Christendom

Christendom

The Christian message teaches the equality of all humanity as created in the image of God.  It proclaims the kingdom of God which offers equality, dignity, and significance to all human life - infant, female, slave, poor, foreigner, disabled, sick, elderly, or any other class of people who are a humbled minority in society.  It promises a great reversal where the first shall be last and the last shall be first.  It promises the blessing of God and the presence of Christ in the "least of these."  It teaches that the very presence of Christ is found in the hungry, thirsty, naked, stranger, sick, and imprisoned.  It inspires empathy for those who are overlooked, neglected, and abused, seeking to improve life for all.

This world shaping message challenges the Greco-Roman world and every other culture it encounters for one can say with confidence that no other culture embraces these values.  It contrasts the love of power, glory, and self-expression with the power of humility, suffering, and self-donating love.

The big question is this: how does this message transform the cultures it meets with opposing values?  What empowers this change first in the Roman Empire and then to all the Western powers which follow?  Nietzsche identifies two powers which Christ's ministry promotes:

1) Resentment.  Christianity transforms the weakness of the poor and dispossessed into resentful opposition to the strong and mighty.  Nietzsche claims that Christ gives up joy and ecstasy in this life for the great reversal in the life to come and Christ appeals to the masses to join him.   He claims that Christ makes weakness, humility, and poverty virtuous.

This finds secular expression in Marxist philosophy of the poor masses rising up in opposition to their wealthy oppressors.  It is revealed today in the resentment of minority cultures towards the dominant Western European culture.

2) Pity.  He states that the Christian faith engenders the quality of pity.  He critiques this as the weakness of victims draining humanity of the will to power and the ecstasy of self-expression.  He advocates a return to the heroic age of Dionysian self-expression and the ecstasy of sexuality, violence, and death.

In our secular Western culture, many see these Christian values being threatened by totalitarian regimes and religious extremists.  These secularists and atheists prefer the culture bequeathed to us by the Christian faith over its challengers.  Some even acknowledge the West as a Christian culture and wish to retain the core values without the religious foundation.  Is this possible?  How can it claim moral superiority without the foundation?  After all, it didn't impress Rome in the first centuries after the death of Christ.  It didn't impress Gothic hoards who invaded Rome nor the Vikings raiding Great Britain, Ireland, and Western Europe.  It did not impress the invading Muslims who sought to conquer the west.

What is this foundation?  This Christian faith is a power which views suffering of victims as the suffering of innocent persons whose condition calls us to respond with empathy.  But how is this power established in culture dominated by worldly power, prestige and glory?  It is established through the cross of Christ. The worldly powers represented by the Romans and Jews believe that Jesus is a guilty rebel who must die to maintain the peace.  Both Caiaphas and Pilate represent this perspective.  It reveals the all against one dynamic of the scapegoat mechanism. The violence which Jesus endures is representative of the violence of the powers of this world.  Here we witness the suffering of God who identifies with those who are victims of the great powers of this age. 

When Paul preaches the cross, he states that it is stumbling block or scandal to Jews who are seeking a Messiah who is a powerful ruler who will conquer their enemies and establish a kingdom of peace in their land.  He states that it is foolishness to Gentiles who could not accept as a god an obscure Jewish peasant condemned and crucified by Rome.  For one, a dying and rising god is not unique for those seeking wisdom; those myths are abundant.  It also lacks the refined "intellectual" philosophy which Paul's opponents at Mars Hill are seeking.  Second, crucifixion was reserved for the enemies of the state who are cursed both by the gods and the community.  It is an ignoble death, not fitting for a god.  The Greco-Roman heroes die fighting for victory, fame, and glory.  They do not submit to a vile, ignominious death as represented by the cross.

Again, how does the Christian faith take hold in this environment?  Is it that gradually people are won over to the teachings of Christ about the love of God and the dignity and value of all people?  Is it that the Christian community grows in competition with the surrounding culture until it becomes dominant?  Is it that the message of the cross grips the human heart of those who hear the gospel and begins the transformation of culture?   Is this a step in the evolutionary development of human culture?

Does it promote one's strength and power in a culture dominated by Roman imperial power and force of arms?  How is this attractive when the cross is an offense and foolishness?  Does this faith promise earthly power or wealth?  Does it offer improved social standing?  It may provide dignity and self esteem for the lower classes, but does it promise advancement in life?

There must be more, for Jesus' most ardent followers all desert him and had no reason to continue after his inexpressible suffering and vile death.  What happened to them?  They testify that they experienced the triumph of the resurrection.  This experience inspires the disciples to proclaim that Jesus is not guilty, but is an innocent victim who is vindicated by God who raises him from the dead.  It is the message of the Gospel that Jesus is enthroned in victory and through him God offers forgiveness to all who believe.  What happened to Paul who ardently sought to destroy this new community of believers?  He discovers that he is persecuting the Son of God and, consequently, opposing God.

The Gospels tell the story of the victim from the victim's perspective.  In doing so, the gospel message will take the side of all victims who are unanimously accused.  It is not out of resentment of the powerful, but the recognition that the marginalized are innocent victims of unanimous violence, oppression, prejudice, and hatred.  Christianity does not represent the resentful many, but the lone victim or victims who are outnumbered.  Jesus stands against the crowd who wish to make him king or demand bread or seek signs.  Jesus knows the crowd is easily manipulated from cries of "Hosanna" on day to shouts of "Crucify" the next.

Girard's insight is that imitation gives birth to the cycle of envy, rivalry, conflict, hatred, violence, scapegoating, and murder.  Jesus reveals this foundation through his life, death and resurrection which is not based on resentment, but scapegoating.  He "resurrects" the victims of our violence as innocent, from Abel to Zechariah to those who are "raised" on the day of his death.  This is in direct opposition to the powers of the world which embrace the reality of earthly power, prestige, and glory as the sign of God's presence and blessedness.  The humility, weakness, and defeat of others is viewed as God's curse. 

What power accomplishes this change of heart, mind, and will?  It is the power of the Spirit of God who indwells the disciples.  It is the Holy Spirit whom John tells us is the Paraclete, the lawyer for the defense, who will convince the world of the innocence of victims accused by the power of Satan, the Accuser.  In John 16, Jesus proclaims that the Paraclete will convince the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgement.  Sin because people do not believe in Jesus; righteousness because Jesus is vindicated by resurrection to return to the Father; judgement because the "prince" of this world who builds his kingdom on victims is now revealed and condemned.