Name: The Universal Christ
ISBN: 9780281078622

Richard Rohr

From one of the world's most influential spiritual thinkers, a long-awaited book exploring what it means that Jesus was called Christ, and how this forgotten truth can transform everything we see, hope for and believe

How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope for and Believe

The Universal Christ

Fred Rivett

Once we know that the entire physical world around us, all of creation, is both the hiding place and the revelation place for God, this world becomes home, safe, enchanted, offering grace to any who look deeply. I call that kind of deep and calm seing "contemplation."

Everything visible, without exception, is the outpouring of God. What else could it really be?

Remember, light is not so much what you directly see as that by which you see everything else. This is why in John's Gospel, Jesus Christ makes the almost boastful statement "I am the Light of the world" (John 8:12).

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. John's Gospel was more accurate than we realized when it described Christ as "a light that darkness cannot overcome"

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.

eAs John says, "From this fullness (pleroma) we have all received, grace upon grace" (1:16), or “grace responding to grace gracefully” might be an even more accurate translation. To end in grace you must somehow start with grace, and then it is grace all the way through. Or as others have simply put it, "How you get there is where you arrive."

The only people that Jesus seemed to exclude were precisely those who refused to know they were ordinary sinners like everyone else. The only thing he excluded was exclusion itself.

In Paul's story we find the archetypal spiritual pattern, wherein people move from what they thought they always knew to what they now fully recognize.

Divine perfection is precisely the ability to include what seems like imperfection.

God did not just start talking to us with the Bible or the church or the prophets. Do we really think that God had nothing at all to say for 13.7 billion years, and started speaking only in the latest nanosecond of geological time? Did all history prior to our sacred texts provide no basis for truth or authority? Of course not.

When we start with a theology of sin management administered by a too-often elite clergy, we end up with a schizophrenic religion. We end up with a Jesus who was merciful while on earth, but who punishes in the next world. Who forgives here but not later. God in this picture seems whimsical and untrustworthy even to the casual observer.

Studies like the ones done by the neuroscientist Rick Hanson show that we must consciously hold on to a positive thought or feeling for a minimum of fifteen seconds before it leaves any imprint in the neurons. The whole dynamic, in fact, is called the Velcro/Teflon theory of the mind.

Love is constantly creating future possibilities for the good of all concerned-even, and especially, when things go wrong… Love flows unstoppably downward, around every obstacle—like water. Love and water seek not the higher place but always the lower.

Religion, at its best, helps people to bring this foundational divine love into ever-increasing consciousness. In other words, it's more about waking up than about cleaning up…Cleaning up is a result of waking up, but most of us put the cart before the horse.

Love grounds us by creating focus, direction, motivation, even joy—and if we don't find these things in love, we usually will try to find them in hate.

The divine-human love affair really is a reciprocal dance. Sometimes, in order for us to step forward, the other partner must step a bit away. The withdrawal is only for a moment, and its purpose is to pull us toward him or her but it doesn't feel like that in the moment. It feels like our partner is retreating. Or it just feels like suffering.

But God rewards me for letting him reward me. This is the divine two-step that we call grace: I am doing it, and yet I am not doing it; It is being done unto me, and yet by me too. Yet God always takes the lead in the dance, which we only recognize over time.

God insists on incorporating the seeming negative. There is no doubt that God allows suffering. In fact, God seems to send us on the path toward our own wholeness not by eliminating the obstacles, but by making use of them. Most of the novels, operas, and poems ever written seem to have this same message in one way or another, yet it still comes as a shock and a disappointment when we experience it in our own little lives. But apart from love and suffering, both of which are always underserved, I see no other way that humans would recalibrate, reset, or change course. Why would we?

This is why saints like Augustine, Teresa of Avila, and Carl Jung seem to fully equate the discovery of their own souls with the very discovery of God. It takes much of our life, much lived experience, to trust and allow such a process. But when it comes, it will feel like a calm and humble ability to quietly trust yourself and trust God at the same time. Isn't that what we all want?

As Augustine says, "A temporal thing is loved before we have it, and it grows worthless when we gain it, for it does not satisfy the soul... but the eternal is more ardently loved the more it is acquired....The soul will find the eternal even more valuable after once tasting it."

