I wasn't raised Christian, but I took a lot of religious philosophy courses in college that I adored (all of them, IOW). I remember from Christian philosophy that Jesus was saying heaven and hell are here with us. It's not that these were concepts so much in his Jewish faith, but that he was saying it's your choice : we can make heaven here, on Earth (his faith did not believe in Christian concepts of the afterlife).
I am open to corrections. The Christian phl prof (only one) at my university had emerged from a sort of crisis of faith to redevelop his views, though he gave us numerous examples of how Christian scholars don't all agree and there isn't simply one answer. It really helped me with my experiences with evangelical Christians to finally meet a practicing Christian who acknowledged things are not so simple as there is only one dogma (AKA the US evangelical nightmare in which they are completely obtuse and will not leave you alone even when it should be apparent they are doing harm).
A takeaway: Jesus was a Jew. Just like Siddhartha Gautama was a Hindu. They founded new belief systems, sure. But don't neglect where they came from and thus their identities.
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Originally Posted by inumbra
