Religious viewpoints vary

According to various sources, there are somewhere around 30,000 different versions of Christianity in the world today, each claiming to be the only correct one, and each believing sometimes substantially different things.

In a way, that’s not surprising because it took 300 to 500 years after Jesus’ departure for competing church leaders to negotiate which of the many documents in existence – and which version and translation of such documents – should go into the several major manuscript collections different groups now call “The Bible.”

Since 1945’s discovery of a trove of early Christian literature buried in Egypt, plus the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as other undisputed discoveries and scholarship in recent decades, it’s clear there is wide latitude for understanding and practicing Christianity. There is no single viewpoint. Thus the idea that Jesus is God, for example, is acceptable to some Christians and not to others.

Hence there is value in diverging, thoughtful studies/views as published in media like The Spokesman-Review, which should be encouraged and carefully considered as we each strive to make sense of ultimate reality in religious or secular terms.

Bob Gregson

Spokane