Jesianity: Jesus before Christianity

James, the one writing here, is not alone. Why is that important to james? Because in the cause of leading others to the optimal joyful life, two have more promise of doing so than one alone, though James has proven that he will go on alone as long as he believes he's on the path that can help the most people people.

Though Nolan and I do not share the same understanding in all cases, overall his understanding of Jesus as a human being, the greatest we've had, is very helpful.

To add to nolan, to bypass his otherwise great mistake: Jesus is the purest expression of what we were all born to be. The divine, our soul, our child, incarnate. That we were all created to be, the Incarnation of our soul, our spirit that is holy, the divine within us. And God bless Albert nolan, God bless Albert nolan, for so scholarly a bridge to this truth.

Kingdom of Heaven is within us, because God is within us, our soul, our spirit that is holy, our mammalian brain, our child.

"THE MAN WHO EMERGES

Jesus is a much underrated man underrated not only by those who think of him as nothing more than a teacher of religious truth, but also by those who go to the opposite extreme of emphasising his divinity in such a way that he ceases to be fully human. When one allows Jesus to speak for himself and when one tries to under- stand him without any preconceived ideas and within the context of his own times, what begins to emerge is a man of extraordinary independence, immense courage and unparalleled authenticity a man whose insight defies explanation. To deprive this man of his humanity is to deprive him of his greatness.

It is difficult for us to imagine what it must have been like to differ radically from everybody else, past and present, in an age when group conformity was the only measure of truth and virtue. The immense learning of the scribes did not impress Jesus. He differed from them without hesitation even when they were far more knowledgeable about the details of the law and its traditional interpretation than he was. No tradition was too sacred to be ques- tioned. No authority was too great to be contradicted. No assump- tion was too fundamental to be changed.

There is nothing in the gospels that would lead one to think that Jesus opposed everyone in a spirit of rebellion for the sake of re- bellion or because he had a grudge against the world. He gives the impression throughout of a man who has the courage of his con- victions, a man who is independent of others because of a positive insight which has made every possible kind of dependency super- fluous.

There are no traces of fear in Jesus. He was not afraid of creating a scandal or losing his reputation or even losing his life. All the men of religion, even John the Baptist, were scandalised by the way he mixed socially with sinners, by the way he seemed to enjoy their company, by his permissiveness with regard to the laws, by his apparent disregard for the seriousness of sin and by his free and easy way of treating God. He soon acquired what we would call a bad reputation: 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard'. He himself

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relates this with what seems to be a touch of humour (Mt 11: 16- 19). In terms of group solidarity his friendship with sinners would classify him as a sinner (Mt 11: 19; Jn 9: 24). In an age when friendliness towards any woman outside of one's family could mean only one thing, his friendship with women and especially with prostitutes would have ruined whatever reputation he still had (Lk 7: 39; Jn 4: 27). Jesus did nothing and compromised on nothing for the sake of even a modicum of prestige in the eyes of others. He did not seek anyone's approval, not even the approval

of 'the greatest man born of woman'.

According to Mark (followed by Matthew and Luke) even Jesus' opponents admit that he is honest and fearless: 'We know that you are an honest man, that you are not afraid of anyone, because a man's rank means nothing to you, and that you teach the way of God in all honesty' (12: 14)..... 

Also, 2/7/24 addition, 

Thanks to a stimulating evening with Shawn, yesterday, who as we were parting mentioned that he found his empathy to be a central animating force in his life, this extraordinary new insight for me:  Also, compassion. Nolan asserts at some length that Jesus cannot be understood short of compassion, as a quintessentially radically compassionate, empathetic individual. Thank Nolan for that. But I think Nolan is even short of the mark. Jesus god, Jesus faith, is in compassion itself. Which is the capacity within all of us that we are quickly taught to ignore moving us into lifeless adulthood.

And his ministry, his teaching, his example, his reason for being, was to reignite, and or protect, that compassion as the controlling force in the life of everyone that he could. He succeeded, with me.

And if that is what Jesus did, if that is what Jesus was, if that is what Jesus made it his business to be, and to lead us back to being, how could that be considered god?

The most powerful force in the universe thought of differently, is the healthy father or mother whose child is in extreme danger. She is made by that circumstance a force of nature, completely brilliant, completely fearless, completely energized, completely committed, completely insightful.. Jesus discovered that we can choose to be that way, to make of ourselves that receptacle for compassion for a suffering world, and we would thereby become the Agents of god, pieces of God incarnate. For the individual and Collective joyful life of it..... 

https://archive.org/details/jesusbeforechris00nola/mode/1up

 I am obsessed with the moral teachings and example of the man Jesus as presented in the four canonical gospels. I've been gripped by them for the prospective joyful life of it, since my earliest memory and in the last 20 years have delved more and more deeply directly and indirectly.

My process as a seeker of Truth is to delve into a situation personally and deeply and exhaustively being very careful and selective about drawing in the opinions of others before I have gained as much personal experience by which to judge additional experiences, as possible.

James, the one writing here, has been interested in Jesus before Christianity. And only the Jesus before christianity. But because of his process just mentioned he has held off until now the searching on that directly to see what others had to say, directly on that subject. 

But within the last hour searched on the term, Jesus before christianity. This book came up. And through the services of archive.org has at no charge to himself just finished the last chapter.

His first impression is someone else has reached the same conclusions as he, as James the one writing here.

For the the reason mentioned above, that two attempting to help others is more promising than one, he expects to make a priority digesting this book in detail. And reach researching the author and others that might Embrace this book.