A key difference between Christianity and Greek mythology, literature and some other forms of religion is that Christianity is a historical religion. At its core it makes claims about the future of humanity. Those claims for the future are based on the veracity of events in the past, such as God choosing Israel, sending his Son, and Jesus dying for mankind. Take away those events in the past and you take away Christianity's credibility to talk about the future. Religions such as Hinduism which do not base their truth claims in history (past and future) are not susceptible to that sort of debunking. But take away Christianity's basis in history and it loses its message. Accepting that situation you can then, I suppose, choose to graft other sorts of philosophies onto Christian 'mythology' in an effort to preserve something, but the something you end up thereby actually creating rather than genuinely preserving is on a different basis than people who have called themselves Christians down the ages. So why bother? To convince ourselves that 2000 years of contemplation by some of the greatest minds of western civilization has not been a blind alley? To prove we personally were not completely dumb to have believed in the Jesus character at some point? To show that there is still some merit in the stories we once believed even if we no longer take them at face value? I think Stevie Smith captured the futility of this exercise well in her poem Was He Married? At best Christianity was a small move in the right direction. But we have to leave it aside now, not remould it as if, with a little tweaking, it can be made serviceable for the future: it has nothing left to say.
Was He Married?
Was he married, did he try
To support as he grew less fond of them
wife and family?
No,
He never suffered such a blow.
Did he feel pointless, feeble and distrait,
Unwanted by everyone and in the way?
From his cradle he was purposeful,
His bent strong and his mind full.
Did he love people very much
Yet find them die one day?
He did not love in the human way.
Did he ask how long it would go on,
Wonder if Death could be counted on for an end?
He did not feel like this,
He had a future of bliss.
Did he ever feel strong
Pain for being wrong?
He was not wrong he was right,
He suffered for others', not his own spite.
But there is no suffering like having made a mistake
Because of being an inferior make.
He was not inferior,
He was superior.
He knew then that power corrupts but some must govern?
His thoughts were different.
Did he lack friends? Worse,
Think it was his fault, not theirs?
He did not lack friends,
He had disciples he moulded to his ends.
Did he feel over-handicapped sometimes, yet must draw even?How could he feel like this? He was the king of heaven.
...find a sudden brightness one day in everything
Because a mood had been conquered, or a sin?
I tell you, he did not sin.
Do only human beings suffer from the irritation
I have mentioned? learn too that being comical
Does not ameliorate the desperation?
Only human beings feel like this,
It is because they are so mixed.
All humans should carry a medal,
A god cannot carry it, he is not able.
A god is a Man's doll, you ass,
He makes him up like this on purpose.
He might have made him up worse.
He often has, in the past.
To choose a god of love, as he did and does,
Is a little move then?
Yes, it is.
A larger one will be when men
Love love and hate hate but do not deify them?
It will be a larger one.
