Question & Answer

Todd from Atlanta, GA writes:

Question:

Do you believe in Christ’s Resurrection? If not, what distinguishes you as a Christian vs. something else?

Answer:

Dear Todd,

I don’t believe in the literal resurrection of Christ. I do believe—and I’m showing some influence from Buddhism here, which forewarns you already that I can’t in any way be a purist in my definition of “Christian”—that a person’s physical touch and presence extends beyond the body. Since even the air is not merely “nothing” but rather is composed of atoms that mingle with the atoms of my skin in touch, it is easy to imagine how one could really be said to “touch” a distant person or place. Close your eyes and appreciate that we exist as an ocean of molecules all nestled together. No wonder both violence and healing reach so far. How much the more so when we have instruments like the human memory, voices, art, and texts to aid in extending our reach?

Jesus is one of those rare human beings whose reach extends very far in this sense. For all that the Christian tradition may be indicted for diluting or distracting from the teachings of its founder, even so I believe his teachings and on some deep level his presence are still with us, such as in his parables and sayings and in the itinerant spirit of many aspects of the Christian movement. To the extent that a person welcomes that reach and presence, and is guided by it, that person can be called a Christian. This, as I understand it, never has to extend beyond a secular understanding of Jesus.

This definition, however, can never be “pure” in the sense of creating walls and borders. It is not a sturdy foundation for an ethics of us versus them. If by “Christian” we are trying to mean “good,” that’s a losing battle. I’m only willing to see it as a descriptive term, not a moral one.

~ Cassandra Farrin

Q and A originally published here – As a member of this online community, you’ll receive insightful weekly essays, access to all of the essay archives, access to message boards which will connect you with other believers in exile, and answers to your questions in our free weekly Q and A.

About the Author

Cassandra Farrin is the Editor of Polebridge Press and Marketing Director of the Westar Institute, for which she hosts the Ethics and Early Christianity blog. A US-UK Fulbright Scholar, she has an M.A. in Religious Studies from Lancaster University (England) and a B.A. in Religious Studies from Willamette University. Her poetic retelling of the Nag Hammadi text “On the Origin of the World” is forthcoming in Gender Violence, Rape Culture, and Religion (Palgrave MacMillan).