Main Idea:
In his introduction, Rohr begins by describing an experience had by the mystic Caryll Houselander on an underground train. Her vivid encounter with the oneness that humanity has with Christ provided her with a shock of recognition that “our oneness in Christ is the only cure for human loneliness” (page 3). Rohr states that “Christ for her was clearly not just Jesus of Nazareth but something much more immense, even cosmic in significance. How that is so, and why it matters is the subject of this book” [page 3].
Summary of the Content:
The first chapter begins with Rohr posing a series of questions centered around the notion of Christ’s role or function as different from Jesus. He then narrows in on the incarnation, and states that it is a “much broader event” than simply “God becoming Jesus” page 13). He directs us to his assertion that “Christ is a word for the Primordial Template (Logos) through which ‘all things came into being’ and not one thing had its being except through him (John 1:3)” [page 13)]. Instead of thinking of God coming into the world through Jesus in the incarnation, we would be better to think of “Jesus [coming] out of an already Christ-soaked world.” [page 15]. God loves the world “by becoming them” [page 16]. His contention in this chapter, and indeed the rest of the book, is that “an incarnational worldview is the profound recognition of the presence of the divine in literally ‘everything’ and ‘everyone.’” [page 18]. In other words, when thinking of the Trinity, Rohr believes that we should think of Jesus as the Christ’s “historical manifestation in time…[and this] Jesus and Christ give us a God who is both personal and universal.” [page 19].
Rohr concludes the first chapter with a reflection on John Duns Scotus’ expression of God’s supreme or greatest work of making “Godself both visible and shareable” as expressed in the term “Logos” which means the “Blueprint or Primordial Pattern” for reality. We experience this reality through practicing the three great virtues of “faith, hope, and love.” [page 22].
In the second chapter, Rohr begins to introduce and then dives more deeply into his perspective on how Christ’s incarnation shapes our participation in the divine nature. The implications of this manifest in several ways. He states that “God is relationship itself, a dynamism of Infinite Love between Divine Diversity, as the doctrine of the trinity demonstrates…; and, “God’s infinite love has always included all that God created…the Divine DNA of the creator is therefore held in all the creatures…Thus, salvation might best be called restoration rather than the retributive agenda most of us were offered…” [page 28]. As a result, “[t]he point of the Christian life is not to distinguish oneself from the ungodly, but to stand in radical solidarity with everyone and everything else” just as the cross is “God’s great act of solidarity instead of judgment” [page 33]. Therefore, we “are a child of God, and always will be, even when [we] don’t believe it” [page 37].
Rohr’s third chapter begins with a discussion of the Apostle Paul’s conversion experience and the implications of Paul’s “radical incarnationalism” [page 42]. He highlights Paul’s statements that ‘There is only Christ. He is everything and he is in everything.’ [Colossians 3:11) [page 43]. Rohr contends that this thinking was a religious paradigm shift that centered our identity on being “in Christ” and “not heresy, universalism, or a cheap version of Unitarianism. This is the Cosmic Christ.” [page 48]. The bigness of this view of Christ, stands in contrast to our “scarcity-based worldview…[which] has largely contributed to the rise of…practical atheism that is the actual operative religion of most Western countries today” [page 50].
In the next chapter, Rohr tackles the issues surrounding “original sin.” He provides a short historical context, showing that the notion of original sin, though providing a helpful perspective that enabled us to not be surprised when confronted with the “frailty and woundedness” of humanity, quickly facilitated our movement onto the wrong track. This movement began with Augustin, moved to Martin Luther and John Calvin, and finally settled with Jonathan Edwards’ “sinners in the hands of an angry god” [page 63]. Rohr states that “[w]hen we start with a theology of sin management administered by a too-often elite clergy, we end up with a schizophrenic religion.” [page 63]. Instead, Rohr believes we “must reclaim the Christian project, building from the true starting point of Original Goodness” [page 68].
