He makes a strong case against both the capacity and viability of a humanistic "faith" in progess or a stoic resignation before the inevitable fate that we all share, to give ultimate meaning to human life trapped in a vast and empty universe. His belief in Christ's resurrection is placed within the wider context of his "optimistic" belief that the human person has a natural "orientation" toward both God and immortality, though that orientation has been obscured for many. Neither science nor philosophy can eradicate those beliefs. Therefore,
... we could challenge the world view of modern man. If there is a God and immortality
then man is not after all the Cosmic Orphan. Life then has significance and value.
Since modern man really has no proof that God and immortality are illusions, could
they not in fact be realities? This is the position of biblical Christianity. It affirms that
a personal Creator God does exist. It also affirms personal immortality for man.
This is the wonderful promise that it holds out to man: "For God so loved the world
that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish
but have eternal life." (JN. 3:16)
This is all immensely important for those of us who call ourselves "believers." We may indeed, by the grace of God, be believers, but which of us does not cry out to the Lord: "I believe, help my unbelief!" Of course, we can suppress our doubts and hesitations, but we cannot completely escape them. That is why the type of questions and problems raised by William Craig need to be meditated upon and pondered over in a serous and thoughtful manner. If not, then even our Christianity will become dull and lifeless and our vision myopic. All Christians should embrace the well-known aphorism of Sophocles: "The unexamined life is not worth living." What do we believe and why do we believe it? What is the basis of our religious beliefs? Why do we want our children to believe and can we help them answer some of their own tough questions? When I sing and say "Christ is Risen!" what do I actually mean? What unanswered or unresolved questions do I still have about Christ's Resurection? Could I explain my belief to my neighbor if asked to? If we "hide" from these basic questions, then we may seek cover in distractions and false enticements. As Craig writes:
It is perhaps the greatest lie of our hedonistic culture that the unbridled pursuit of
pleasure, of sex, money, power, and fame, will bring happiness. On the contrary,
it leaves us hollow shells, whose greatest dread is boredom, which ever threatens
to overtake us and render our lives insipid.
William Craig's book is a wonderful work of biblical exegesis of the events surrounding the resurrection of Christ. It is filled with many lucid insights and theological reflections. One of the strengths of the book is placing that discussion within the wider context of those "cursed questions" that continue to trouble us and demand reflection. And this, in turn, helps us to recover the overwhelming, immense and incalcuable significance of Christ's resurrection. It brings hope to the hopeless dead end that a Godless world would actually be. It holds out the gift and promise of redemption and salvation from the prison-like confinement of a world unable to "open up" to the infinite. It is truly "Good News!"
Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!
I would like to further summarize the book's closing chapter, "Resurrection Life," in another meditation in the near future.
Fr. Steven C. Kostoff
Christ the Savior/Holy Spirit Orthodox Church
http://www.christthesavioroca.org
Responses:
