“Jesus, unlike most responsible American citizens, appears to do no work, and is accused of being a glutton and a drunkard. He is presented as homeless, propertyless, celibate, peripatetic, socially marginal, disdainful of kinsfolk, without a trade, a friend of outcasts and pariahs, averse to material possessions, without fear for his own safety, careless about purity regulations, critical of traditional authority, a thorn in the side of the Establishment, and a scourge of the rich and powerful… He respects the Sabbath not because it means going to church but because it represents a temporary escape from the burden of labor. The Sabbath is about resting, not religion. One of the best reasons for being a Christian, as for being a socialist, is that you don’t like having to work, and reject the fearful idolatry of it so rife in countries like the United States. Truly civilized societies do not hold predawn power breakfasts.
“…. The morality Jesus preaches is reckless, extravagant, improvident, over-the-top, a scandal to actuaries and a stumbling block to real estate agents: forgive your enemies, give away your cloak as well as your coat, turn the other cheek, love those who insult you, walk the extra mile, take no thought for tomorrow.
“Christopher Hitchens greets this creative recklessness with petit bourgeois distaste …. In fact, one wonders why his frends in the Pentagon haven’t sought to ban this insidious propaganda about peace and the poor altogether. Jesus fails miserably to talk like a five-star general.
“…. it is not the kind of morality one associates with chartered accountants or oil executives. Because God is transcendent - that’s to say, because he doesn’t need humanity, having fashioned us just for the fun of it - he is not neurotically possesive of us. He needs us no more than one needs a pet mongoose or a tattoo. He is therefore able to let us be; and the word for this is freedom, which is where for Christian theology we belong to him most deeply.
“… If you follow Jesus and don’t end up dead, it appears you have some explaining to do.”
Terry Eagleton, Reason, Faith, Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009), pp. 10-11, 14-15, 27).
{ 1 trackback }
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Rick O. 05.24.09 at 1:03 am
While I can’t say I’m familiar with this Eagleton fellow’s work, from these excerpts I sense the despise he has for commonly held concepts regarding the nature and personality of our Lord. Though a bit over the top perhaps with his description, he is not far off. But acid drips from his fingers as he types; sarcasm seems to be his stock in trade. And the sarcastic wit, in large doses, becomes tiring and wearisome. In fact I was weary by the time I finished reading this post.
And God creating spiritual mortals for fun? Knowing that we would cause him pain? I dunno…
Joel Betow 05.24.09 at 10:05 pm
I’m reminded maybe why the portrait of Jesus favored in so many churches seems to me more suitable for a funeral home (with apologies to all offended), if even there. The portrait did nothing for me as a kid and does close to nothing now. For me, it shows a Christ removed from this world, who knows nothing of poverty, war, oppression, hunger or suffering, just for a start.
I experimented with “new age” stuff for about five years some 25-30 years ago. I found it very meaningful until it dawned on me that at its core it is “me, me, me” or “we are all gods waiting to claim our destiny.” I’m self-centered enough without any extra encouragement.
Yes, knowing we would cause pain and disappoint, but also knowing he created us, by or in grace, with the capacity for agape love. The word “fun” can be used in many ways — for some “fun” equates to cheap thrills. I don’t see that here.
Christopher Hitchens strikes me as having the most acidic of tongues, particularly for anything of God or faith because those are most inconvenient to much of his reasoning, be it left, center or right. At least, however, Hitchens does recognize waterboarding as torture, as it seems he agreed to participate in the procedure and lasted perhaps 15 seonds. I was not aware that as of 2007, Hitchens is both a British and American citizen.
On certain positions, Hitchens has gone from far left to far right. Maybe the wide swing, and with condemnation for those who disagree, is because he uses his freedom to resist faith touching or dirtying his reasoning abilities and brilliant mind.
I’ve almost invariably declined to particpate in groups that meet at 6:30 a.m. or even 7:00 a.m., as I am not a morning person. Now if we were meeting to organize for placing of sand bags to deter flooding or to distribute food to the starving, or to protest efforts to destrou a stable neighborhood to make way for luxury housing, that’s different. Otherwise, to me, meeting that early is simply to prove our stamina. Well, we have no stamina compared to God anyway, so what’s the point? Now a gathering of people who like to get up at 5:00 a.m., what a blessed thing if they want to gather at 6:30 for prayer and/or theological discussion. But out of joy rather than of impressing God who is beyond the sum of all things good. If God does not need us, then what we have to offer includes service and obedience in accepting the call, not a $1,000 clerical robe that isn’t even clerical in the first place, but has its roots in the academic world.
Some of those things written about Jesus sound very close to being “chargeable offenses” in the modern church.