Four Gospels Course

Essay on The Four Gospels by a Pagan Clergy

Submitted by: Rev. Linda J. Paul

As a Pagan Clergy member, I found this course to be fascinating. I think if we choose to call ourselves Clergy of any kind, we need to be aware of other religious systems ideas and viewpoints. In this way we can compare, contrast and bring into unity the underlying threads that weave all these systems, however loosely, together.

I have long held great respect for Jesus the man, the healer, and the prophet. I see him as the greatest of all human teachers that have graced this Earth. His teachings encompass all beliefs and all religions if we look to his parables without getting caught up in the dogma.

I was raised in a Quaker/Pagan household.. strange as that may sound. My mother was a Quaker and my father was a Pagan. My grandmother was a Romanian Gypsy.. so I had quite an ecclectic childhood. I was called in my teens to Ministry. I always knew I wanted to be a Minister, but as I grew older and developed my own system of beliefs, I knew that a traditional Seminary school was not for me. I was very drawn to Paganism.. and for me it met my spiritual needs on a level that nothing else came close to doing. I see Divinity as both masculine and feminine in it's duality.

When I stumbled upon ULC Seminary.. I rejoiced!! Here was the Seminary I was looking for! The first course I chose was the Four Gospels. I had studied the Bible in the past, but I found that I could not quite grasp some of the content of the Gospels.

This course helped me to understand on a common sense, easily understood level the basic principles of not only the gospels themselves, but the history of their writers, as well as bringing in the Gnostic beliefs with the Gospel of Thomas, (my own personal favorite.) I began to see a picture emerging of who Jesus was, what he stood for, and what his message to the world really was. The course presented him as a human being who I could relate to, in the guise of both Son of God and Shaman.

I began to see the sychronicity between the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke... and how the information was basically the same, but from a slightly different viewpoint, and how John was more of a vision than the stories presented by the other three.

It was very helpful for me to have each lesson broken down into the Biblical text.. and then the viewpoint of the teacher presented underneath in a different color text. The format was excellent, and held my interest in a much better way than just reading the Gospels on my own.

Although, as a Pagan, I might not share the belief system presented by the Bible itself, I do appreciate the Bible as a tome of ancient knowledge. Thank you for helping me to break it down to a level of better understanding.

Respectfully,

Rev. Linda J. Paul

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