Jesus and the Unitarian Universalists

The first generation of Unitarians and Universalists, our ancestors in faith, between 1790 and 1820, were solidly liberal Christians. They believed in God. They valued the Bible and the religion of Jesus. They identified, religiously, artistically, and intellectually with the long history of Christianity. They didn't claim all Christian history as their own, but they knew Christian History was their root bed. Their objection to Chrisianity, and it was a deep one that alienated them from orthodox Christians, was to the Calvinist theology of the Puritan churches. The Unitarian and Universalist founders wanted to rescue Christianity from the clutches of an Angry God, from the ghoulish fears of an eternity in hell, from a dismal view of human nature as helplessly decadent and powerless, and from an attitude that religion and salvation have little to do with social transformation and betterment. The first Unitarians and Universalists believed that human beings were capable of love, nobility, and goodness and could help to make the world a better place. They thought that Jesus was a magnificent teacher, a God-filled human being, a human savior whose life was redeeming. Jesus was, for them, the teacher of teachers in human history, closer to God than any other.

Emerson shook the early Unitarian world, including many of his Unitarian friends, in his famous Address of 1838, to the seniors at Harvard Divinity School, by placing Christianity on a par with other world religions, and placing Jesus on a par with other great prophets in the history of the world. He told the seniors, "Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of prophets. He saw with open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there." There it is. To Emerson, Jesus had been unmistakably a human, a splendid, quintessential human, ravished by the beauty of the soul.

For decades following his address, the orthodox showered their disdain on Emerson and other "radicals," and even some Unitarians fussed and fretted about the way Emerson demoted Christianity. Controversy over the interpretation of Jesus and the nature of the Unitarian faith grew until it reached a crisis in 1865. The occasion was an attempt to form a National Conference of Unitarians, a movement spearheaded by Henry Whitney Bellows, minister of the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City.

Bellows wanted to strengthen the Unitarian movement by drawing together the independent-minded local congregations into an institutional association. He was opposed not only by those Unitarians who were suspicious of larger institutional ties, but also by those who feared that a larger association might open the door to shared statements of creed. They were hard set against anything like creedal expressions. The debate over differing views of Jesus was especially troublesome. The Transcendentalists and their supporters, sometimes called radicals, resisted attempts to make reference in Conference literature to "the Lord Jesus Christ." The debate was intense, but Bellows was a great organizer and carried the issue. For the time, Bellows had held the Unitarians, by a narrow margin, in the Path of Jesus. The radicals were able, however, to keep Bellows from naming the new association of churches "The Liberal Christian Church of America." That was a sign for the future. The Conference convention of 1865 became notable for two reasons. Most important was Bellows' leadership in bringing the Unitarian congregations together in one larger institutional affiliation, forming the base for a cohesive denomination. The other consequence was an ongoing tension among Unitarians over the place and the meaning of Jesus and the place of Christianity. That tension, with its wax and its wane, is still with us, a century and a half later.

In the nineteenth century, Universalism was less affected than Unitarianism by controversies about Jesus and Christianity. But, in the twentieth century, the tensions among Universalists about the importance of Christianity came out into the open. By mid-century, Unitarians and Universalists sounded more alike, with many Universalists convinced that all religions are important as human expressions, the Bible as a marvelous collection of human writings, and Jesus as an amazing human being and spiritual leader, but he was not a God. To most Christians in the early twentieth century, and for the great majority of Christians even now, the Unitarian and Universalist views of Jesus were and are heresy.

So, here we are, at the beginning of the twentieth century, two hundred years after the beginnings of the Unitarians and the Universalists. We have drifted far from the founders' vision and far from the liberal Christianity that meant so much to them; but, even as we speak, there are signs of change.

The meaning of Jesus and the role of Christian Churches is changing throughout the whole religious world, not just among UU's. Christianity will never again be what it was for Americans even a hundred years ago. Cultural pluralism has developed quickly and spread far. Interpretation of Jesus today, even among Christians, is contentious and diverse and divisive. There are many different views of Jesus and the conflict among those views is intense. Religious historians have done amazing work to create a deeper historical understanding of the person, Jesus, and of the historical period in which he lived. The result is a much more vivid Jesus, a much more human and earthly Jesus, a more ruggedly spiritual Jesus, and a more complex social and political period that defined his life and activity.

We Unitarian Universalists are not responsible for the changes in understanding Jesus, though we welcomed the changes as few other religious movements have, and those changes have affected our way of seeing and valuing Jesus. It has been very difficult for Christians to respond to these changes, for those changes seriously undermine the traditional images of Jesus as the one and only Son of God and the one and only Savior of the world. What is so interesting and important to me is that these same changes that are troubling the Christian world, are making it possible for Unitarian Universalists to look at Jesus more closely, with enthusiastic new interest, even new commitment. The amazing reinterpretation of Jesus historically in the past 75 years, and especially the past forty years, has made Jesus' values more compelling, his time closer to our own time, his experience closer to ours, and his faith, as it is now becoming known, more credible and inspiring.

