[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

new understandings of Jesus

Dear Dale,

I was happy to read your post about creation spirituality.  I believe
you would be very encouraged by the writings of Raimundo Panikkar, a
Roman Catholic priest & theologian who also considers himself a Buddhist
and a Hindu.  I was a student of his in the 1970's at the UC Santa
Barbara Dept. of Religious Studies.

He makes a very similar point to the one that you make.  We Europeans
have used the best thoughtforms (Plato & Aristotle, etc) of our culture
to try to understand the meaning of the Incarnation.  But on reflection
most people would admit that Plato & Aristotle really have nothing to
do with the life of Christ.  They just happen to be our most astute
thinkers so we are bound to use their thinking as we struggle to understand
what may be the most significant event in human history.

Similarly, my dear friend Raimundo gently argues, Hindus and Buddhists
and Africans, and people of every culture, must necessarily use the most
profound thought forms of THEIR cultures as they try to comprehend the
meaning of Christ.  It would be (and is) a mistake to demand that they
use European thought forms.  To this argument I would add that from our
conduct, it is not clear how deeply we have understood the life of Christ,
no matter how many thick books Western culture has produced on the subject.
Our bloody history should make us humble.

I look forward to checking in with your web page every now and then to
keep up with the evolution of your thoughts on the meaning of the
spiritual life.  Thanks for all your work (I assume it was yours) in
putting the Internet Theological Seminary together.

Many Blessing,

Dennis Rivers

P.S.  Attached is a letter I wrote to all my friends in January that
touches on the topic of my personal christology.


====================================================================
Personal thoughts on the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his compatriots.
====================================================================


A friend wrote to me last week
it was just a note, really.
He shared a few thoughts
on the nature of a truly transformational church...
he feels he has finally found one
one true to the Holy Spirit and the living presence of Jesus...
I don’t begrudge him his happiness
its just that I can’t join in right now.

After the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa
the Nigerian writer, nonviolent campaigner
for justice, ecology and the survival of the Ogoni people
I find myself sobered by the requirements
for joining such a church,
what it sometimes takes
to be faithful to that Spirit.

Its definitely not a church that anybody owns.
Ken Saro-Wiwa’s courage and love and faithfulness
remind me of what those beautiful words can actually mean,
and it is a good deal more meaning
than my little life can hold right now.

I suppose what makes me some sort of Christian
after, and in spite of, and perhaps because of,
all my Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist wanderings 
is my belief that Jesus calls on us to be crucified
by the contrast between what is and what ought to be.
To bear that contrast within our own hearts
to offer ourselves to be living bridges
through which the world might find its way toward compassion
and finally to know and experience
that there is a mysterious Love available to us
a mysterious Love that is even more powerful 
than the wounds we are called to bear.

As I measure my life against this standard
I know that I have failed.
But I also have a deep sense
that it is better to fail at this
than to succeed at anything else.  
I feel that the Web of Being loves me
for trying to do the impossible, 
and that the impossible
will actually become more possible
because of our irrational faith in Love.  

Along the way, there are times
Oh Jesus, there are a lot of times
when I have nothing to offer You
but my tormented restlessness... 

But I also have a deepening sense that that is OK.
In a world of unredeemed suffering
one's anguish can also be one's offering.

Perhaps God is also lamenting
the unjust death of one of His sons
so that when we lament and cry out in protest
we draw near to the Heart of God
as we might by our lamenting
draw close to a neighbor who had just lost a child.





Dennis Rivers  --  January, 1996