Christi Thora and the Prophet Simon Kimbangu, Congo - Werner Ustorf's response

 My friend and former colleague Werner Ustorf from Birmingham University wrote to me the following response to my recently published book "Christi Thora" ("Christ's Thora") which I am publishing here with his consent:

I have read most of your argumentation in “Christi Thora” (not all the scriptural evidence though). Being a layperson in this regard, my impression is that your research is eminently fruitful. It is a line of thought that began to take shape decades ago and needs to be pursued with determination. The crux seems to be that the whole debate (or 98% of it) is in the hands of those who say what they always wanted to say (I am talking of the “Christian” bias, i.e. that bias that became victorious in the history of this religion).

Translating your questions into my words, I would say that what happened in response to Marcion is a complete takeover of his gospel by the group that became victorious (“orthodox”). Hijacking his texts, they re-attached the story of Christ to the Jewish tradition. And in doing so, they signalled to the Roman Empire that they were the ‘right’ version of Judaism, namely conform to the system and non-dangerous. Unfortunately, this claim, i.e. Christianity as the only legitimate continuation of Judaism, created the historical roots of antisemitism.

If Marcion had his text ready already in his Pontus years, you would probably want to know where he got his knowledge from. All these “Q”-issues would come back into the discussion. There should also be a new, and serious (non-Christian) investigation of the gospel of Thomas. Then, a step by step chronology of the mythology of Christ could be developed.

As you know, I was able to a small extent to do just that in relation to the Prophet Simon Kimbangu in the Congo. This was my summa cum laude PhD thesis, but nobody, neither in theology nor (of course) the Kimbanguist Church itself, was interested in this. I could show how the prophet’s own sayings and letters were ignored and replaced by plain inventions of sacred wonders and how these developments were promoted by people high up in the service of the then Belgian colonial government. The ’new’ image of the Kimbanguist tradition was non-violent and strictly non-political. A few years later, these Neo-Kimbanguist leaders cooperated with the dictator Mobutu and killed (literally) all survivals of the previous incarnation of Kimbanguism. All the books were re-written. Today, Kimbangu has been declared God’s second incarnation - that of the Holy Spirit. Dogma is also that every human being at the point of death will be judged by Kimbangu. This latter development I would explain as a consequence of the religious competition in the Congo. The Kimbanguists needed to up their game in order to compete.

Anyway, you have got yourself a massive research programme for years to come. I am not worried about this. I am worried about mediating the results of this research to the public. This is probably something that needs to be thought about.

Best wishes,
Werner

To this kind email I replied:

how right you are. I think, the same pattern runs through history, be it that of writing the history of early Islam or as with your experience in Congo. It would be worth to have a comparative study of how religions move from not always pacifist enthusiasts to a smoothened, altered and accommodating and colonially institutionalised movement that fits quite often culturally the very different political powers, leading to a kind of novel political structure with a remodelled religion.

And with regard the public, these ideas will go out. I just had last week and this week interviews with Jacob Berman who is running quite a successful History channel on Early Christianity on youtube. So, the combination between research and publications, traditional and novel, is the way forward. And, actually, I am doing this type of research, because I like doing it, irrespective of how many people it read or are inspired by what is written.

yours Markus