Well, in many places in North America, public libraries are not particularly in love
with the books of  Bishop John S. Spong,  The Jesus Seminar or Rudoph Bultmann**.  Billy
Graham is big here.  And, of course,  that is not stopping folk entering the Kingdom.

Strangely though, the bull pit of modern Christian theology, Uta Ranke-Heinemann, has
two important books on the shelves here.  To my mind, she makes the radical writings of Spong,
Harpur and the Jesus Seminar seem more conservative than the Pope's (J-P II) pronouncements
on birth control and abortion.  Uta  actually lived in the home of  Rudolph Bultmann where she
went as a young girl.  No doubt Bultmann taught her not everything in the  4 gospels is
to be taken at face value.  Thus, Uta learned that myth plays a great part in communicating the story of Jesus.  Somewhere along the line,  Uta who was born Protestant, converted to Roman
Catholicism.  She became the first . woman to hold a teaching position in a Catholic seminary.
She later lost the job because of  theological differences with  her superiors.  Namely,  she
regards the  Virgin Birth of  Jesus as theology and not biology.

I've read carefully two of Uta's theological efforts.   They are  Eunuchs of the Kingdom and
Putting Away Childish Things.  Both books are extremely left wing.  In fact both could
be viewed as an attack on Christian thinking (from medieval and earlier times) which some
sections of the Church are still trying to foist on modern men and women.

After forty years of bouncing around many theological books ancient and modern, Catholic and
Protestant, believer and atheist, my first impression was I've never read anything so damaging
to Christian belief and doctrine, Catholic or Protestant.    Ancient beliefs, beloved and widely held,   are assailed and, it seems, ridiculed by Ms. Ranke-Heinemann.  In fact, as I read Putting Away Childish Things  I began to think  "Uta had flipped her lid and somewhere along her theological journey has joined the atheist camp."  But, on deeper reflection, I realized that Uta was mounts  a tough  assault not on the person and teachings of Jesus but on the teachings and practices of the Church  that has too often betrayed and undermined the cause and sayings of Christ +.  And like the Jesus Seminar, a serious pruning of  Christian writings, including gospels and anti-sex musings of the Church Fathers is long overdue.  Thus, the smoke and mirrors exit stage right  and we are left with the real Jesus Christ.  Of course, like the Jesus Seminar's work, the pruning is extensive and, especially for conservatives, mighty painful.

So, after two or three years of exposure to Uta's theology I've learned to appreciate her
critical theology.  In fact, I wish she would write a few more books in the same vein.  You know,
hit them again, Sam.  I mean Uta.
 
 
 

*  (I can't spell rotweiller)
 

+ "Uta Ranke-Heinemann, author of the bestselling Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven now
    exposes how the myths behind he Church's key doctrines - such as the divinity of Christ, the
    virgin birth, the empty tomb -  distort Jesus' real message" (jacket  Putting Away Childish Things)

**  Jesus at  2000    is now on the shelves.  March, 1999.  It's Jesus Seminar stuff.