3000 Years

“ …from iron sword to atomic bomb in about 3,000 years.” This is the short time humans have taken to escalate violence against our perceived enemies in our delusion that global control will lead to nonviolence. John Dominic Crossan and Sarah Sexton Crossan remind us of this sad fact in their article in the January 31, 2018, issue of the “Christian Century,” entitled “Rising Up with Christ.” The Crossans have toured churches in the East and photographed some of their magnificent frescos, showing the Anastasis (Ana/stasis: Greek for up/rising) or the resurrection of Christ. These images are different from western depictions of Christ’s resurrection, where Christ rises alone in an individual resurrection. In the East, Christ invariably rises up with others, notably Adam whom Christ grasps by the arm with Eve following, as Christ guides them up out of Hades, out of death. Thus, in the East, universal resurrection is proclaimed. Christ takes all of humanity with him, past, present, and future, even as his cruciform halo reminds us that the resurrected is also the crucified: distinguishable, but never separate. “All religion is metaphor,” and, as the Crossans reminds us, “ …universal Anastasis is not a literal vision; it is a metaphorical vision. And—at least for our species—metaphor creates reality.” But for whom is this metaphor? Does it have meaning only in the church or for the public at large? Does it relate to the historical development of humanity? In the Neolithic period 5000 years ago, agriculture developed in the fertile crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. As agriculture became the main hallmark of civilization, violence escalated. This escalation is reflected in the story of Cain, a farmer, who kills Abel, his brother, a shepherd in a fit of rage when God accepts Abel’s sacrifice over his (Genesis 4:15). Violence, as the Crossans write, became civilization’s drug of choice. As we have gone from sword to atomic bomb in a mere 3000 years, we still are deluded that violence will bring us peace – or at least the cessation of violence. Even as civilization has saved us from barbarism, what will save us from civilization and ever escalating violence? The Crossans point out that the only credible answer is “Programmatic nonviolent resistance to violence….” They claim that nonviolence “… alone can end civilization’s trajectory of escalation.” Universal Anastatis pointedly contrasts Rome’s kingdom of violence with Jesus’ kingdom of nonviolence. Only nonviolent resistance to the normal violence of civilization, as exemplified by Jesus, can move us away from destruction toward a world transformed by the refusal to use violence to solve our problems. Thus, if civilization can will it (with the Spirit’s help?), the metaphor of universal Anastasis can lead to the reality of a nonviolent world, where we wean ourselves off of the drug of violence as the solution to our problems.