Opinion ¢ Soundings Dr Roland Chia is Chew Hock Hin Professor of Christian Doctrine at Trinity Theological College and Theological and Research Advisor at the Ethos Institute for Public Christianity (http://ethosinstitute.sg).
Just a hallucination? “Soundings” is a series of essays that, like the waves of a sonogram, explore issues in society, culture and the church in light of the Gospel and Christian understanding.
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n the fifteenth chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Christians at Corinth, we find the earliest and most extensive discussion on the resurrection in the New Testament.
The integrity of the Christian faith, the apostle insists, hinges on the facticity of the resurrection of Christ. “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain… And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are all people most to be pitied.” 1 Corinthians 15:14, 17-19 (NIV) Throughout the history of the Church, various attempts have been made to show that the resurrection of Christ
did not occur and that the disciples had either fabricated it or that they were simply hallucinating. In recent decades, there appears to be a revival of the latter theory. While sceptical scholars now seem more inclined to believe that Jesus’ disciples really ‘saw’ what they believed to be their resurrected Master, this concession must conform to a naturalistic worldview, where the supernatural is ruled out as impossible. For example, in 2000, American Broadcasting Company aired a documentary called The Search for Jesus in which a number of scholars of early Christianity commented on what can be known about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. The New Testament scholar, Paula Fredriksen, who is not a Christian, opined that historical evidence showed that the disciples were convinced that they saw their Master, who had died three days before, appear to them.
