And that’s close to why I feel comfortable calling myself a Christian while having no opinion whatsoever as to the historical validity of the miracles or the virgin birth, or the resurrection.
The point is that the way in which he asked us to live feels right to me, and sits beautifully upon my conscience. I don’t need miracles to see that his teachings are valid. And so I can pattern my life after his teachings very comfortably whether or not he turned water into wine.
Jesus never asked us to worship him. In fact, he said quite clearly what he wanted (see above) and never made any reference to venerating him by any action other than remembering him and helping others and loving him and everyone else. He also modeled great moral courage in standing for the lowly and the reviled.
Many people in America today call themselves “Christian” while patterning their lives after the book of Leviticus, or Paul’s post-ascension editorializing. All of which is fine until they start following those writings even to the extent of direct abnegation of the direct requests Jesus Christ made. Which is again fine, believe what you like, and pattern your life as you wish, but don’t call it “Christian” when it clearly isn’t.
You seem to regard Jesus as an ethical leader rather than a religious one. Which, as you say, is fine. But I think that Jesus did intend a religious message as well as an ethical philosophy. Jesus did not feel that living a good ethical life alone was sufficient for salvation. You also had to have a belief in God.
In answer to the OP question, there is clearly an abundance of people who consider themselves Christian who don’t believe Jesus bodily resurrected.
But AFAIK there’s no reasonably well-known denomination that takes that position. I’d be hard pressed to come up with one that’s even neutral on the question. (Aside from the Unitarians, who as a denomination aren’t really into Jesus-worship anyway.)
I and most other Unitarians I know consider Jesus worth paying some attention to. That is the etymology of the word ‘worship’, after all.
It is also worth noting today that in the “Joker’s Wild” universe that George R. R. Martin invented, there’s the church of Jesus Christ, Joker. Lovingly overseen by Father Squid.
I don’t know that any denominations have come out and said it, but I would guess that the majority of clergy in some denominations don’t believe in a bodily resurrection (I’m thinking United Church of Christ and Episcopalian, for instance). My take on it as a Unitarian Universalist identifying as Christian is there was something miraculous that helped a band of followers keep going after their teacher/leader was executed. By miraculous, I mean in the original sense of “something to be marveled at.”.
But the word actually used in that verse, in the original Greek of the time is “proskyneseis”. A number of later translators converted that word into the english “worship”.
But it really doesn’t translate nicely into the english word “worship”, does it? “Worship” comes from Old English weorthscipe or ‘worthiness, acknowledgment of worth’. Whereas “proskyneseis” is greek and translates as: PROSKUNEO. . . pros: towards, and kuneo: to kiss.
Other translators have used the terms “homage” and “bowed down” and “did obeisance” or even “adored”.
I’m pretty sure Jesus didn’t mean you couldn’t acknowledge other people . . .
Words have been known to move from their roots over time. And ‘worship’ in contemporary English means ‘the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity,’ regardless of what its root word meant.
As far as the Greek is concerned, I don’t know shit. But I do know that Biblical translations are, by and large, scholarly documents where they’re trying to find the best contemporary equivalents to the original Hebrew and Greek words to the extent that we are capable of understanding their meaning when they were written.
‘Worship’ is routinely used in translating the linked verse. I’m going to assume that the scholars knew WTF they were doing when they used that word when they did their translations.
There are people–myself among them–who believe that a “Christian” is someone who follows the teachings of Christ to the best of his ability and understanding. There is no requirement to worship him as God, and doing so may actually be a disservice to his message and accomplishments. Equating him with God absolves you of any responsibility to follow his example, for instance. And since the Bible is in a perpetual state of rewrite, it becomes apparent that Christ was misquoted sometimes, and picking and choosing the message becomes an inevitability.
But then there’s John 11:39
*“Lord, he has been dead these 3 days… he stinketh!”
Jesus: “You would too after partying that hard. Nothing a good shower won’t cure.” *