Rohr then moves in chapter 5 to a discussion of Divine Love, and how that love is the “foundational force” of the universe. Rohr believes that love is “not a matter of mind or willpower but a flow of energy willingly allowed and exchanged, without requiring payment in return…[and]…forgiveness is often the most powerful display of love in action…[and it] might just be the very best description of what God’s goodness engenders in humanity” [pages 71 – 72]. As a result, “[r]eligion at its best helps people to bring this foundational divine love into ever increasing consciousness” [page 72]. This love moves us to a place of deep intimacy with God that is part of the divine dance where “God always takes the lead in the dance” [page 78].
In the next chapter, Rohr examines the journey toward wholeness that the voice of Christ within us beckons us towards. He begins by describing the experiences of Etty Hillesium during the Holocaust. He contends that Hillesium is an example of someone who accesses the “universally available voice that calls all things to become whole and true to themselves” [page 83]. That whole-making is also achieved through “the negative experiences that we usually reject” [page 85]. Instead of fighting against this, Rohr (through examining the work of Carl Jung) encourages us to move on a “path to both depth and honesty…” that has us seeing God as “supremely non-violent.” We need to receive the voice of God as coming to us in grace and passing through us “toward others with grace…” [pages – 88 – 89].
Chapter seven, the concluding chapter in the first half of the book, provides a summary of his main point and gives hints as to where he intends to take his readers from this point forward. He asserts that “the transcendent reality at the heart of all things” is what he calls “the Christ Mystery” [page 91]. This has been revealed in the incarnations of “nature, the Jesus of history, and even you and me” [page 91]. From this base, Rohr then explores the notion of change and particularly how Jesus, and God through Jesus, has called us to a primordial change of mind and heart in our inner beings. This change is part of the trajectory that we are all moving through. The resurrected Christ “who appears in the middle of history assures us that God is leading us somewhere good and positive.” [page 95]. History as seen in the Bible has a clear sense of evolutionary growth and positivity in grace. “The risen Christ is not a one-time miracle but the one-time revelation of a universal pattern that is hard to see in the short run” [page 100].
In the next section, Rohr spends four chapters laying out his thoughts on the implications of our view of the incarnation for how we practice our faith (page 106). Though the major Christian creeds seem to jump over much of the life of Christ by going from “born of the Virgin Mary” straight to “suffered under Pontius Pilate.” Rohr thinks that the period between those two events offers a Jesus whose “life can save us even more than his death” (page 107).
Rohr begins by showing the importance of the Eucharist as anchoring our thoughts in the message that “God loves things by becoming them. We love God by continuing that pattern” (page 113). In fact, “…the crucified and risen Jesus is a parable about the journey of all humans and even the universe” (page 114). He also explores the importance of remembering that even though Jesus was a man, the Christ is beyond Gender (page 122). The first incarnation in creation “is symbolized by Sophia Incarnate…offering us Jesus, God incarnated into vulnerability and nakedness…Mary became the symbol of the First Universal Incarnation” (page 123) and the “Great Yes” (page 127).
Rohr then delves more deeply into the importance of the “real presence” of Christ in the Eucharist. He indicates that [p]resence is always reciprocal, or it is not presence at all” (page 132). Only in a life-giving ritual, and not merely a repetitive ceremony, is solidarity with each other and our God achieved. He says that “We are not just humans having a God experience…[but] in some mysterious way, we are God having a human experience…Eucharist is the Incarnation of Christ taken to its final shape and end – the very elements of the earth itself” (page 127 – 28).
In chapter 12, Rohr touches upon the reason for Jesus’ death. He makes the important point that the notion of “penal substitutionary atonement” that is prevalent today will always cause us deep harm and misunderstanding. It will cause us to struggle to understand “Christ and Jesus and to see them as a revelation of the infinite love of the Trinity, not some bloody transaction ‘required’ by God’s offended justice in order to rectify the problem of human sin” (page 140). Retributive notions of justice have caused us to “trade our distinctive Christian message for the cold hard justice that has prevailed in most cultures throughout history” (page 141).
Rohr briefly traces the history of the development of atonement theory. Afterward, he concludes that “if forgiveness needs to be bought or paid for, then it is not authentic forgiveness at all, which must be a free letting-go” (page 144). Instead, we have maintained the world’s notions of a “quid pro quo” system that has been supported by religious sacrificial systems. But, borrowing from the work of Rene’ Girard, who demonstrated that “Jesus put to an end all notions of sacrificial religion…”, he states that we must move on from these harmful ways of thinking. Instead, Rohr states his premise: “It is not God who is violent. We are. It is not God that demands the suffering of humans. We do. God does not need or want suffering – neither in Jesus nor in us” (page 146).
