Interesting perspective; in order to be resurrected, one first has to die.
Well, coming again to how the New Testament might be a product of the Roman Empire's collapse, that seems to be a context wherein it may fit snugly. Try once, to think about the new testament by looking for what it plainly says about the state of common society, subtracting any mystical notions or insights that seem to be there
So when you do that, you find there that it is often talking about the corruption of people, and the way in which social institutions are not working. It speaks of large groups lepers, demon possessed people, authorities that accuse, all told through the perspective of a band of homeless travelers.
To me it reads like any fantastic modern comic book, where there are small bands of supernaturally powered individuals working for 'the good,' against great odds. That seems to be the closest analog, as far as I can tell. Plainly seen for what that means, it is horrifying. By that, I mean it is no person's dream that society should be characterized as being that futile, as a project
But there it is, you're living a society over a thousand years ago that failed to reach a humanitarian dream. It is wracked by invasion, civil war, disease, and internal corruption. The lead pipes around you are making you sick, and you haven't the science to know why.
Where is the hope, well it is anywhere but where you are. It is nowhere in the philosophy, engineering projects, religion, or physical government that your society created. The truth and hope comes only from heaven, and from a religion as opposed to a philosophy, that was not developed in the failing empire.
It might be possible then, that the New Testament narrative may have developed concurrently with the collapse, would some historians agree?
If this was so, that would indicate that it is a sort of auto-mythology created by a society that was already failing. And then of course, there would be a line connecting all of that to modern times, as modern people are the ones that supposedly eventually rose from the ashes of that prior civilization.
We are of course, faced by a novel set of problems, like nuclear war, and other issues related to our new level of complexity
