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

Description: The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr, Brian D. Mclaren "Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Convergent Books, an imprint of Random House LLC. in 2019." FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • With a new afterword • From one of the worlds most influential spiritual thinkers, a long-awaited book exploring what it means that Jesus was called "Christ," and how this forgotten truth can restore hope and meaning to our lives."Anyone who strives to put their faith into action will find encouragement and inspiration in the pages of this book."—Melinda GatesIn his decades as a globally recognized teacher, Richard Rohr has helped millions realize what is at stake in matters of faith and spirituality. Yet Rohr has never written on the most perennially talked about topic in Christianity: Jesus. Most know who Jesus was, but who was Christ? Is the word simply Jesuss last name? Too often, Rohr writes, our understandings have been limited by culture, religious debate, and the human tendency to put ourselves at the center.Drawing on scripture, history, and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of Gods constant, unfolding work in the world. "God loves things by becoming them," he writes, and Jesuss life was meant to declare that humanity has never been separate from God—except by its own negative choice. When we recover this fundamental truth, faith becomes less about proving Jesus was God, and more about learning to recognize the Creators presence all around us, and in everyone we meet.Thought-provoking, practical, and full of deep hope and vision, The Universal Christ is a landmark book from one of our most beloved spiritual writers, and an invitation to contemplate how God liberates and loves all that is. Author Biography Richard Rohr is a globally recognized ecumenical teacher whose work is grounded in Christian mysticism, practices of contemplation and self-emptying, and compassion for the marginalized. He is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, where he also serves as academic dean of the Living School for Action and Contemplation. The Center publishes his "Daily Meditations," free reflections emailed to hundreds of thousands around the world. Fr. Richard is the author of many books, including the bestsellers Falling Upward, The Naked Now, and, most recently, The Divine Dance. His work has been featured on Oprahs SuperSoul Sunday, Krista Tippetts On Being, and in the New York Times. Review "Fr. Richard challenges us to search beneath the surface of our faith and see what is sacred in everyone and everything. Anyone who strives to put their faith into action will find encouragement and inspiration in the pages of this book." -Melinda Gates, author of The Moment of Lift"Rohr sees the Christ everywhere, and not just in people. He reminds us that the first incarnation of God is in Creation itself, and he tells us that God loves things by becoming them. Just for that sentence, and there are so many more, I cannot put this book down." -Bono "Here Fr. Richard helps us to see and hear Jesus of Nazareth in what he taught, what he did and who he is—the loving, liberating and life giving expression and presence of God. In so doing he is helping Christianity to reclaim its soul anew." -Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in America "A major shift in our culture is needed, and Richard Rohrs unpacking of The Universal Christ is a critical step in the right direction. Remembering our connection to "every thing" has implications for our religious traditions, society—and dare I say it—even our politics." -Kirsten Powers, CNN political analyst and USA Today columnist "[Rohr] invitingly asks Christian readers to bring together their thinking about Jesus (the historical person) and Christ (the savior) in order to recognize God in the world around them . . . Rohrs innovative reflections will inspire believing readers to think deeply about the nature of God."-Publishers Weekly "Anyone who has made a confession of faith in Jesus Christ should read this book to grasp more fully the vast and startling implications of this belief. This is Richard Rohr at his best, providing an overall summation of his theological insights that have been life-changing for so many." -Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary emeritus of the Reformed Church in America "Here, Christianity finds its root and its destiny in all things, in all matter, in all creation. and here, we find our connection to universal belonging, to universal trust, and to universal love. This book will change religion and make it tender and gentle and transformational." -Timothy Shriver, Chairman of the Special Olympics Review Quote "Fr. Richard challenges us to search beneath the surface of our faith and see what is sacred in everyone and everything. Anyone who strives to put their faith into action will find encouragement and inspiration in the pages of this book." -Melinda Gates, author of The Moment of Lift "Rohr sees the Christ everywhere, and not just in people. He reminds us that the first incarnation of God is in Creation itself, and he tells us that God loves things by becoming them. Just for that sentence, and there are so many more, I cannot put this book down." -Bono "Here Fr. Richard helps us to see and hear Jesus of Nazareth in what he taught, what he did and who he is--the loving, liberating and life giving expression and presence of God. In so doing he is helping Christianity to reclaim its soul anew." -Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in America "A major shift in our culture is needed, and Richard Rohrs unpacking of The Universal Christ is a critical step in the right