Not quite as good as Jonny
This article in the Tennessean talks about the presence of Christ in the public eye this year, seeing a raging debate over which Jesus everyone is talking about. It should be complimented with Jonny's post about republican and democratic Jesus and Supply Side Jesus by AL Franken to Waddle's Free-Market Messiah, Peace and Justice Jesus, Silence of the Lamb (of God) and Redeemer Revisited. One Jesus not touched by Jonny, Al Franken, or Waddle is the blood and guts Jesus of the Passion. This is what I was thinking was the Silence of the Lamb (of God) view and perhaps is the most predominant of them all; that Jesus is the bloody, violent sacrifice that makes the world hold together to the slight degree that it does. But, Waddle summarizes the need of good christology nicely. If only I could get my fellow seminarians to take such a critical approach to thinking about Jesus:"In the four Gospels, Jesus blesses the peacemakers but also brings a sword of judgment. He says love God, fear God, show mercy, be righteous, live the Golden Rule, expect the fiery Reign of God from heaven and look for it inside the heart too. Believers must somehow hold all these themes together because the Gospels do. It will take humility, discernment and a sense of humor to realize that a user-friendly Jesus might be just a pious excuse for justifying political prejudices."
posted by Jake Sikora @ 1:09 PM
1 Comments:
I liked this piece. We certainly do have a host of Christ-visions floating around these days. What has surprised me most over the past year is how hostile Christians are to combining the Peace and Justice Jesus with the Redeemer Jesus. It's very unpopular to try to sit on the fence between progressives and evangelicals. It's all or nothing with some of them.
On another note, I wonder how well Blood and Guts Jesus was represented in Mel Gibson's The Passion. I haven't seen it, but from what I understand, there was quite the emphasis on the suffering of Christ. But was it put in its proper context? Was it evident from the story why Jesus had to die, and what significance that event had on the whole of human history?
Any takers or talkers? I'm clueless here. Give me the goods!
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