This Tragic Gospel: How John Corrupted the Heart of Christianity - Hardcover

Ruprecht, Louis A., Jr.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0787987786 ISBN 13: 9780787987787

Publisher: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub, 2008

Synopsis

This Tragic Gospel suggests that the "Gospel" of John intended to supplant the first three gospels and succeeded in gaining undue influence on the early churches. This study focuses on the tragic moment when Jesus prays?for deliverance from his impending death in the garden of Gethsemane. Ruprecht contends that John rewrote this scene in order to convey a very different dramatic meaning from the one reflected in Mark's gospel. In John's version, not only did Jesus not pray to be spared, he actually mocked this prayer, embracing his imminent demise with godlike confidence. Ruprecht believes that this dramatic reinterpretation undermined the tragedy of Jesus's death as Mark imagined it and so paved the way for the development of a kind of Christianity that focused far less on compassion in the face of human suffering. John's Jesus offers the faithful food so that they will never hunger, water so that they will never thirst, and the promise of a world in which no faithful person ever sheds a tear. Mark's Christians do suffer, but they witness to suffering and death differently...with compassion. Mark's Christ suffers, like all Christians after him, but he embodies a tragic hope in the promise of a faith shored up by love and compassion.

About this title

About the Author

Louis A. Ruprecht Jr. holds the William M. Suttles Chair in Religious Studies at Georgia State University and is an active member of the American Academy of Religion, the Society for Biblical Literature, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the Society for Values in Higher Education.

From the Back Cover

Praise for This Tragic Gospel

"Louis Ruprecht is an expert reader of gospels and tragedies. He is also aggressive in a fight, and here the opponent is John. But the cause is good, and Ruprecht defends the anguished heart of Mark's gospel with rare, inconsolable faith."
Kathleen Roberts Skerrett, Associate Dean, Grinnell College

"Ruprecht transforms not only the way we view the gospel of John, but also (and perhaps more important) the way we view the synoptic gospels. He offers one essential solution, especially for Christians in these tragic political times, to the very real problem of Christianity's inherent and often underexamined biblical triumphalism."
Lori Anne Ferrell, Professor of Early Modern History, Claremont Graduate University

"[Ruprecht's] insights provide a portrait of layered insight into Christian origins that will appeal to believer and skeptic alike."
Bruce Lawrence, Professor of Islamic Studies, Duke University, and author, The Qur'an: A Biography

"Louis Reprecht takes a fresh look at the New Testament with the tragic vision of an ancient Greek and he see things many seem now to have unfortunately forgotten. Religion needs to be discussed, not shouted about; a dialogue, not a rant."
Mike Lippman, Assistant professor, Classical Studies, Rollins College

From the Inside Flap

This Tragic Gospel

The New Testament is primarily a collection of literary documents that should be approached as historical records with care and caution. The gospels tell the story of Christ's life from explicitly varying points of view?they are presented as the story of Jesus "according to" Mark ... and Matthew ...and Luke.

John's writing had a very different agenda.

This Tragic Gospel suggests that the Gospel of John intended to supplant the first three gospels and succeeded in gaining undue influence on the early churches. This study focuses on the tragic moment when Jesus prays for deliverance from his impending death in the garden of Gethsemane. Ruprecht contends that John rewrote this scene in order to convey a very different dramatic meaning from the one reflected in Mark's gospel. In John's version, not only did Jesus not pray to be spared, he actually mocked this prayer, embracing his imminent demise with godlike confidence. Ruprecht believes that this dramatic reinterpretation undermined the tragedy of Jesus's death as Mark imagined it and so paved the way for the development of a kind of Christianity that focused far less on compassion in the face of human suffering. John's Jesus offers the faithful food so that they will never hunger, water so that they will never thirst, and the promise of a world in which no faithful person ever sheds a tear. Mark's Christians do suffer, but they witness to suffering and death differently ... with compassion. Mark's Christ suffers, like all Christians after him, but he embodies a tragic hope in the promise of a faith shored up by love and compassion.

Ruprecht's insightful reinterpretation has significant implications not just for our understanding of scripture but also for the way Christians believe and behave, judge and forgive, today.

Edition details

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0787987786
• ISBN 13: 9780787987787
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 238