We just don’t think about Jesus laughing. Yet in our home is an image that depicts just that aspect of Jesus.2 A priest friend gave us a print of this “Laughing Jesus”, and my wife and I treasure it for two reasons. Obviously for the gift itself, but also for the image it conjures up: a Jesus who found humor in life! That’s a Jesus I can relate to; a Jesus that relates to my humanity.

In recent years, I’ve been draw to the concept of “Christology from below.”3 Scholars such as John Dominic Crossan present historical and archeological evidence of who Jesus might have been, by outli

1 Eileen Flynn. “Why Believe?” (Sheed & Ward, 2000) p. 67

My desire to know and explain who Jesus is got me to thinking about those we mark as “heretics”. Could it be they were just struggling like the rest of us to understand Jesus, using the terms of their day and age? Were they searching for the identity of the God/Man who came from true being with God to dwell in true being with humanity? Since we’ve not had any new official Church teaching on Christology since 681, do we risk the title of heretic if we explore any new understanding based on recent discoveries in Biblical scholarship, history and archeology? Are we not still learning more about the historical Jesus, which can lead us to a better understanding of the Deity?

Some topics in this essay:
Christ Crossan, Dominic Crossan, Eileen Flynn, Desert Storm”, , That’s Jesus, City Michigan, Catholic Methodist, Sheed Ward, Harper Collins, belief system, flynn “why believe”, “why believe”, gospel texts, john dominic, dominic crossan, flynn “why, eileen flynn, “laughing jesus”, historic jesus, disciples jesus, john dominic crossan,