A professor of world religion told me that a question i need to ask is "how and what did the original believers actually believe?"
According to him, the original christians believed in jesus's divinity. The reason the gospels were not written for so long after jesuss death was because his disciples really believed he was coming back in their life times. They believed he was son of man, performed miracles and rose from the dead.
There is imo merit to the case that if you do not believe in the literal version of jesus-as-divine complete with death and resurection and salvation that youre not, and cannot be called a christian. Basic tenent of "thingness" is that when you change a thing at a fundamental level then it is not the same thing anymore. I can see that argument.
On the other hand, ideas and beliefs happen within our imaginations and dont follwo the same rules. I honestly believe in the value and usefulness of christ as a symbol of personal transformation and redemption, of dignity in the face of suffering, of the willingness to speak truth no matter the consequences, of the ability to forgive and to love freely, and of the humility to acquiesce to the higher good. I honestly believe that jesus "works" and is "real" in the sense that these things are possible to all of us: potentials that we can all choose to pursue (taking up our crosses). But i dont believe in eternity of the soul or "magic" or the bible version of god. But to someone who DOES believe in those things, my deviation counts as total corruption of the true teachings.
Religions and religious ideas evolve, and if enough people believe in a new way, they kind of get the "right" to call themselves whatever they want. Todays jews (and most any other religion) dont believe in exactly the same way as the ancient israelites, thats just what happens as culture develops, but they stil get to call themselves jews and in "tribes of israel"
It seems reasonable enough to me to consider myself christian according to my own understanding of jesus, even though the traditional christians would not agree.
Who is right? I guess the quesion is less "who is right" and more "what will people believe in 100 years?" because its not really an issue of who is right or wrong, rather its whoever is left standing that wins, so to speak
People are complicated.
