Has popular Christianity forgotten Jesus along the way?
Saturday, February 18, 2006 at 11:30PM 
Just last week I was teaching my first year Systematic Theology class one of the fundamentals of Christian Doctrine, namely, that 'doctrine' and 'faith' are not the same thing.
Anselm spoke of Theology as "Fides Quaerens Intellectum" (Faith Seeking Understanding).
Doctrine is something that we construct through a process of reflecting upon our faith (what we believe). Neither of these are without their faults. Why? Well, because we rely on our own interpretation of what God reveals to us (both through creation - often associated with epistemology, and through our inner experiences - often thought of as phenomenology). And, once we have formulated our 'belief' we have to communicate it using the symbols of human language. So we end up saying things like "God is my rock". Does this realy mean that God is brownish, heavy and cannot be moved? No! We all believe that the symbolism is expressive of things that we believe which are difficult to describe without refering to what we already know. Sometimes we even use symbols such as "God the Father...". Of course, many people have begun to adopt such symbols as absolute truth, thinking that God truly is male, or old, or some such nonsense! Anyway, enough of the first year lesson...
You can well imagine that I read a fair amount. In particular I read a fair amount of Christian theology. I have been struck by one problem with much modern theology I have been reading in recent times... It is all so anthropocentric. What does that mean? It means that so much of what we believe about God centres around ourselves! how much God loves us, how God wants to deal with us etc.
Last year I had a paper published in the Journal of Catholic Reflection - Grace and Truth. The issue focused on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the Catholic Priest and paleontologist. The title of the article was: Post-human Consciousness
and the Evolutionary Cosmology of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. (I have in fact linked to this article in a previous post).
The article argued a point that Teilhard's evolutionary cosmology presents, namely, that God's purpose for the whole of the created order (what is commonly referred to as the cosmos) is NOT the fulfillment of humankind. In fact, God's purpose for the cosmos is the fulfillment of Christ! Jesus is the point of all creation (just read Col 1:16-17 for a clear Biblical example of such a theology). Jesus is God's point for everything. That is what makes the miracle of the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus such an incredible miracle.
I think that many Christians have forgotten this reality. In much of what I read, and in fact much of what I think, I see that we have placed ourselves at the centre of God's Universe! Somehow, we have come to believe that we are more important than Christ himself.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that humanity is not important to God. In fact the opposite is true! We are VERY important to God. However, there is no way that we are more important than Jesus!
In a strange way that makes me feel kind of special (not important, just special)... To think that even though Jesus is so much more important than any of us, God still chooses to have Jesus die for us! What a miracle of grace!
Anyway, this is just a thought. Perhaps the next time we think about the world, about how we make decisions, about what we think is really important, we should stop and look away from ourselves and look towards Christ.... Christ is the point of the cosmos!
Here's the article again if anyone would like to read it:
Reader Comments (4)
Hey there Mr Dion sir,
I was just reading your blog about Jesus, and I was wondering...
By saying that Jesus was God's purpose for creation, isn't that separating God from God too much. So, if God created for Jesus, then God created FOR God.
I by no means think that humanity is the ultimate expression of Creation, but I think that God created more because He is God, than for God (Jesus).
Does the idea of God creating for Jesus tie in with the concept of God creating because He is love (1John something)and love cannot exist without expressing itself?
(I suppose its something to do with the Jesus is the beloved etc) but I still don't quite buy the whole creation for Jesus thing.
Interesting...
Murray
Hey there Mr Dion sir,
I was just reading your blog about Jesus, and I was wondering...
By saying that Jesus was God's purpose for creation, isn't that separating God from God too much. So, if God created for Jesus, then God created FOR God.
I by no means think that humanity is the ultimate expression of Creation, but I think that God created more because He is God, than for God (Jesus).
Does the idea of God creating for Jesus tie in with the concept of God creating because He is love (1John something)and love cannot exist without expressing itself?
(I suppose its something to do with the Jesus is the beloved etc) but I still don't quite buy the whole creation for Jesus thing.
Interesting...
Murray
oops... pressed the 'Publish' buttom twice by accident
Murray
No Problem. It is always nice to see three comments!! Also, it was worth reading twice!
I like what you say about love expressing itself. I think that the Doctrine of Creation has a great deal to do with God's love seeking to be more than just self-expression, but a true love that is expressed in and to another.
Think about it, this is one of the greatest risks that has ever been taken. God, creator, sustainor, source of all that is, creates something that God places out of God's reach (so to speak). God says in the creation of a free willed humanity, "I so long to be in a relationship of love, where love is freely chosen or rejected, that I create free human persons who can choose for me, or against me."
However, must not mistakenly assume that the 'purpose' of creation is humanity itself. The purpose of creation is God's expressive love (of which humanity is an important part).
This view does not wish to undermine the imporatance of humanity in God's creative process, but simply to show that far too much emphasis is placed on the importance of humanity in much of popular theology.