As Rohr always is, this is a deep, profound book that speaks at a deeper level than the purely rational. Much of what he writes resonates whilst conflicting with the simple truths many of us have taken for granted.

An enjoyable, thought provoking read. Not quite as impactful for me as Falling Upward, but may well be one I revisit down the line.

As Rohr always is, this is a deep, profound book that speaks at a deeper level than the purely rational. Much of what he writes resonates whilst conflicting with the simple truths many of us have taken for granted.

An enjoyable, thought provoking read. Not quite as impactful for me as Falling Upward, but may well be one I revisit down the line.

From one of the world's 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 world. "Anyone who strives to put their faith into action will find encouragement and inspiration in the pages of this book." -Melinda Gates In 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 Jesus's 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 God's constant, unfolding work in the world. "God loves things by becoming them," he writes, and Jesus's 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 Creator's 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.

How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe

Universal Christ

Dana Kraft

This is not a book that you just “read”. It took me a long time to get through it and I feel like I need to go through it again. In addition, the bibliography and notes will form a pretty long future reading list for me. This is my definition of a 5 star book.

This book connected well with The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist which talks about how our mindset and attention literally affect the world around us, not just our perception of the world. That book focus much on society, art, communities and this book focuses on the presence of the divine in all of those things. How does our approach to God, religion and faith affect us and the world? Specifically, both authors provide lots of examples of the consequences an over reliance on rationality and the scientific method. I’m guilty of that. “Love affairs never just happen in the mind.”p66.

Best quotes from my first read:

All contemplation reflects a seventh-day choice and experience, relying on grace instead of effort. Full growth implies timing and staging, acting and waiting, working and not working. p. 59

In practical order, we find our Original Goodness, when we can discover and own these three attitudes or virtues planted deeply within us:
* A trust in inner coherence itself. “It all means something.” FAITH
* A trust that this coherence is positive and going somewhere good. HOPE
* A trust that this coherence includes me and even defines me. LOVE
p. 66

“Unless religion leads us on a path to both depth and honesty, much religion is actually quite dangerous to the soul and to society. In fact, “fast food” religion and the so-called prosperity gospel are some of the best ways to actually avoid God—while talking about religion nonstop. p. 89

“...we make the focus of Jesus’ Gospel what is ‘out there as opposed to what is ‘in here’. For example, insisting on a literal belief in the virgin birth of Jesus is very good theological symbolism, but unless it translates into a spirituality of interior poverty, readiness to conceive, and human vulnerability, it is largely a “mere lesson memorized” as Isaiah puts it (29:13). p. 114

“But your only real prerequisite for participation or “worthiness” is in fact your capacity for presence itself. This is not accomplished just in the head. Presence is a unique capacity that includes heart, body, mind and whatever we mean by “soul”. Love affairs never just happen in the mind. P. 131

“It is the egoic illusion of our own perfect rightness that often allows us to crucify others...We seldom consciously know that we are scapegoating or projecting. As Jesus said, people literally “do not know what they are doing”. In fact, the effectiveness of the mechanism depends on not seeing it.” P. 150

Our arguments about private worthiness reward and punishment, gender, race, and class distinctions, private possessions, all the things that make us argue and compete, largely become a waste of time and an illusion. All these lived arguments depend on some type of weighing, measuring, counting, listing, labeling and comparing. The Gospel, by contrast, is about learning to live and die in and with God - all our warts included and forgiven by an infinite love. P. 166

“Scared people remember threats and do not hear invitations.” P. 173

'I cannot put this book down'– Bono In 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 Jesus’ last name? Too often, Rohr writes, our understanding has been limited by culture, religious squabbling, and the human tendency to put ourselves at the centre. Drawing on scripture, history and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. ‘God loves things by becoming them,' he writes, and Jesus’ 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 Creator’s 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.

How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For and Believe

Neva Davies

A thoughtful look at Christ

The Universal Christ is a thoughtful look at religion and spirituality. It's also an important look at what it truly means to follow the risen Christ, as so often we go by more recent theological beliefs rather than understand the early traditions of Christ's followers.

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