I would like to introduce the work of Constantin Brunner. Brunner (1862-1937) was a German of Jewish background. One of his books is entitled
Unser Christus: oder Das Wesen des Genies. This translates literally as
Our Christ or the essence of genius. The book was translated into English in 1990 as
Our Christ: the revolt of the mystical genius. Brunner presents a very provocative view of Christ, Christianity and Judaism. I heartily recommend it to those serious students who are willing to set aside their presuppositions on fundamental questions.
I really had to think about where to post this. Brunner is in no way a theist, and he maintains that Judaism is essentially an anti-religion. He argues that the Shema (
Deut. 2-4), usually translated as "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the only God;" is more accurately translated as "Hear, O Israel, Being is our God, Being is One." So I can't even post this in the unorthodox theology forum. But Brunner is not really advocating a run-of-the-mill materialist naturalism, either. He calls Christ the great genius of mysticism, and examines at length the nature of the Absolute. The philosophy forum therefore seems to me the most reasonable place. This is reinforced by the fact that Brunner is usually considered a philosopher. Indeed, his book on Christ is actually a continuation of his magnum opus,
Die Lehre von den Geistigen und vom Volke, which is a comprehensive synthesis of philosophy and science.
Die Lehre has never been translated in its entirety, but significant portions are found in the 1968 compilation
Science, spirit, superstition : a new enquiry into human thought.
The orthodox way of approaching Brunner would probably be first through
Science, spirit, superstition. But few people have any real interest in philosophy
per se. However, many more are keenly interested in the nature of Christ, so I would recommend that most people start with
Our Christ.
The amazing thing is that Brunner's book on Christ has received not a single review or notice. I think that the reason is that, because it attacks all orthodoxies including those of secularists, for virtually everyone there is really nothing to be gained from giving it any attention at all. Still, I think it is a major embarrassment to the academic community that they refuse to deal with this book. I have communicated with a number of prominent academics (eg. Marcus Borg, Harold Bloom) and sent them copies at their request. Not one has sent back the slightest comment.
Our Christ contains a 50-page appendix in which Brunner attacks the position of those who deny the historicity of Christ. I have placed this appendix
on the web in its entirety.
In may help to know that Brunner was quite devoted to Spinoza.
