If Jesus could be shown to have originated little as an ethical teacher, a majority of modern Christians would respond with a shrug. What's most compelling for them — what most of them see unique in his meaning — is not his ethic, his rhetoric (magnetic as it is in both its welcoming and frightenening phases), his healings and broad compassion, but the simple fact of his resurrection. . . . Equally, his resurrection is the ultimate validation of his ethic. Shouldn't one give unusually serious attention to obeying the commands, the advice, of any such man?

Reynolds Price, A Serious Way of Wondering