Not to be overlooked is the common-as-air prevalence of all the core bible/gospel/Christian ideas in the world which saturate our consciousness from birth.
Consequently, it is actually impossible to be objective about any of this.
However, when I encounter detailed religious beliefs of a foreign (non-Christian) nature--I objectively recoil at how ludicrous, illogical and bizzare they sound to my ears.
I can only wonder if Christianity innanity would strike all of us instantly were we sheltered from all of it until we were adult and then revealed to us piecemeal in a ceremony of divulgence.
To think, for example, that the Hindi believe in blue gods makes me laugh out loud. Why? I think of Smurfs before I think of taking any of it seriously. Why? Because nobody I know, trust, respect has ever discussed blue gods with me dead serious and with gravitas.
So too--and conversely--we are simply so immured with Christianity in all its virulence 24/7 that it is difficult to be shocked by it.
What can strike us as feckless, obtuse or fanciful can only be some odd variant that comes to our attention.
For a Protestant, the Catholic lay person's obsession with seeing the "Virgin" Mary in rust stains on water towers or in the burnt side of a grilled cheese sandwich--as an example--the height of ridiculous religious mania seems evident.
But, for the devout Catholic, reared on countless stories of martyrs, saints and intercessors, etc.---the beauty and awe-inspiring come natural in any report of the "Virgin" Mary appearing.
What is my point and how does it relate to the Historical Jesus and Christian Faith?
Imagine a time and a world in which there WAS NO JESUS as yet.
The Jewish ethos certainly revolved around expectations of some sort of Messiah of some description.
For the Gentile Roman--the everyday world would be filled with demi-gods, emperor gods, sacrificial ceremonies and placations, auguries, etc.
The Roman could partly comprehend what Jews were doing in there Temple ceremonies if only because they themselves did something reasonably similar. Yet, to Romans, Jews and Christians (eventually) were atheist because THEY DISBELIEVED MANY GODS! That is what was shocking.
Many came and went with claims to Messiah-ship. Reports of miracles were not uncommon. After all--why would anybody ever believe such a claim unless some magic, hoodwinkery, flim-flam accompanied the charismatic presentation of a candidate for Messiah?
Jesus was believed by relatively few.
With the "miracles" being described as so numerous the world could not contain the description--it makes one wonder how Jesus avoided being taken more seriously than his predecessors with their phoney magic.
Who would be more disposed to believing him? People (groups) with a similar agenda. Yet, no group embraced him. Neither Pharisee, nor Saducee, nor the officials at the Temple were warmly predisposed. Jesus only attracted the odd man out like a Judas who may have been a radical Sicarii. Fishermen.
Women were drawn to his peaceable message, certainly. Rabble. Prostitutes. Castoffs from regular society.
Jesus spoke, attracted crowds, gathered twleve, performed miracles, got into arguments/debates, was arrested and put to death.
Was any of this different from any other Messiah before him?
LARGELY, THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT WAS THE RESULT OF STORIES CIRCULATED AFTER HIS DEATH.
Were these fish stories? Exaggerations? Embellishments?
Since we know there were many, many (later called non-canonical or apocryphal) stories or Gospels about Jesus--this would tend to prove that divergent, contradictory, embellished fancies became widely circulated.
WHY? If there was only one real and true Jesus who only did real and true things---why so many contradictory tales about him?
It is far more likely that each group who wanted or needed Jesus to fit a certain preconception model jumped at the chance to BRAND their beliefs as THE JESUS.
By the time Constantine came along and Paul had a chance to embroider the Platonic ideal into the historical shadows of Judiasm--there were a hundred brands of JESUS and stories to match them!
What Constantine and the power of Rome were able to achieve was the certain destruction of competing forms of Christianity by Edict, excommunication and the power of banishment.
In the marketplace of religious fancies, the Brand that could wipe out the competitor was more likely to prevail.
With the burning of competing Gospels and the banishing of so-called heretics---Christianity was fused into a single (bifurcated!) orthodoxy of Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox until Martin Luther came along.
With the advent of Protestantism--the whole fracture and retelling started all over again.
The result is every denomination of Christianity all over again.
Walk into any Christian Bookstore and look at all the varieties of retelling and the CONTINUING REBRANDING of the Jesus persona!
It never seems to end.
Such is the power of myth. It fits today by changing yesterday into a more serviceable model.
