I have suggested that Jesus had no intention of founding a new religion. Those who followed him were given no name to distinguish them from other groups, no creed of their own, no rite which revealed their distinctive group character, no geographical center from which they would operate (Schweizer 1971:42, Goppelt 1981:208). The twelve were to be the vanguard of all Israel and, beyond Israel, by implication, of the whole ecumene. The community around Jesus was to function as a kind of pars pro toto, a community for the sake of all others, a model for others to emulate and be challeged by. Never, however, was this community to sever itself from the others.
This high level of calling was, however, not maintained for long. Already at a very early stage Christians tended to be more aware of what distinguished them from others than of their calling and responsibility toward those others. Their survival as a separate religious group, rather than their commitment to the reign of God, began to preoccupy them. In the words of Alfred Loisy (1976:166), "Jesus foretold the kingdom and it was the Church that came". In the course of time the Jesus community simply became a new religion, Christianity, a new principle of division among humankind. And so it has remained to this day.
David J. Bosch. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1991) 50.
What do you think about this? Were we intended to be a new religion? or simply a movement of people committed to the reign of God?
What do you think about this? Were we intended to be a new religion? or simply a movement of people committed to the reign of God?
No comments:
Post a Comment