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Excellent post again.  And thanks for the mention! ( Next stage is a footnote in a published journal.)

A real resurrection recounted using partially fictional events is an intriguing option.  I instantly think "what is God doing here?".  If God wants to give good evidence for this event for future generations then He wouldn't allow it to be presented with 1. on the face of it fictional elements and 2. apparently major contradictions (like Luke saying that all appearances happened in Jerusalem.)

But if God doesn't want to give good evidence for the event (as the Thomas narrative suggests) then does He want us to believe without sufficient warrant? 

If there is a warrant that isn't evidence,  what is it? Can church tradition be a warrant? 

The final option is that God doesn't care whether future generations believe in the resurrection.  If so how can it be important? 

Best as ever, Ed

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Dear Ed,

Of course, the question of God's intent is beyond me. But I would suggest that the stories of the resurrection in the Gospels were ever intended as source material, to persuade those who did not believe. According to the Gospels, the appearances were mysterious, which might suggest that belief in the resurrection is subjective. In Luke's account, on the road to Emmaus recognised Jesus *in* the breaking of bread; which is to say, a communal, ritual act. This seems much true to how people come to believe in the resurrection today.

Is this to believe without *warrant*? If the narrow definitions of reason offered to us by modernity is what qualifies as 'warrant', then perhaps. Although something I was reflecting on recently about the story of doubting Thomas is this: Thomas thought he needed to *touch* the wounds of Jesus, but he only ended up needing to see him (we are never told that he touched the wounds.) That is to say, what *we think* we need to believe in Christ is often not the same as what we *actually* need to believe; the importance is the encounter. For us today, this will principally be an encounter with the Holy Spirit, rather than Christ himself.

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