CS Lewis, renowned Christian apologist, one time atheist, charts his journey to faith in Suprised by Joy with characteristic rationality and dispassionate, amazingly self-aware observation. It is a book I highly recommend for believers and non-believers alike only because it shows that faith is not based only on, well faith, it is also based on reason, philiosophy, objectivity, appreciation of beauty and intellectual reflection & curiosity. That said the aformentioned are not usually associated with faith, rather irrationality, emotionalism, subjectivity, zeal minus knowledge and an avoidance of inquiry and practical interpretation.
Christianity is often portrayed through the filter of Western thought. The Roman Catholic version of the faith, though on the wane, has been the predominant representation and experience for many. Its history of ceremony, pedophilia, politicization of God and religion have contributed to giving faith a bad name as have the many sexual and financial scandals, ravingly angry and judgemental sermons, closed-minded and under-informed proselytes and racism and prejudice associated with various denominations throughout Christendom.
But when you think about it, what did Jesus call what he taught? Did he call it 'Christianity' or 'Judaism'? Jesus never gave a name to what he taught - he just taught and lived his teaching, and his teaching was very practical and easily understood. Today, we often teach that we should obey 'because the Bible says so' but we place less emphasis on why the Bible says what it does and the inherent common sense in the teaching.
My own personal experience saw my Church (and myself in many ways) move from teaching people to be disciples to telling them to be the same. There is a massive difference between teaching and telling. One encourages inquiry, thought, explanation, research, engagment. The other only requires obedience. Close mouthed and closed minded obedience. But this is often the way of any organization. What often begins as a community of independent but like-minded individuals, for the sake of administration and as a result of a growing divergence on some issues, becomes a homogenous group controlled by a few opinon leaders. The control begins out of a sincere desire to see people be righteous. But when one sees the danger of free choice - and that free choice can and does lead to very bad choices - then one wants to intervene for the 'sake of the flock' and tell the sheep what is best for them. First on a communal level then on a more personal level.
Jesus forced no one to listen to or obey his teaching. The choice was up to the audience - if they chose to be an audience. But he did point out that every action has a consequence; temporal and eternal (the rich fool, the rich man and Lazarus, the Prodigal Son). But if we focus wrongly on the the eternal we can easily forget that all we have are our minds and bodies right now. We experience life in no other way and in no other place but on earth 'in the now', as Cesar Milan likes to say.
That Jesus didn't name his teaching gives it a universality that Christianity takes away from it. It becomes a religion rather than life itself. As Christians we can even defend the position of Jesus as if it belongs to us rather than to the reality of the Universe itself - which is what I believe it to be. As a result, righteousness is wherever it is found. It does not belong to me or religion, it belongs to God - and God '... is over all and through all and in all'.
I am not suggesting that God is therefore accessible through any path in any way of a person's choosing. Jesus clearly demonstrated his Godly qualities and taught that these Godly qualities are the way to true life. How could forgiveness not be beneficial, liberating and unifying in its effect? This is not to say it is easy, but you get my point.
We can take Jesus teachings and claim them as our own, as if we ourselves created them and exclude others by our privileged knowledge. That others by nature come to the same conclusions as Biblical text is no surprise to me - John concluded that 'God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.', many have proclaimd the power of love from many platforms because we all have, I believe, an innate understanding of it. Solomon attested that 'God made mankind upright...' and 'He has also set eternity in the hearts of men', our search for Him is no accident nor is our desire to be righteous in any cultural context or religion. That expression and 'programming' isn't always carried out in the best of ways - but that occurs when we begin to create God in our image claiming Him rather than allowing Him to claim us.
I do believe that Jesus is the living Word of God. But I also believe that Word to be more far-reaching than religion and Christianity paints it. CS Lewis' illustration of the Bible as a map is poignant. He asserted that the Bible is no more God than a map of a nation is the nation itself. There is an obvious difference. One is representative the other is the thing represented. We shouldn't mistake one for the other. One is the exposition and the other is the experience. Doubtless, one cannot navigate a strange country without directions - and directions can ensure a clear pathway once read correctly. But a map does not tell you where an accident is going to happen or if someone is waiting behind a buiding to rob you. That you have to prepare for yourself. And preparation necessitates character - indeed the unwritten things are what build character and bring life to the theory.
It is important to remember that we look at all of Christianity and its Judaic history after the fact. It can be easy to see many of the resolutions of conflict and judgments of God as prescriptive. However, the participants themselves never had our knowledge of outcomes and we forget that the faith itself was evolutionary, especially during Paul's time as he literally wrote the book on our faith through his letters. At one time the Bible was non-existant, but God himself and faith in him were living and active.
What teachings, did Abraham and Enoch follow those many years ago? What was it that Jesus came to do the many years after these men? One thing is for certain, Jesus had a problem with what man did to God's law and the contravention then has been repeated many times since. The codification of God's teaching is, to some extent unavoidable, but the canonization of man's teaching is avoidable and must be avoided. It may mean frequently stepping back to consider the value we place on our necessary contextual laws versus the heart of God himself. It would be dangerous to stop thinking because one holds that the Bible does all our thinking for us - but equally dangerous to assume that we must 're-write' the Bible and hence mold God according to our immediate needs and biases.
In the end I have decided that the following rules should and must be followed in order to please God from the heart and without error:.....gotcha! ;O)
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