Rohr quotes Ephesians 1:10, that Jesus in his crucifixion and resurrection “recapitulated all things in himself, everything in heaven and everything on earth” – basically, “Jesus agreed to carry the mystery of universal suffering…so that we would be freed from the endless cycle of projecting our pain elsewhere or remaining trapped inside of it” (page 147). In that context, a “Christian is invited, not required, to accept and live the cruciform shape of all reality” (page 148).
Next, Rohr explores the notion of the scapegoat. He indicates that “the image of the scapegoat powerfully mirrors and reveals the universal, bur largely unconscious human need to transfer our guilt onto something (or someone) else…” (page 149). However, the bible seems to recognize that “only a lamb of God can reveal and resolve that sin in one nonviolent action” (page 149). Jesus came to expose and defeat sin. Rohr says, “Jesus came to change our minds about God – and about ourselves – and about where goodness and evil really lie” (page 151).
In chapter 13 Rohr explores the importance of remembering that our suffering, and in fact all suffering, is linked to the suffering of Jesus the Christ. Basically, “all of this suffering and sadness” should be thought of as “the one sadness of God” (page 161). He shows that “When we carry our small suffering in solidarity with the one universal longing of all humanity, it helps keep us from self-pity or self-preoccupation” (page 162).
In the next chapter Rohr shows that this suffering is part of the “journey of resurrection.” He says that “Resurrection is just incarnation taken to its logical conclusion” (page 170). Jesus moved into “a new notion of physicality and light – which includes all of us in its embodiment” (page 178). Rohr agrees with Athanasius that “God [in Christ] became the bearer of flesh [for a time] so that humanity could become the bearer of Spirit forever” (page 179).
Rohr finishes this chapter by directly addressing the notion of hell that has caused us to view God as more of a punisher intent on consigning us to eternal torment rather than life and healing. He highlights the unfortunate result of Dante’s view of punishment and the inferno rather that actual biblical notions of Hades, Sheol, and Gehenna (page 180 – 81). Because of this punishing view of God that is so “visible, dualistic, frightening” it is very difficult to overcome the damage caused. As a result, we have been very “slow to notice how God grows more and more nonviolent through scripture” (page 183).
In chapter 15, Rohr traces two perspectives of the witness to Jesus but from different sides: Mary Magdalene and Paul. He begins by describing Mary’s encounter with the risen Christ in the garden. He shows that Mary now has a different relationship with Jesus the Christ after his resurrection. The resurrection story enables us to see all of Mary’s encounters with Jesus in a fuller perspective. “[S]he had been a frequent witness to the personal, concrete Jesus of Nazareth. But after the Resurrection, she also had the unique experience of being the first witness to the Omnipresent Christ” (page 192). Rohr contends that like Mary “we must somehow hear our name pronounced, must hear ourselves being addressed and regarded by Love before we can recognize this Christ in our midst” (page 192).
Likewise, Paul had an encounter with the Risen Christ which entailed the apostle going through both a “personal and cultural transformation” (page 195). He encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus and was transformed in his thinking about culture through his engagement with the universal Christ. Within that context of change, we see Paul framing the concepts of sin and the problem of evil as humans being more “punished by their sins than for their sins” (page 196). In actuality, sin functions as an “entrapment and even slavery” (page 197). Even more striking, the Gospel message entailed shifting the locus of authority for a person from outside to “inside the human person” (page 199). And the living and breathing visual aids for this new way of living are called “churches” (page 200). In a universal sense, this new way of being in the world is part of the ever-evolving Christ moving forward in creation (page 201).
In chapter 16, Rohr sketches a new epistemology not based on dualistic ways of thinking. He asserts that a contemplative way of knowing must come to the rescue and allow us to comprehend a cosmic notion of Christ and a non-tribal notion of Jesus” (page 204). He states that “if we have never loved deeply or suffered deeply, we are unable to understand spiritual things at any depth” (page 207). Much of the mystery at the center of this thought, according to Rohr, was lost to the western ways of philosophy steeped in left-brain progress and science, that had no place for “paradox, mystery, or the wisdom of unknowing and unsayability – which are the open-ended qualities that make biblical faith so dynamic…” (page 210).
