Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
But there is an aspect of Christianity that does somewhat end aspects of individualism. But nothing like Lee taught. We are asked to terminate our prejudices and love our neighbors — all of them. The liberals and the conservatives. The gay and the straight. The black and the white (and every shade in between). We are asked to conform our lives to one that was righteous.
|
Right. But, all we "know" of the "one that was righteous" is the image of we project based on what we read. Even that he was righteous and how he was righteous is a conclusion we reason to based on limited and sometimes conflicting data. There are few hints what his self-understanding was. I think the long self-referential Jesus monologues in the Gospel of John represent the theological reflections of the author not actual statements of Jesus. In the synoptic gospels Jesus preached the Kingdom of God not himself as he does in John. If we seek objective truth about who Jesus was, we don't merely get to choose whatever Jesus we prefer. But, we must also admit we are not certain if we are right about are reading of who he was and what he stood for. So any obedience is going to be riddled with uncertainty. How do we know that we are not simply being obedient to our own idealized self. Does it matter?