I am a proud 1973 graduate of Union Theological Seminary (UTS) in New York City. It is because of my pride in and my indebtedness to that school for equipping me for a 50-year career in ministry that I am troubled by a recent New York Times interview by Nicholas Kristof of Serene Jones, current UTS president.

Jones voiced her belief that the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead was not central to Christian faith. Her exact quote was, “For Christians for whom the physical resurrection becomes a sort of obsession, that seems to me to be a pretty wobbly faith.” She continues, “There’s no resurrection story in Mark, just an empty tomb. Those who claim to know whether or not it happened are kidding themselves.”

Jones sets forth her own view about what is really important about the resurrection of Jesus when she concludes, “The empty tomb symbolizes that the ultimate love in our lives cannot be crucified or killed… For me, the message of Easter is that love is stronger than life or death. That’s a much more awesome claim than that they put Jesus in the tomb and three days later he wasn’t there.”

Jones is entitled to her views about the resurrection of Jesus and other matters that have fueled the faith vs. reason debate for hundreds of years. It should be noted that the bodily resurrection of Jesus was not the only aspect of Christian faith that Serene Jones seemed content to reduce to a metaphor or an allegory for some other spiritual lesson. She was equally dismissive of the virgin birth of Jesus, saying that “I find the virgin birth to be a bizarre claim.”

I could not help but think about Serene Jones and her New York Times interview when I was standing in the chapel at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School reciting the Nicene Creed, the 1800-year old confession of faith spoken by Christians around the world. Among its lines are these words:

Who for us men and because of our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became human.

The creed continues:

He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate,

and suffered and was buried, and rose on the third day,

according to the Scriptures…[i]

I was also recalling the numerous times I had recited the Apostles’ Creed which became set in the 8th century CE as the “Textus Receptus” or the received text. That universal confession of faith carries language similar to the Nicene Creed when it says:

I believe in God the Father almighty, the creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried…On the third day rose again from the dead…[ii]

It is no small thing to use an interview in the New York Times to dismiss, and at points even demean, the faith claims of over one billion Christians around the world as framed within these two creeds.

Where Serene Jones and I disagree is over her use of the phrase “Those who claim to know whether or not it happened are kidding themselves.” The resurrection is not something that any Christian can or should claim to know in terms of its historicity. Resurrection is a matter of faith. A matter of mystery. A matter of miracle! Rather than dismiss as childish or bizarre those things in scripture that do not easily yield to rational explanation, most Christians turn to the language of I Timothy 3:9 that challenge us to “hold fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience” (NIV). I personally choose “I do not know how” over “I do not believe.”

Resurrection is a matter of faith. A matter of mystery. A matter of miracle! Rather than dismiss as childish or bizarre those things in scripture that do not easily yield to rational explanation, most Christians turn to the language of I Timothy 3:9 that challenge us to “hold fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience” (NIV).

It should not be surprising that I would publicly differ with the current president of the school where I was trained. I am a Baptist, and as such I embrace the principles of Soul Liberty and Religious Liberty. Under the banner of Soul Liberty, I have the right to come to my own views about the meaning of my faith whether scholars and teachers like those at Union Theological Seminary agree with me or not. Under Religious Liberty, I celebrate the protection afforded me and others by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that allows for dissenting voices and opposing views when it comes to the meaning of our faith as Christians.

Since I first expressed my disagreement with Serene Jones as to resurrection being a myth and a metaphor, I have heard from many of my learned friends who have directed me to the work of the German scholar Rudolf Bultmann and his efforts to demythologize the life of Jesus.[iii] While I know about the views of Bultmann, and grant that his work was central to considering new ways to think about the historical Jesus, I am not prepared to add the books of Bultmann to the canon of Christian scripture. Bultmann should not be mentioned alongside Peter, James, and John just because he wrote a seminal book many years ago. A book, I might add, that has not been required reading in seminary classrooms for decades.

Rudolf Bultmann and his devotees notwithstanding, I continue to resist the notion that the resurrection of Jesus should be viewed as a metaphor or a myth. I am drawn instead to the words of Paul when he says, “If Christ has not been raised…faith is futile” (1 Corinthians 15:17 NIV).

It was by faith in a risen savior, not a myth or a metaphor, that my slave ancestors and subsequent generations of African Americans have been able to endure the horrors of life in this country for the last 400 years.

It was not a myth they sang about or prayed to in their churches and prayer meetings, on picket lines or in jail cells, in resisting the KKK or the White Nationalist Movement.

It was by faith in a risen savior, not a myth or a metaphor, that my slave ancestors and subsequent generations of African Americans have been able to endure the horrors of life in this country for the last 400 years. 

Their faith and mine was and is in a living savior who is in the world today.  I do not ask or require than anyone else agree with me about the resurrection of Jesus. I simply exercise my Soul Liberty and my deep personal conviction that my savior lives!

Dr. Marvin A. McMickle is president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, Rochester, N.Y.