The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For and Believe

by Richard Rohr

The central issue here is not whether Jesus did or did not physically rise from the dead, which supposedly “proves” the truth of the Christian religion if you agree, and disproves it if you disagree. No scientific proof is ever likely to be possible. Besides, our endless attempts to prove a supernatural event are misguided from the start, because neither Christ nor Jesus is outside of our natural reality in the first place. It will really help you, Christian or not, if you can begin to see Jesus—and Christ—as coming out of Reality, naming it, giving it a face, not appearing to Reality from another world. There is no group to join here, no need to sign on the dotted line, only a generous moment of recognition that the Inner and the Outer are one and the same. Our inner meaning and Christ’s outer meaning, if you will. They mirror one another: Human anthropology matches a divine theology. How is that for one Great Ecosystem? If one’s theology (view of God) does not significantly change one’s anthropology (view of humanity), it is largely what we call a “head trip.”