Letters from a Skeptic (Part 7)
[Note: This is one post in a series on Greg Boyd’s book Letters from a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with his Father’s Questions About Christianity. The aim of these posts is to help you start conversations with people in your community. Invite someone to read this book with you and discuss it together. You don’t need to agree with each other or the author to benefit from doing this type of activity.]
For this session, we’ll cover Correspondences 16-17
SUMMARY
In these letters, Greg and his dad address the topic of Jesus’s resurrection and why Christians use it to claim that Jesus is God. Edward notes how Greg’s arguments are interesting and somewhat reasonable. However, he struggles to reconcile them with a worldview in which he knows that people don’t come back to life after they die.
Greg addresses Edward’s concerns by outlining some of the arguments in favor of seeing Jesus’s resurrection as an actual historical event. If you’ve never studied these arguments, Greg provides a good, introductory summary.
What’s most interesting about their conversation, is the candidness with which Edward approaches the issues. He is very honest about his issues. While Greg is confident his father will ultimately choose to embrace the Christian faith, he repeatedly emphasizes his care for his dad and his enjoyment of their conversations.
INTRIGUING QUOTES
I don’t know why the disciples thought Jesus rose from the dead, but it seems to me that any explanation is better than the one which assumes that He actually did rise from the dead. (Edward, May 29, 1990)
Let me first respond to your concern that I’m growing tired of your skepticism. Perish the thought! I admire the strength of your character and the astuteness of your questions and objections. I’m loving this! Beyond my love for the subject, I’m just enjoying dialoguing with you about the most important things in life. We’ve never talked like this before. (Greg, June 16, 1990)
What I’m trying to do, Greg, is reconcile the force of your evidence with a worldview that makes more sense to me. Concluding that Jesus was God just doesn’t. (Edward, July 16, 1990)
CONVERSATION STARTERS
What are the reasons Greg provides for believing in the resurrection?
What challenges does the claim that Jesus rose from the dead raise for your faith?
What do you take away from how Greg and Edward dialogue with one another?
If you’d like more questions, make sure you pick up a copy of the book. It has several questions for each correspondence.
Next week we’ll cover correspondences 18-20.