74 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
or in heaven, but to strive for a good society on earth, anchored in
love. "God and Love are the eternal riddles," he concluded, but
Christ said "God is Love!"
Thereupon the writer proceeded to analyze the life and char
acter of the founder of Christianity. He described Jesus as a
genuinely human being who was the most perfect image of the
unfathomable God, but who was not a supernatural phenomenon.
He pointed out how the Bible, a product of weak and fallible men,
had evolved from manuscript to manuscript through the centuries;
and after the manner of the "higher criticism" of the theologians,
he presented considerable textual analysis to prove his conclu
sions.
Weitling deplored and condemned the sectarian quarrels and
religious wars that had resulted from the narrow, literal interpre
tations of Holy Writ; and he described the Gospel of Jesus as a
simple appeal to the heart of man, an expression of man's innate
sense of justice, concluding that even if Christ had not been a
historical personage at all, the New Testament would remain one
of the most significant documents in human history.
The Evangelium then proceeded to demonstrate that doubt was
natural to man, and skepticism a useful cathartic; that even the
best of the disciples were sinful men; and that Jesus himself had
all the desires and frailties common to man. Weitling explained
and more or less condoned the treason of Judas Iscariot on the
ground that Jesus had distrusted him; a sharp rebuke administered,
not in private, but before all the other disciples, had driven him
to murder and suicide. Jesus appears in the Evangelium as the
plain carpenter's son, a simple worker who had to earn his own
living, who had brothers and sisters like other men, whose char
acter was not without its little human flaws. Later generations
had enveloped him in the supernatural mysteries characteristic
of the lives of the founders of other great religions. The miracles
were disposed of as unessentials which every man might explain
in his own way. The parables were interpreted as shrewd tales to
barré
(Barré)
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