Setting Jesus Free
John Churcher has a message for the ever-dwindling few who remain in the church: Present Jesus in terms that make sense to an educated, twenty-first century mind or be prepared for the total collapse of Christianity in the industrialized world. When freed from stultifying doctrines and mind-numbing dogmas, the teachings and example of Jesus make as much sense today as they did in the first century. Jesus can still be the gateway to awareness of the indwelling divine spark. Jesus can still show the way to perfect, unconditional, and sacrificial love, which is what Christians in their finer moments have always meant by God. What is required of those who would be loyal followers of Jesus is a willingness to separate truth from factual accuracy in their study of the Bible. By way of illustration, Churcher has shown that the truth of Luke’s Gospel can be uncovered by understanding that the author employed the ancient Hebrew method of the midrash, interpreting what was remembered about Jesus through the literary techniques of metaphor, myth, and fiction. In this approach, the truth of the resurrection is not to be found in stories about an empty tomb but in the discovery of Jesus as a living and life-changing presence.
Rev. Churcher’s identification as a minister in the Methodist Church of England, along with his interesting last name, makes it appear especially appropriate for him to be writing on the subject of the growing challenges facing the Christian church. His life in England has made him more acutely aware of the demise of the Christian church than it appears to Christians in the United States, though both the Roman Catholic and mainline protestant churches experiences a shrinking here, though to a lesser degree. It appears that Rev. Churcher may not be aware that, world-wide, Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the world, with the Pentecostal branches bringing the majority of the growth.
He states his purpose in writing the book very succinctly in his Foreword, that being: . . . .”to support those already in the Church, whether or not they agree with my theology, but I want to encourage people to think outside of the traditional boxes of faith and their inherited understandings of God.” . . . . .”my fear for the church and the message of Jesus is such that there is no future for either unless we drag our heads out of the sands of tradition, fundamentalism and literalism, and face faith with what we have discovered in all the ‘isms’ of modern and post modern life.”
He goes on to state his wish to bridge the gap between those who once belonged, but have turned their back on the Church and also to “gently” reach out to those who have no background in the church and reject what they do not know.
A defining role in Rev. Churcher’s life and in his writing is his early experience as a loyal member of the traditional and evangelical arm of the church. He includes the eleven statements of belief of the Evangelical Alliance that represents 1.2 million Christians in the U.K. It is these beliefs that he writes to “gently” challenge in his book. I use the quotes because in numerous places he makes special effort to lead the conservative reader toward a more liberal point of view without being threatening or appearing insensitive to their deeply held conservative beliefs
Rev. Churcher makes clear that throughout his life in the clergy he has been significantly influenced by the work of Borg, Crosson and Funk in the Jesus Seminar group and by other scholars such as John Shelby Spong, (whom he calls “Jack Spong”) Karen Armstrong, Elaine Pagels, Burton Mack and also by Sahajananda, who wrote Hindu Christ. From these and others he grew beyond his narrow theology and Christology to his new position which is not merely one of “belief” but clearly also one of a new “heart” and spirituality.
While he also considered the work of Tom Harpur, as presented in his book The Pagan Christ, he was not convinced of the premise that Jesus was not in fact a historical person. I felt that his stated reason for rejecting Harpurs’s evidence was rather shallow, but at least he gave it the consideration that not many others have even bothered to give it.
The ongoing theme throughout Churcher’s book is that of the life and teachings of Jesus as the epitome of God’s Perfect Love lived out in words and action. Using the vehicle of the Gospel of Luke, Churcher presents this Love in one story after another from the birth of Jesus to his death and resurrection. In general, he does not offer new perceptions or understandings. Because of his commitment to presenting Jesus as the absolutely perfect embodiment of love, without exception, he deals with the few challenges to that image in an interesting manner.
One of the clearest examples is from Luke 14:25, in which the Gospel writer has Jesus saying: If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brother and sisters–yes even his own life–he cannot be my disciple.
Churcher does here what most if not all Christians have done with such radical stories. He takes the approach of saying, in effect; “what Jesus was really saying was”. . . . He then presents the much more acceptable message that Jesus is saying that following him will at times result in breaks in relationships with some who will reject the Jesus followers. Such an interpretation may or may not in fact be correct, but clearly, if Jesus is, in fact, the epitome of Perfect Love, he could easily have stated more clearly the rule to love our families, even when they may turn against us because we choose to follow Jesus.
Churcher is one of a long line of Christians who have avoided confronting the fact that our four Gospels present Jesus as either hostile to, or at least distant from, his own family. It is a misfit to the Christi image, so is left alone.
I believe “Setting Jesus Free” will be helpful and enlightening to the audience Churcher identifies in his Foreword. I do not, however expect it to be a valued writing to those who are already familiar with the writings of those scholars whom Churcher has named as his intellectual and spiritual mentors in his faith journey.