Christianity arose in a period when there were a lot of religions around, and its early liturgies were, of course, influenced by them. But it is harder to understand just how revolutionary Christianity was in that context.
In the world where Christianity arose, namely the Roman Empire, it was fashionable to laugh at the poor. And folks were already finding creative ways to blame the unfortunate for their own problems. It’s only natural, after all, and it is what we humans always do. We have a proclivity for it.
Along came Christianity, with its emphasis on compassion to upend everything. Its putative founder, Jesus of Nazareth, is said to have declared, “No greater love has anyone than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13). Such a statement was not heard in the Roman Empire.
I like to think of Jesus as a regular guy who woke up to the fact that there was no difference between him and what had been called God in his Jewish tradition. The seven ecumenical councils (which were by no means equal) were mainly about deciding how to talk about God. And then we were allowed to make an idol out of the number seven and that was, unfortunately, the end of it. I think there should have been more councils to talk about the human side of the Christ event. I think discussion of the humanity would have been revelatory, but it’s now too late.
Even if you think otherwise: God as the ultimate “other,” with whom the word panentheism can be used. And Christ as a special man whose body “God” occupied a couple millennia ago, and whose sacrificial death was a trade off for all of us who needed it. It still goes against the grain of the kindness that does not come naturally to us. That certainly was not common in the Roman world of the first through third centuries.
Elon Musk and his ilk are fond of saying that empathy is an aberration. They are right. It does not come naturally to us. Hatred and vindictiveness are much more natural. And completely traditional.
It’s Christianity that is the aberration. Compassion and empathy go against the grain in a most miraculous way.
The problem comes when Christianity—or any other religion—becomes identified with the state. Religion is almost always the loser in this setup. This unfortunately happened to Christianity. It has also happened with Islam. Religion is meant to be followed by small remnant. But it usually is not. When it is married to the state, it usually becomes a slave to the state. The religious aspect of conservatism.
I agree with Vasily Grossman, the author of the novel Life and Fate. The history of the world is not great evil battling great good. It’s more uneven than that. It is about great evil battling a tiny kernel of good. Great evil is continually surprised that the tiny kernel of good exists and seems to be eternal. That’s the miracle.
It’s interesting to me that none of the gospel accounts of the death and resurrection of Jesus agree. They are in fact wildly off, and, I think, irreconcilable. I imagine the seventy men in Alexandria who came up with the New Testament canon. They knew that the texts didn’t match. I imagine them smiling. The disagreement was for them a reason that this resurrection was not to be taken too literally. Nobody got it.
Anyway, I think the real manifestation, the real miracle, the real resurrection in Christianity is compassion. It is totally unrelated to what we of the human race do. Thus it is a miracle.
No comments:
Post a Comment