[Note: This is one post in a series on David Gushee’s book After Evangelicalism: The Path to a New Christianity. The aim of these posts is to help you start conversations with people in your community. Invite someone to read this book with you and discuss it together. You don’t need to agree with each other or the author to benefit from doing this type of activity.]
Chapter 5: Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet, Lynched God-man, Risen Lord
Having explained how he understands the Old Testament’s purpose for constructing a post-evangelical faith, Gushee moves on to explore how post-evangelicals might approach Jesus. His chapter relies heavily upon the work of New Testament scholar, James Dunn. As Gushee points out, every account of Jesus is built upon someone else’s account: the Gospels, the epistles, the Catholics, the Calvinists, and etc.
With this observation in place, Gushee identifies four evangelical accounts of Jesus: 1) Jesus the Crucified Savior; 2) Hallmark-Christmas-movie Jesus; 3) Jesus Who Wants You to Succeed; and 4) Vacant Jesus fillable with any content we want. Gushee suggests that each of these versions have varying degrees of truth in them (with the first one being far and away the best), they all leave out many important facets of Jesus’s life and ministry.
Gushee’s main point is that we should look to the Synoptic Gospels to understand the kernel of Jesus’s reality according to himself. He suggests that this account of Jesus will serve as the best antidote to our distorted accounts. Moreover, the account of Jesus we find in the Gospels radically contradicts the more distorted evangelical versions of Jesus and offers us a better way forward into a post-evangelical faith.
Intriguing Quote(s)
“We suggest that for Jesus, the kingdom has seven key marks. God interrupts history, (1) unmistakably giving evidence of his presence, creating changes in human life toward (2) deliverance, (3) justice, (4) peace, (5) healing, and (6) inclusion of exiles and outcasts in community. Human beings can only respond with (7) joy—unless, that is, they prefer the world as it is, in which case they invite divine judgment.” (91)
To my post-evangelical friends, this is my request: please do not think that the problem with the religion you are leaving behind is Jesus. If you return to serious encounter with Jesus as we meet him in the New Testament, I do not think you will be disappointed. For me, the place to begin is in that most primal core, where we meet the prophetic, radical, just, powerful, defiant preacher of the dawning reign of God.” (100)
Conversation Starters
Based on your awareness of the Christian faith, how would you describe Jesus and his ministry today?
What would you identify as problems with the “evangelical Jesus”?
How does the Jesus of the Gospels challenge our understanding of Jesus today?