All-Purpose Saviour?
I had some fun earlier this week with this post about the silliness of using Jesus as a model for corporate leadership. It got me thinking though about the various, uh, uses that people have for Jesus. George W. Bush once called Jesus his favourite political philosopher. This is silly as Jesus did not teach on political philosophy (at least as far as anyone knows). Now you might want to leap up and say that Jesus’ moral teachings and/or parables could have applications in the realm of political philosophy. If you want to expand your definitions that way, the term “political philosopher” becomes useless – everyone from the authors of Chicken Soup for the Soul books to Mr. Rogers is a political philosopher. Hooray, everyone is the best at everything! Saying Jesus is your favourite political philosopher is about as sensible as saying he’s your favourite classical composer.
But wait, it gets more banal than that – now Jesus has to compete with Gordon Ramsay for space on your cookbook shelf! Stop eating all that sinful secular food – salvation from your gut can be had by eating a first-century near-east diet! I can’t wait for Jesus’ Guide to Small Engine Repair or Improve Your Golf Game with Jesus! Why is it so important for so many to try to stretch Jesus into everything that he was not? Does making Jesus into an all-purpose advice-giver and teacher constitute some weird form of idolatry?
Dan,
I think you are quite right in the main. However, what you’re arguing reminds me of the maxim about not trying to remove a fly off the shoulder of a friend with a hatchet.
I agree, President Bush’s statement about Jesus as a political philosopher is not very informed or precise. But it is still a hell of a lot closer to the truth than a classical composer (I realize it was a hyperbole).
And that is where I think the truth can be found concerning people. People don’t know how to relate to Jesus, because his setting in life is remotely different from what theirs and ours is. And it takes a considerable amount of study and sweat (which people don’t have the time for) to unearth his cultural, religious, moral context which, for the most part, is not even of interest to the average person. It is beneficial for them to find a way to relate to him, because people do still recognize him as their saviour and thus want to have some affiliation with him: they want to relate to him, and so they do it on their own terms.
Unfortunately for those who are privileged enough to know a thing or two about his circumstances and life, seemingly strange ideas about how Jesus can do this or that for you, or is this or that, becomes repugnant to one’s sensibility.