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<\/i> (New York: Harper Collins, 2009).<\/p>\nSometimes a book you didn\u2019t expect to read, and hadn\u2019t even heard of, crosses your path and makes an impact on your life, or at least an impression. Robin R. Meyers\u2019<\/a> book Saving Jesus from the Church<\/a> The book is full of so many eloquent and memorable expressions that I could run a series of \u201cQuotes of the Day\u201d for a week and still not be finished. I will try to share at least some of the best ones.<\/p>\n Meyers begins by asking the question at the heart of a recent debate on and around my blog: \u201cAm I a Christian?\u201d The book begins with a nightmare of all the horrific things people have done in the name of Christ, and the refrain that if that\u2019s what being a Christian is, then I don\u2019t want to be one. By the end of the book, the nightmare will have given way to a dream, the list of offenses and shortcomings to one of powerfully challenging ways of living out Christian discipleship, and a different refrain: If that is a Christian, then I want to be one.<\/p>\n The essence of Meyers\u2019 vision is summarized well in the prologue. His is a call, akin to that of the Protestant Reformers, to get back to what Christianity looked like before \u201cthe fourth century, when a first-century spiritual insurgency was seduced into marrying its original oppresser.\u201d Closely connected with this major shift in the nature of Christianity, as Meyers sees it, is a shift to focus on creeds: \u201cStudents who once learned by following<\/i> the teacher became true believers who confuse certainty with faith\u2026We have a sacred story that has been stolen from us, and in our time the thief is what passes for orthodoxy itself (right belief instead of right worship)\u201d (p.10). The first chapter continues this theme, focusing on Jesus as teacher rather than savior.Here he clarifies his aim: not to offer yet another book on why fundamentalism is wrong, but instead to offer a positive alternative vision of what Christianity is, can be, and should be (pp.13-14). Meyers writes, \u201cConsider this: there is not a single word in [the Sermon on the Mount] about what to believe<\/i>, only words about what to do<\/i>. It is a behavioral manifesto, not a propositional one. Yet three centuries later, when the Nicene Creed became the official oath of Christendom, there was not a single word in it about what to do, only words about what to believe!\u201d (p.14). Meyers also identifies at least one reason why this shift occurred and continues to be so popular: \u201cChristianity as a belief system requires nothing but acquiescence. Christianity as a way of life, as a path to follow, requires a second birth, the conquest of ego, and new eyes with which to see the world. It is no wonder that we have preferred to be saved\u201d (p.15). And so it has become the case that, to many, \u201cBeing a disciple today often means little more than believing stuff in order to get stuff\u201d (p.20).<\/p>\n Chapter 2 focuses on faith as \u201cbeing, not belief\u201d. Meyers points out that neither claiming to believe the virgin birth as a sign of one\u2019s faith, nor claiming not to believe it as a demonstration of one\u2019s critical thinking, necessarily leads to \u201ca changed heart or a self-sacrificing spirit\u201d (p.37). Meyers also has some wise words about wisdom to offer in this chapter, which relate to the subject of inerrancy and the Bible. Meyers\u2019 Jesus-centered approach to the Bible translates into the following principle: \u201cwhen there is a conflict between what the scriptures say in particular and what we have come to expect from the wisdom of Jesus, his wisdom wins<\/i>. We hold the Bible accountable to the message of Jesus, not Jesus accountable for everything in the Bible\u201d (p.45). In order to put such a principle into practice, of course, it helps to be using historical methods of study. But it isn\u2019t necessarily essential. Even if one places the focus on Jesus\u2019 teaching as found in the Sermon on the Mount, for instance, the point still stands, even though the sermon quite plainly represents teachings of Jesus redacted, rearranged, organized and interpreted by the Gospel\u2019s author. And Meyers is aware of this, pointing out, for instance, that the \u201cparables\u201d of final judgment are found largely in Matthew\u2019s Gospel and seem to reflect that author\u2019s redactional and compositional activity (p.54).<\/p>\n Lately I\u2019ve found myself thinking that Jesus\u2019 humanitarian emphasis<\/i> in his saying about the sabbath law could be applied tothe whole Law and indeed the whole Bible: \u201cThe Bible was made for human beings, not human beings for the Bible. Therefore a human being is lord of the Bible.\u201d Humanitarian concerns (themselves articulated in the Bible) must be allowed to determine and shape our own humane use of the Bible. But I digress\u2026<\/p>\n Chapter 3 focuses on the cross, and notes the tendency of much contemporary Christianity in the direction of docetism. \u201cYet when Jesus ceases to be human and becomes only Christ the God Man, we can choose to believe it or not to believe it, but we cannot follow. We can admire, but we cannot emulate\u201d (p.71). When we emphasize Jesus\u2019 humanity, we pay him a great honor, since his impact on history becomes all the more remarkable (pp.71-72). The chapter touches on, among other things, the relationship between the cross and violence.<\/p>\n Chapter 4 is on Easter as \u201cpresence, not proof\u201d. As readers have probably had enough discussion of Liberal Christian understandings of Easter in recent weeks, I\u2019ll not say more. Chapter 5 is about the concept of original sin, and ends with a call for a new Reformation that restores the notion that creation is blessed<\/i> and in the process shifts the focus back away from beliefs about Jesus to following Jesus (p.116). Chapter 6, entitled \u201cChristianity as Compassion, not Condemnation\u201d, focuses on (among other things) the limitations of words and the danger of our professions of faith, since we are prone to assume that, if we are talking about something all the time, then we must in fact be doing it<\/i> (pp.117-118). Meyers suggests that, rather than speaking of Jesus as \u201cthe Answer\u201d, perhaps we ought to think about him as \u201cthe Assignment\u201d (p.120). It is in this chapter that he dives into politics. His approach to the subject of homosexuality is remarkably succinct: \u201cUntil we have homosexuality all figured out, shouldn\u2019t we practice radical hospitality? As long as we see \u201cthrough a glass darkly,\u201d isn\u2019t it wise to err on the side of inclusion and compassion, rather than condemnation?\u201d (p.137).<\/p>\n
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