Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Jesus-ism
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That term - "Jesus-ism" - is taken from a brilliant writer I just discovered, Jenell Paris, and her wonderful series of blogposts on "Things Evangelicalism Likes." #2 was "the word "Jesus" and she points out that,
"Jesus is a historical person whose actions and sayings should be cited often. Fair enough. But in addition, it seems that evangelicalism likes Jesus used as a blank screen onto which we project our notions of perfection, completion, beauty and the like. Evangelicalism may think it lifts up Jesus to use him as a master metaphor, but I’m not so sure. I’d call it Jesus-ism, turning the person of Jesus into an ideology."
I've thought about this for a few days now, and really think she is on to something. I find myself theologizing and philosophizing, and when I think something is right or true or beautiful, I automatically associate it with Jesus. In sermons, classrooms, books, and music videos, Jesus is the ideal of everything.
On the one hand, I don't think that is bad or even necessarily wrong. But the danger is that we have forgotten that Jesus was (and is) a real person. We might forget what his real words were, and instead insert some cute phrases tha we read on church signs as we drove to work. Just because it makes you feel good and it rhymes doesn't mean it's right or that Jesus said it. One of my favorite examples is the popular phrase that is attributed to Jesus to be "in the world but not of the world." It's a cute turn of prepositions in the english language, but I can't find it in the Bible anywhere (perhaps I just missed it, but the closest I can find is John 17 when Jesus prays for his disciples).
I would agree with Ms. Paris - it is common, and dangerously easy, for us to project our best conception of truth and reality onto an image of Jesus that then becomes an ideology of our own creation, and not the 1st century rabbi who subverted the common religious ideologies of his day.
That term - "Jesus-ism" - is taken from a brilliant writer I just discovered, Jenell Paris, and her wonderful series of blogposts on "Things Evangelicalism Likes." #2 was "the word "Jesus" and she points out that,
"Jesus is a historical person whose actions and sayings should be cited often. Fair enough. But in addition, it seems that evangelicalism likes Jesus used as a blank screen onto which we project our notions of perfection, completion, beauty and the like. Evangelicalism may think it lifts up Jesus to use him as a master metaphor, but I’m not so sure. I’d call it Jesus-ism, turning the person of Jesus into an ideology."
I've thought about this for a few days now, and really think she is on to something. I find myself theologizing and philosophizing, and when I think something is right or true or beautiful, I automatically associate it with Jesus. In sermons, classrooms, books, and music videos, Jesus is the ideal of everything.
On the one hand, I don't think that is bad or even necessarily wrong. But the danger is that we have forgotten that Jesus was (and is) a real person. We might forget what his real words were, and instead insert some cute phrases tha we read on church signs as we drove to work. Just because it makes you feel good and it rhymes doesn't mean it's right or that Jesus said it. One of my favorite examples is the popular phrase that is attributed to Jesus to be "in the world but not of the world." It's a cute turn of prepositions in the english language, but I can't find it in the Bible anywhere (perhaps I just missed it, but the closest I can find is John 17 when Jesus prays for his disciples).
I would agree with Ms. Paris - it is common, and dangerously easy, for us to project our best conception of truth and reality onto an image of Jesus that then becomes an ideology of our own creation, and not the 1st century rabbi who subverted the common religious ideologies of his day.
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