3 myths about the resurrection

By Brandon Showalter, Opinion writer and social commentator Sunday, April 21, 2019

3. Jesus rose only in the minds of the disciples

That Jesus rose only in the minds of the disciples descends from Rudolph Bultmann’s demythologizing of the New Testament, according to Gerald McDermott, chair of Anglican studies at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama, in an interview with The Christian Post Wednesday.

This notion "comes from a profound rejection of the supernatural, which he assumed 'modern man' in the age of technology cannot accept," McDermott said.

"What he missed is that modern folks have no problem accepting the supernatural along with technology," he continued, highlighting the explosion of New Age among those who reject traditional Christianity and Judaism.

Bultmann's view of the supernatural came from an "arbitrary, unproven assumption stemming from his own tradition — the Enlightenment," the Anglican theologian said.

Predating the Enlightenment, however, was the Greek assumption of a body-soul split, and that Jesus rose in the soul and not the body.

"The Greeks held to the dichotomy of body and soul, with the body being less real and less good than the soul. The Hebrews held to a body-soul unity, interrupted only temporarily by the intermediate state between death and the general resurrection at the end of time," McDermott said.