The First Coming

by Thomas Sheehan

Book Overview

First Coming, The: How The Kingdom Of God Became Christianity, by Sheehan, Thomas This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394511980
• ISBN13: 9780394511986
• Release Date: September 1986
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 287 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Not Sufficient Cause

Sheehan begins with a brief survey of the history of the search for the historical Jesus. Those readers who have read this kind of material before may want to skim through this part taking note that Sheehan believes that in the post-Bultmann era, it is possible to extract historical facts from the New Testament rather than try to demythologize everything. Thus Sheehan can attempt a "psychobiography" by interpreting texts which he thinks have a historical basis. A brief survey of messianism follows. Again those readers who have read on this subject may want to skim through. The pre-Exilic Prophets had no clear doctrine of an end time. In the post-Exilic era, deprived of Davidic leaders (according to Sheehan) and Prophets, Israel turned to the Law. Then there was the Oral Law. By the time of Jesus, Judaism was divided over which Law(s) was(were) to be observed. For Sheehan the encounter between Jesus and John is not one of an omniscient God who "submitted" to John's teachings in order to set an example for others on how to act. Rather it was a spiritual awakening for Jesus. It was not enough to be circumcised into the Covenant of Abraham; the heart had to change. From John to Jesus the message changed from one of imminent judgment upon Israel to Jesus' message of the joy of the imminent liberation of God. God was a loving Abba who was already arriving among his people because the kingdom of God had begun. "It was a new order of things in which God threw in his lot irrevocably with human beings and chose relatedness to them as the only definition of himself." Ethically this meant that acts of justice and charity usher in of the kingdom of God. Sheehan loses track of his time here. How can the Kingdom of God be present and need ushering in? (page 62) But Sheehan recognizes this on page 63 with the eschatological future-present. "The uniqueness of Jesus' message lay in his conviction that in some way the future kingdom had already dawned and that the celebration could begin." (page 65) Some way? Who can not pin this down? Sheehan or Jesus? The two most key points to Sheehan's book are why was Jesus executed and what to make of the proclamation of his resurrection. These explain the difference between the message of Jesus and the birth of a religion in his name. Sheehan does an admirable job in regard to the latter: Belief in a resurrection, per se, did not mean a forgiveness of sins during the time of Jesus. Ancient records tell of others who were resurrected. Jesus did die on the cross, but the resurrection develops when Peter had a vision in which he saw Jesus taken into an eschatological future. To me Sheehan is seeking to justify, but not explaining, why Jesus was executed. Jesus got onto the wrong side of the Pharisees and Sadducees who sent Jesus to Pilate. Why would Pilate care? Sheehan had already noted that unlike John the Baptist, the message of Jesus did not attack the government. Also Sheehan had noted that the popularity of Jes

The Kingdom of God and the Reigning Lord and Christ

"This doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven, which was the main teaching of Jesus, and which plays so small a part in the Christian creeds, is certainly one of the most revolutionary doctrines that ever stirred and changed human thought." H. G. Wells Thy Kingdom Comes: Leo Tolstoy came to the conclusion that, "The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity by contributing to the establishment of the kingdom of God, which can only be done by the recognition and profession of the truth by every man." The Kingdom of Heaven (or the Kingdom of God, Hebrew; malkhut hashamayim, Greek; basileia tou theou) is a key concept in both Judaism and Christianity. It refers to the reign or sovereignty of God over all things, as opposed to the reign of earthly or satanic powers. (Wikipedia) At the time of Jesus, the Essenes, who did not participate in Temple worship in Jerusalem, but exceeded other Jews in the pursuit of virtue, believed they were living on the edge of time, preparing for the coming of the Kingdom of God. "The kingdom of God is never something that we bring into being, but something that we are receiving. ...The challenge is to know what time it is: what the kingdom is, how it comes, and where we should find it right now," writes Michael S. Horton, in Christianity Today, Jan. 06. He quotes the Epistle to Diognetus, a second century letter which offered a self-portrait of the early Christian community, "For Christians are distinguished from the rest of men neither by country nor by language nor by customs. ... They pass their days on earth, but they have their citizenship in heaven." God's Kingdom & Christianity: Thomas Sheehan, professor of philosophy, Loyola University, Chicago, utilized postmodern reconstruction tools to shape a post-liberal interpretation of Jesus mission and teachings, with a fresh understanding of the function of the Kingdom in shaping Christianity. He argues that his bold and persuasive theory rescues the person and message of Jesus from the absurdities of contemporary fundamentalism, recovering the social and ethical meaning of the 'Kingdom of God,' as intended by Jesus. In defending his case, the author guides the reader through the Jesus Seminar style of postmodern scholarship on NT Scripture. Analyzing the historical narratives on Jesus and his teachings, amidst a milieu of messianic expectations among the Jews of his time, Sheehan concludes that the probable core of Jesus teachings was; 'a message of God's real presence among humanity, with biblical implications for social justice and personal ethics. From Jesus to Christ: Jesus of Nazareth, according to Sheehan, a Loyola theologian, preached the end of organized religion and the real presence of the living God among mankind. Sheehan argues that Jesus thought of himself not as God but as God's eschatological prophet proclaiming the arrival of God's kingdom, that the resurrection of Jesus had nothing to his coming back to life. The affirmation that Jesus was