direction. Remembering our connection to "every thing" has implications for our religious traditions, society--and dare I say it--even our politics." -Kirsten Powers, CNN political analyst and USA Today columnist "[Rohr] invitingly asks Christian readers to bring together their thinking about Jesus (the historical person) and Christ (the savior) in order to recognize God in the world around them . . . Rohrs innovative reflections will inspire believing readers to think deeply about the nature of God." -Publishers Weekly "Anyone who has made a confession of faith in Jesus Christ should read this book to grasp more fully the vast and startling implications of this belief. This is Richard Rohr at his best, providing an overall summation of his theological insights that have been life-changing for so many." -Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary emeritus of the Reformed Church in America "Here, Christianity finds its root and its destiny in all things, in all matter, in all creation. and here, we find our connection to universal belonging, to universal trust, and to universal love. This book will change religion and make it tender and gentle and transformational." -Timothy Shriver, Chairman of the Special Olympics Excerpt from Book Christ Is Not Jesuss Last Name In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. --Genesis 1:1-3 Across the thirty thousand or so varieties of Christianity, believers love Jesus and (at least in theory) seem to have no trouble accepting his full humanity and his full divinity. Many express a personal relationship with Jesus--perhaps a flash of inspiration of his intimate presence in their lives, perhaps a fear of his judgment or wrath. Others trust in his compassion, and often see him as a justification for their worldviews and politics. But how might the notion of Christ change the whole equation? Is Christ simply Jesuss last name? Or is it a revealing title that deserves our full attention? How is Christs function or role different from Jesuss? What does Scripture mean when Peter says in his very first address to the crowds after Pentecost that "God has made this Jesus . . . both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36)? Werent they always one and the same, starting at Jesuss birth? To answer these questions, we must go back and ask, What was God up to in those first moments of creation? Was God totally invisible before the universe began? Or is there even such a thing as "before"? Why did God create at all? What was Gods purpose in creating? Is the universe itself eternal? Or is the universe a creation in time as we know it--like Jesus himself? Lets admit that we will probably never know the "how" or even the "when" of creation. But the question that religion tries to answer is mostly the "why." Is there any evidence for why God created the heavens and the earth? What was God up to? Was there any divine intention or goal? Or do we even need a creator "God" to explain the universe? Most of the perennial traditions have offered explanations, and they usually go something like this: Everything that exists in material form is the offspring of some Primal Source, which originally existed only as Spirit. This Infinite Primal Source somehow poured itself into finite, visible forms, creating everything from rocks to water, plants, organisms, animals, and human beings--everything that we see with our eyes. This self-disclosure of whomever you call God into physical creation was the first Incarnation (the general term for any enfleshment of spirit), long before the personal, second Incarnation that Christians believe happened with Jesus. To put this idea in Franciscan language, creation is the First Bible, and it existed for 13.7 billion years before the second Bible was written.* When Christians hear the word "incarnation," most of us think about the birth of Jesus, who personally demonstrated Gods radical unity with humanity. But in this book, I want to suggest that the first incarnation was the moment described in Genesis 1, when God joined in unity with the physical universe and became the light inside of everything. (This, I believe, is why light is the subject of the first day of creation, and its speed is now recognized as the one universal constant.) The incarnation, then, is not only "God becoming Jesus." It is a much broader event, which is why John first describes Gods presence in the general word "flesh" (John 1:14). John is speaking of the ubiquitous Christ that Caryll Houselander so vividly encountered, the Christ that the rest of us continue to encounter in other human beings, a mountain, a blade of grass, or a starling. Everything visible, without exception, is the outpouring of God. What else could it really be? "Christ" is a word for the Primordial Template ("Logos") through whom "all things came into being, and not one thing had its being except through him" (John 1:3). Seeing in this way has reframed, reenergized, and broadened my own religious belief, and I believe it could be Christianitys unique contribution among the world religions.