We live in an age when, almost daily, astronomers are discovering extrasolar planets that orbit nearby stars. This cornucopia of new worlds suggests the tantalizing, wildly optimistic possibility of a Star Trek future when it might be commonplace for humans to fly to earth-type alien worlds on the wings of technologies yet unborn.

Here on earth more readily achievable biotech advances offer the alluring possibilities of an end to disease, vastly increased human intelligence and stamina, and even physical immortality—or at least Methuselan longevity. Yet the spoiling specters of environmental disaster and rampant global terrorism haunt the sacred paths of science.

Science alone is not a guarantor of a benevolent future world. Historians and theologians have noted that fascist Germany sprouted from a highly educated, sophisticated society; Hitler coldly adjusted that skill base to his own nefarious devices. The brain trust employed by the Nazis fervently researched the sciences, invented modern rocketry, and produced detailed biotech plans to improve its “racial stock” through eugenics and euthanasia. Germanic Christianity—incontestably the lighthouse of Protestant thought in the early 20th century—could not guide its people through the dark sea of fascism, nor could its great theological and ethical lights prevent the massive cultural shipwreck of the Holocaust.

In a contemporary milieu fraught with tendencies toward sadism and self-destruction, yet offering the potential for unbounded opportunities, perhaps an enhanced understanding of Christology is more important than ever. The model of humanity presented in that “one solitary life” arguably has the potential to counterbalance all the Hitlers and Stalins humanity ever produced. [The poem “One Solitary Life” was written by Dr. James A. Francis.]  

Jesus Christ is such an influential figure in human history that a new vision of who he was, how he has changed through time, and what he continues to be in human consciousness might be indispensable for a postmodern, high-tech, galaxy-facing culture.

… If a team of visiting scholars from another solar system decided to look into the central figure in Christianity, they would quickly discover a baffling array of Jesuses offered by an equally bewildering marketplace of “Christian” groups. Digging into the piles of Jesus profiles, they might conclude there is no central organizing principle that unites the disparate Jesus images.

Christian loyalties notwithstanding, we must allow that the alien researchers would have a point. Place the suffering, redeeming Jesus of Roman Catholicism beside the sin-busting Jesus of American fundamentalism; invite into the circle the mystical Jesus of Quaker spirituality, the status-quo-shaking Jesus of feminist theology, and the patriotic-triumphant Jesus of Mormonism.

Call a suburban Protestant Jesus to the group, then add the provocative Jesus of New Testament scholarship and the prophetic Jesus of black liberation theology. For good measure, drop a Muslim Jesus into the mix (he's an Islamic prophet, you know). The visiting off-worlders might glance at each other and mumble, “This is not the same specimen of Homo sapiens.”

But of course he is. There was only one historic Jesus. The problem is that Jesus models have never coincided, not even during his earthly ministry. The inherited biblical Jesuses are inconsistent to the point of contradiction. Mark's Jesus is too human, John's too divine. This confusion is one of many reasons why people seldom go to the Bible to get religious ideas; people are more likely to read the Bible with religious ideas already decided. Wearing the lenses of their embedded theologies, people look to the Scripture for validation and emotional support. Roman Catholics who read the Bible will not encounter the same Jesus as Mormons or Quakers. It could scarcely be otherwise.

Although common sense suggests human thought starts somewhere, the indisputable fact is that all ideas are shaped by what has happened to us in the past. Even the most objective scholar begins by putting on a lens that induces her to conclude, “Objective thinking works best here …” Human belief systems hardly function by pure logic based on total objectivity; in fact there is no vantage point from which we can look down upon life and arrive at an unbiased opinion. We approach all decisions with a set of preferences we did not specifically choose yet are operational nonetheless. To examine the nature of embedded beliefs, I need only remind myself that if complete impartiality were possible, everyone reading this book would root for the Philadelphia Phillies and prefer onion bagels to wheat toast, just like me.

Even while acknowledging to the panel of scholarly aliens that we are unable to divest ourselves completely of embedded assumptions about Jesus, we must also confess that the Man of Nazareth is irreplaceable in human consciousness. Whether looking at 21st-century life in terms of science or spirituality, politics or philosophy, economics or ethics, mental health or matters of the heart, Jesus continues to play an essential role in the collective consciousness of Western civilization.

 

Learn more about Jesus 2.1: An Upgrade for the 21st Century by Thomas Shepherd, D. Min.