Ježíš a mýtus o Kristu

This essay is written from the viewpoint of rigorous religious studies. This means that the author, while refraining from being bound by the Christian faith and its doctrines, attempts to treat the topic like any other historic topic using a rigorous historical critical methodology. He approaches Christianity as a phenomenon of human history and culture. In his attempt to reconstruct past events, the author does not allow for supernatural intervention. He does not interpret the origin of Christianity through divine revelation, or by appearance of the resurrected Christ, but rather as a psychological process that took place in the minds of Jesus' followers, who, while still full of Jesus' prophesy of the coming of God's kingdom, have just fled in pain and disappointment after Jesus' arrest and crucifixion. They soon after gathered in Jerusalem united by their excited vision - a proto-faith that God took Jesus up and that the crucified will soon come as the Son of Man and establish the kingdom he had prophesied. In this first phase the society of Jesus' followers had the character of a Jewish sect. It was not until a later stage when the proto-faith underwent important transformations, particularly in the Hellenist environment. Jesus is avowed as Christ, the Son of God, resurrected, and as Kyrios - Lord and Saviour. His cross is understood as a messianic symbol, as a sacrifice for human guilt. The first theological reflections of Christ as the embodiment of Logos and his unity with God begin to appear at the end of the first century, primarily as a result of Gnostic influence. This unity will later begin to be more understood in an ontological way.