Interestingly, Carrier has picked up on comments from Bart Ehrman's latest book:
The quote below is from the Introduction to Ehrman's book:
What I have come to see is that scholars have such disagreements in part because they typically answer the question of high or low Christology on the basis of the paradigm I have just described—that the divine and human realms are categorically distinct, with a great chasm separating the two. The problem is that most ancient people— whether Christian, Jewish, or pagan— did not have this paradigm. For them, the human realm was not an absolute category separated from the divine realm by an enormous and unbridgable crevasse. On the contrary, the human and divine were two continuums that could, and did, overlap.
From that perspective, methinks that Ehrman is not, anytime soon, going to give up on the possibility that a historical JC became a god after death. Looks to me that this book is Ehrmans' real answer to the ahistoricists/mythicists. There are two stories in the NT: The Pauline angel (re Ehrman) that is incarnate on earth - plus the man that becomes, after death, a god in the heavens. It's not one or the other. There is no choice between them - no walking through that 'door' for Ehrman. Consequently, the road forward for the ahistoricists is not to keep singing the Pauline 'song' of a celestial christ figure - Ehrman can sing that song well. The 'fault line' in Ehrman' scenario is not his
from man to god scenario - it's that his 'man', his gospel Jesus, is not a historical figure but a composite, pseudo-historical, literary figure. However, despite this error, the fundamental premise that Ehrman is upholding, that
"the human and divine were two continuums that could, and did, overlap" remains.
A pseudo- historical, literary gospel JC does not suffice for the "overlap" between the "human and divine". Two imaginary entities do not reflect the thrust of the NT story - 'body' and 'spirit' are both part of our human experience. Or as Paul would have it - the Jerusalem above has it's corresponding Jerusalem below. In other words; physical reality cannot be eliminated from any theology/philosophy that seeks to reflect the human experience. The question then becomes: what historical realities influenced the gospel writers in the creation of their NT story. All in the mind, all Pauline imagination, and off we go on a magic carpet ride. It's the Jerusalem below - Jewish history - that can open a 'door' through which a search for early christian origins can move forward.
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I think Ehrman wants both JC NT stories, the Pauline story and the gospel story. (from what I've read so far....) His "the human and divine were two continuums that could, and did, overlap". seems, to me, to indicate that. And in that, I happen to think he has something to offer. Perhaps, "overlap", might not be the best choice of words. Maybe, relationship, interaction, would better reflect what I think he is attempting to say. ie there is no magic tricks here, reality does not morph into some ethereal or cosmic, or spiritual otherness. Our spiritual/intellectual capacity, our ideas, can become 'flesh', ie can be transformed into concrete reality - as our physical realities influence our, 'spiritual', thinking. In other words, body and spirit co-operate without either surrendering their own unique identities.