Who was Jesus, really?

A very interesting thesis: Jesus was not "God Junior", sent to tell the world to prepare for Armageddon and His eventual return on a celestial throne. Instead, Jesus was an enlightened man who said "The kingdom of God is at hand (meaning right here right now) for anyone who behaves with mercy and justice". Furthermore, that Jesus proposed the end of temple- and heaven-oriented religious practice, to be replaced with a change in the of hearts of men. The previous reviewer thought the idea was not so very new, but to me it's novel to the point of being revolutionary. Sheehan's second point is that Jesus' followers fundamentally misunderstood him, directing their fervor onto the man rather than on his message. This led to the development of Christianity and Christian mythology (miracles, Easter resurrection, messiah-hood, the expectation of a Second Coming, etc). Christian history subsequent to the death of Jesus is much better documented than Jesus' actual life and sayings, and Sheehan does a good job summarizing it all. Be forewarned: this book is a tough read. It requires two bookmarks, because Sheehan has extensive notes at the back, which must be read in parallel with the main text. Plus, he uses very heavy, academic vocabulary. Here are some of the words I had to look up: casuistry, epigones, exegesis, hermeneutic, hypostasis, kerygma, ontological, otiose, parousia, prescind, prolepsis, reify, soteriological, teleology, tutelary, valence. Not your daily-conversation type language, unless you're a biblical scholar. The book is crammed with references and footnotes to other scholarly works (and to the Bible itself of course). Sheehan places himself in the camp that says all that is, is known only as interpretation. So it's a bit ironic that his interpretations need so much academic backup. In any event, his guesses are plausible, and can't be refuted from Scripture, so right away you have to think he's more right than, for example, Tim LaHaye! Interesting topic and fascinating approach. I would deduct half a star if I could, because I think his story could have been told a lot more simply.

Ideas not novel but presented well

There has always been speculation on how an obscure Jewish sage who lived 2,000 years ago became the object of a religion that has changed mankind more than any social movement in history. Even more interesting is how little we actually know for sure - his parentage, city of birth, actual teaching or why he was killed. Without any external historical references, we are left with only the New Testament, a series of writings composed from 40-65 years after Jesus's death, none by eye witnesses.Sheehan has attempted to explain how a Jewish peasant evolved into God within a century. He starts, like many Bibical critics, noting the discrepancy between date of composition and order of presentation in the New Testament. Paul's letters came first, then Mark, Matthew, Luke/Acts and finally John. One can easily trace the growth in stature following this line of evidence.Paul knew nothing of the physical man. He never believed in a physical resurrection, preaching that some raised did not have a physical body like us but a spiritual one. No mention of God's son or being a God.Mark (next) starts with the adult man. Luke and Matthew, written some 80 years after his birth contained the Nativity and early life. John, completed toward the end of the century opens with the stirring "In the Beginning was the Word". We are at the beginning of the Universe and there is Jesus and God as one.We follow the evolutionary streams as words are changed, ideas added, ancient prophecies are quoted out of context and at last Jesus is judged God by a political convocation. Interesting, Sheehan finds all the talk of a coming Kingdom as the kernel of the teachings. This is Jesus's revolutionary message - that the kingdom of God is internal and can exist now, not some mystical future. That's a stretch but still a good read.