Rohr then sketches the ways that Buddhism and Christianity seem to shadow each other (page 210). Christianity has not done contemplation well and Buddhism has not done action as well; however, he says that each has done better in recent times. Rohr then combines this with a description of his “tricycle” way of knowing, “Experience, Scripture, and Tradition” (page 213). This feeds into what he describes as a “contemplative epistemology” which seeks more than just a rational view of reality (page 216). All of this leads to gaining the perspective that Paul embraced when he said, “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil. 1:21}” (page 219). The constant movement of loss and renewal is the pattern we see in the world and established by the universal Christ. What Rohr describes is “not a religion to be either fervently joined or angrily rejected. It is a train already in motion. The tracks are visible everywhere. You can be a willing and happy traveler or not.” (page 219).
Rohr brings his book to completion in the last chapter by offering two practices that he hopes will aid us in an experiential way to more tangibly grasp what he has presented (see pages 224 – 229). He then offers an afterword to the paperback edition which gives his summary statement that “the Eternal Christ and the temporal Jesus demonstrate, operate, and help us humans to ‘make a conscious contact between the spiritual and the material in human life…Both Christ cosmically and Jesus personally make the unbelievable believable and the unthinkable desirable. Jesus Christ is a sacrament of the Presence of God for the whole universe” (page 237-38).
Strengths/Appreciation and Weaknesses:
The overall breath and scope of subjects that Rohr touches upon in this book is remarkable. To do so in such a short book, and yet, to do it so well makes reading this book a truly enjoyable experience. In that vein, several aspects of the book stand out to me as particularly strong examples of what I found helpful when considering the main subject of the book: how Christ was/is “not just Jesus of Nazareth but something much more immense…and why it matters…” (page 3).
I found Rohr’s treatment of the history and development of the idea original sin to be very well done. His preference for beginning with “original blessing” dove tails nicely with the work of Danielle Shroyer whose book by the same title (Original Blessing) explores more completely the benefits of holding a different perspective on sin. Holding this different perspective then facilitates Rohr’s movement to viewing Jesus’s life in a new light. In fact, he can now make the bold claim that Jesus’ life can save us even more than his death” (page 107).
Likewise, I believe Rohr’s overall discussion of atonement theory is very well done. His summary of the historical development of the various theories and their implications strikes the right balance between providing enough detail to make his argument while not getting too far into esoteric details. He then ties his argument together by driving home the point that forgiveness and payment for wrong do not belong together. In fact, he does a wonderful job of showing that the notion of hell does not really fit at all with the concept of a loving God.
Finally, I believe his description of healthy religion provides an extremely helpful corrective to the coercive notion that seems to prevail in most religious settings. Instead, he offers his perspective that Christianity is not to be “either fervently joined or angrily rejected…[but]…is a train already in motion…” (page 219). This refreshing perspective aligns so well with a view of God that is non-anxious. As a result, God’s image bearers should also be without anxiety about the consummation of all things.
Though I could not be more pleased with this book, there are a few areas that I wish Rohr had explored in more depth. The first has to do with his treatment of the relationship of creation and incarnation, and particularly his statement that it would be better to think of the incarnation as “Jesus [coming] out of an already Christ-soaked world” (page 15). This is such a directionally different perspective that I think more should be explored regarding the implications of this notion. Along a similar path, I think it would be helpful to elaborate more on his statement that Jesus gives us a picture of God who is both “personal and universal” by maybe tying it into a discussion of the philosophical issue of “the one and the many.”
Finally, I think it would be helpful for Rohr to delve more deeply into the idea of the scapegoat. I believe that a discussion of Romans 7:1 – 8:11 would be helpful in seeing the connection between the concentration of sin onto Jesus and the notion that Jesus exposed the scapegoat mechanism for what it really was. Possibly more deeply discussing the work of Rene’ Girard in combination with N. T. Wright’s work on Romans in the context of Israel’s history could fill in this gap.
Todd Rivetti 