Why A Play and Now a Novel / Tom Colgan WHY A PLAY and NOW A NOVEL?

In 1999, after almost 10 years of study about the historical Jesus, I asked this question. Whya play? The first draft would be written the next year, in 2000. Before those months happened, I wrote a paper about the purpose of returning our minds to the experience. The task was not of teaching about ancient explanations, but of helping people return to the experience, the Jesus Experience, and finding understanding that could meaningfully transform their lives. The journey of this play has now passed two decades. The Galilean is not a simple retelling of the stories of tradition that have been shared for centuries. It is an attempt to hear with fresh ears the implications of what Jesus so obviously took seriously in his ministry. By using the inferences of historical knowledge that come from the collective academic works of those who have been seeking to find his voice, the play attempts to put into simple language the paradigm-shifting message of truth about God that Jesus shared with those who gathered around him. It is hard to explain to people how the remarkable ministry of Jesus is often not really remembered. We are so sure that we could not miss the truth that has become so thoroughly ingrained in our awareness. And yet, still, the main message of the play is an encouragement to remember, to remember by hearing the story again, and catching a glimpse of the truth that Jesus was trying to share. The Galilean is a play that helps people realize the intuitive genius of Jesus in bringing forth new paradigms of religious thinking as he sought to revitalize his culture and religion. With a ministry focused on the outsiders of society, he introduced a new vision of Gods universal inclusive love, available to all without the brokerage of individuals or institutions. The remarkable nature and scope of his message and its transforming effect on those who heard him and who believed his good news is often missed because of a focus shift to the theological conclusion of his later status as divine Saviour of the world and Son of God. Ironically, this identity badge and seeing the cross as a salvation event, has totally overshadowed his work in his ministry. What Jesus, the divine, took seriously as a man, is almost forgotten. The remarkable paradigms of truth about Gods characteristics, availability, and the human/divine relationship were the factors that stirred his world, caused people to overturn their lives, and ultimately challenged the authority of the status quo to a degree of threat that he was killed by those in control. We are not challenged by the play to forget ancient and traditional doctrines and dogmas, but we are challenged to remember the incredible paradigm shifting message about God, Gods transforming love, the universal availability, and accessibility of the human/divine relationship. We are challenged to remember and take seriously what he took seriously, his message, the message of the galilean. In the paper that was written before the play came into being, I lament the difficulty and the impossibility of returning to the experience, but it ended with the question of what if What if we reconstructed with the best of academic scholarship, attitudes, situations, scenarios, cultural and historical setting, could we possibly begin to picture itand begin to grasp a new understanding a new remembrancewhat if 07/01/2012

Why A Play and Now a Novel / Tom Colgan And the play came alive, and has taken on a life of its own. See for yourselfThe Galilean.

07/01/2012