Was Jesus just a Great Moral Teacher?

imagesThe question of Jesus’ identity has perplexed and fascinated us since he arrived on the scene 2,000 years ago. In our own day we seem to have a Jesus for everyone: Super-hero Jesus, Common Guy Jesus, Homosexual Jesus, Traditional Marriage Jesus, Democrat Jesus, Republican Jesus, Mormon Jesus, Oriental Jesus, and so on. Pick a cause or an agenda, and there is a Jesus waiting in the wings, ready to offer his support.[1] Why does everyone want a piece of Jesus, yet so often, not the whole? That is, why are we so ready to ascribe to Jesus the status of a great moral teacher, a teacher who we can use for our own personal or political agenda, yet we hesitate to call him Lord?

Soul Cravings

UnknownIt is a datum of human experience that we crave. We want, long, yearn, desire. Some things are petty—tickets to the Packer game, a box of Raisinets©, a new fountain pen—other things are more central to our well-being—staying healthy, material possessions—and some are essential to our well-being—intimacy, meaning, purpose.

Daniel Dennett, the Future of Religion, and Disenchantment

imagesEarlier this week, the Tufts university professor of philosophy and new atheist provocateur Daniel Dennett wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal explaining Why the Future of Religion is Bleak. The basic thrust of the article is that religion thrives whenever information and knowledge is repressed and/or personal or corporate calamity leads the ignorant masses to turn to deity for a crutch. In the age of the internet and mass media, religious dogmatist are no longer able to dupe their followers into thinking there is truth to their religious doctrines, and thus, the future of religion is bleak.

Does Jesus answer our biggest questions?

UnknownAristotle said, “All men desire to know.” He was right. We long to be rightly related to reality. We long to know the truth and to find ourselves in a story that is satisfying. I believe that we can know the truth, and when we find it, we will find answers that satisfy our soul. The answers to our perennial questions of existence, meaning, purpose, love, beauty, morality, and God are found in Jesus Christ and the religion he founded.

The High Cost of Cynicism and Unbelief

images-1In a comical scene that turns tragic, the Dwarfs in C. S. Lewis’s Narnian tale The Last Battle vow to never again allow themselves to believe in Aslan. Why? They had been duped into thinking that Puzzle (the donkey) was Aslan and once King Tirian revealed the truth about Puzzle, the Dwarfs become mystified at how easily they had been fooled. They determined to never be fooled again. They would rather remain in unbelief and cynicism than believe in Aslan, out of fear of being “taken” once more.