Wills insists that Jesus and Paul both opposed “religion,” claiming that the worship of God was not something “based on external observances, on temples or churches, on hierarchies or priesthoods.” Both Jesus and Paul were, in fact, “killed by religion.”

I would totally agree with this statement.

Only in the Middle Ages, sometime before the ninth century, did the
institutional church, with its “male monopoly” on “offices and honors,”
decide that “a woman apostle was unthinkable.” To obscure the radical
egalitarianism practiced by the founders of the faith, who believed
that women could be “prophets in the gathering,” the Roman hierarchy
had to engage in what Wills c...

read more»

Wills insists that Jesus and Paul both opposed “religion,” claiming that the worship of God was not something “based on external observances, on temples or churches, on hierarchies or priesthoods.” Both Jesus and Paul were, in fact, “killed by religion.”

I would totally agree with this statement.

Only in the Middle Ages, sometime before the ninth century, did the
institutional church, with its “male monopoly” on “offices and honors,”
decide that “a woman apostle was unthinkable.” To obscure the radical
egalitarianism practiced by the founders of the faith, who believed
that women could be “prophets in the gathering,” the Roman hierarchy
had to engage in what Wills calls a “Soviet-style rewriting of
history.” What most present-day Christians, and especially orthodox
Roman Catholics, consider to be essential elements of the faith, he
argues, must be understood as corruptions of Jesus’ and Paul’s
intentions.

One reason Mary Magdalene was not given her proper place as a very important disciple of Christ, and smeared with the false prostitute slander, until the Catholic Church has to apologize for it.

By argument or by implication, he manages to reject the legitimacy and
authority not only of the papacy and the rest of the Catholic hierarchy
but also of the early church councils, the church fathers and even, in
many instances, the Gospels themselves. In their place he substitutes
spontaneous devotion to God and neighbor — and commitment to the
politically subversive view that “love is the only law.” So much for
Christianity necessarily serving as a handmaiden of conservative
politics.

Love is the only law; what a beautiful thing, Enbar.