* If you can overlook how John uses a masculine pronoun to describe something that is clearly beyond gender, you can see that he is giving us a sacred cosmology in his Prologue (1:1-18), and not just a theology. Long before Jesuss personal incarnation, Christ was deeply embedded in all things--as all things! The first lines of the Bible say that "the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters," or the "formless void," and immediately the material universe became fully visible in its depths and meaning (Genesis 1:1ff.). Time, of course, has no meaning at this point. The Christ Mystery is the New Testaments attempt to name this visibility or see-ability that occurred on the first day. Remember, light is not so much what you directly see as that by which you see everything else. This is why in Johns Gospel, Jesus Christ makes the almost boastful statement "I am the Light of the world" (John 8:12). Jesus Christ is the amalgam of matter and spirit put together in one place, so we ourselves can put it together in all places, and enjoy things in their fullness. It can even enable us to see as God sees, if that is not expecting too much. Scientists have discovered that what looks like darkness to the human eye is actually filled with tiny particles called "neutrinos," slivers of light that pass through the entire universe. Apparently there is no such thing as total darkness anywhere, even though the human eye thinks there is. Johns Gospel was more accurate than we realized when it described Christ as "a light that darkness cannot overcome" (1:5). Knowing that the inner light of things cannot be eliminated or destroyed is deeply hopeful. And as if that is not enough, Johns choice of an active verb ("The true light . . . was coming into the world," 1:9) shows us that the Christ Mystery is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process throughout time--as constant as the light that fills the universe. And "God saw that light was good" (Genesis 1:3). Hold on to that! But the symbolism deepens and tightens. Christians believe that this universal presence was later "born of a woman under the law" (Galatians 4:4) in a moment of chronological time. This is the great Christian leap of faith, which not everyone is willing to make. We daringly believe that Gods presence was poured into a single human being, so that humanity and divinity can be seen to be operating as one in him--and therefore in us! But instead of saying that God came into the world through Jesus, maybe it would be better to say that Jesus came out of an already Christ-soaked world. The second incarnation flowed out of the first, out of Gods loving union with physical creation. If that still sounds strange to you, just trust me for a bit. I promise you it will only deepen and broaden your faith in both Jesus and the Christ. This is an important reframing of who God might be and what such a God is doing, and a God we might need if we want to find a better response to the questions that opened this chapter. My point is this: When I know that the world around me is both the hiding place and the revelation of God, I can no longer make a significant distinction between the natural and the supernatural, between the holy and the profane. (A divine "voice" makes this exactly clear to a very resistant Peter in Acts 10.) Everything I see and know is indeed one "uni-verse," revolving around one coherent center. This Divine Presence seeks connection and communion, not separation or division--except for the sake of an even deeper future union. What a difference this makes in the way I walk through the world, in how I encounter every person I see in the course of my day! It is as though everything that seemed disappointing and "fallen," all the major pushbacks against the flow of history, can now be seen as one whole movement, still enchanted and made use of by Gods love. All of it must somehow be usable and filled with potency, even the things that appear as betrayals or crucifixions. Why else and how else could we love this world? Nothing, and no one, needs to be excluded. The kind of wholeness Im describing is something that our postmodern world no longer enjoys, and even vigorously denies. I always wonder why, after the triumph of rationalism in the Enlightenment, we would prefer such incoherence. I thought we had agreed that coherence, pattern, and some final meaning were good. But intellectuals in the last century have denied the existence and power of such great wholeness--and in Christianity, we have made the mistake of limiting the Creators presence to just one human manifestation, Jesus. The implications of our very selective seeing have been massively destructive for history and humanity. Creation was deemed profane, a pretty accident, a mere backdrop for the real drama of Gods concern--which is always and only us. (Or, even more troublesome, him!) It is impossible to make individuals feel sacred inside of a profane, empty, or accidental universe. This way of seeing makes us feel separate and competitive, striving to be superior instead of deeply connected, seeking ever-larger circles of union. But God loves things by becoming them. God loves things by uniting with them, not by excluding them. Through the act of creation, God manifested the eternally outflowing Divine Presence into the physical and material world.* Ordinary matter is the hiding place for Spirit, and thus the very Body of God. Honestly, what else could it be, if we believe--as orthodox Jews, Christians, and Muslims do--that "one God created all things"? Since the very beginning of time, Gods Spirit has been revealing its glory and goodness through the physical creation. So many of the Psalms already assert this, speaking of "rivers clapping their hands" and "mountains singing for joy." When Paul wrote, Details ISBN059323832X Author Brian D. Mclaren Short Title The Universal Christ Pages 288 Language English Year 2021 ISBN-10 059323832X ISBN-13 9780593238325 Format Paperback Country of Publication United States Publisher Random House USA Inc Imprint Convergent Place of Publication New York Publication Date 2021-02-16 AU Release Date 2021-02-16 NZ Release Date 2021-02-16 US Release Date 2021-02-16 UK Release Date 2021-02-16 Subtitle How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe DEWEY 232 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:131236857;

Price: 28.14 AUD

Location: Melbourne

End Time: 2024-12-01T06:18:46.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 AUD