Christianity is the Announcement of an Event

In his collection of essays on linguistics, Message in the Bottle, Walker Percy identifies several ways to know things. Two of these ways are:

1. by reflection or philosophizing one can attain to certain universal truths;
2. by trusting a messenger one can learn of certain events that happen at a particular place and time.

Which method used is determined by the object in question. For example, if a plane crashed in the jungle on November 1st, 2008, the survivor would not know that Barack Obama won the election unless she receives a message with that information. Philosophizing wouldn't work. To learn about an event, one has to rely on a messenger.

Saturninus Salustius Secundus described the myths this way: “Things that always are, and never happen."

In contrast, Jesus lived in a certain time and place and yet claimed to be the Infinite Mystery. The Gospels and the Church testify to this claim. The central claim of Christianity is that God entered history as a particular man. After being crucified, He was as dead as any body in the graveyard and rose from the dead. The tomb was empty. He allowed Himself to be touched.

Somebody tells me that Obama has been elected president, and I believe them. I might be mistaken, but I'm no fundamentalist. Somebody told me that Jesus rose from the dead, and I believe them. And now that I have encountered Him, I will never settle for myths again.