I am not describing a modest, insignificant change in the culture, or the view of a few scattered historians. I am talking about a major religious sea-change, a shake-up that will change the religious landscape forever. The religions of the planet, Christianity among them, have been like competing empires, each one claiming supremacy. If cultural pluralism has its way, and it seems inevitable that it will, the religions of the future will be more modest, more open to interfaith cooperation, respect, and neighborliness. We are on a religious threshold that already is changing the lasting image of Jesus and the relationship between Jesus and the Unitarian Universalists.

As we learn more about Jesus, the first century rabbi, trained in the wisdom of the Jews, impatient with religious bigotry and hypocrisy, champion of the powerless, a healer, and resistant to Jewish religious leaders who collaborated with Roman occupation forces and disgraced the dignity of their ancient wisdom, Jesus comes into focus more and more as a charismatic, non-violent, compassionate freedom fighter. He is not the supernatural God/man. He is not the flawless human being. He is not the one who miraculously changed water into wine, multiplied loaves and fishes, and walked on the water. Those are beautiful stories, full of wisdom, but Jesus is the one whose charismatic and spiritual power attracted a band of followers that frightened Jewish and Roman leaders. He is the one whose exceptional closeness to God gave him extraordinary wisdom and courage. He is the one whose compassion and healing power gave people new life and hope.

It is becoming clear that the Jesus who walked the countryside of Galilee and marched into Jerusalem with his followers to confront religious and political leaders was a very different person from the one who was reported by his devoted promoters in the years immediately after his death, very different in many ways even from the Jesus who is pictured in the gospels. The real Jesus, the historical Jesus, becomes more interesting as we know more about him. He is an historical figure, a compelling figure, a powerful figure. Like our UU founders, we are in a new position to find great value in the life of Jesus. Like our founders, our struggle is not so much with the actual human figure of Jesus, but with interpreters of Jesus who, over time, created a Jesus who is much different from the man who walked the earth. The Jesus who walked the earth is worthy of devotion, but not deification.

We have come full circle in some ways and in others not. Like our founders, we can honestly say that Jesus is a figure of extraordinary stature. We can celebrate his life and work. Like our founders, we can, with all integrity, draw upon the values and wisdom of Jesus in our own liberal, spiritual growth. Like our founders, we are impatient with the misuse and misrepresentation of who Jesus was. Like our founders, we can appreciate Jesus as one of history's towering spiritual figures.

Through the first two thirds of the last century, our Unitarian and Universalist churches moved steadily away from Jesus. In many UU churches, there was a growing intolerance of references to Jesus in sermons and readings and music. That was an honest impatience with the old images of Jesus. But it left in our movement a hurt place, a wound; it left unfinished business; traumas often do. For decades, many UU's didn't want to look at Jesus in the old way, and weren't interested yet in looking at Jesus in any new way. That is changing. Jesus is no longer a stumbling block to many Unitarian Universalists. He is, in fact, for many of us, a hero, you might even say, in a worldly way, a savior, one who, through his vision and courage, saves us from despair and strengthens us in our moral living. The stumbling block for UU's is not Jesus, but the exclusiveness of much of Christianity.

I don't believe that Jesus ever wanted to be elevated and made exclusive the way he was through the centuries by the Christian tradition. I have said before, the Jesus I see was inclusive. Those who made Christianity exclusive missed the whole point. I truly believe that Christianity will be reborn when Christians, out of loyalty to the spirit of Jesus, embrace the inclusive spirit of Jesus.

I'm hoping, with all my heart, for new UU congregations where UU Christians and UU Buddhists, and UU Humanists and UU Pagans celebrate joyfully and with respect together, each grateful for the others, each learning from the others, each celebrating the beauty and meaning of the others' belief and practice. I am hoping for UU congregations where spiritual nurture is diverse, where, instead of staying within the narrow boundaries of our familiar preferences, we explore with a sense of true reverence. Some need to meditate. Others need to learn how to pray, or how to pray all over again. Others need to walk in the beauty of nature to discover the ancient wisdom there. Others need to go into the poorest streets and neighborhoods of our cities to see, perhaps for the first time, the bitter injustices there.

For years, every Good Friday afternoon, the symbolic day of Jesus' crucifixion, I have joined a group of the Cambridge Christian clergy and members from the churches, in a three hour walk from Central Square to Harvard Square. The group carries a large, visible cross and stops at various places along the way-other churches, city hall, social service agencies, and we end in the burial ground between this church and Christ Church on the other side. I will be joining that walk again on March 25. I do this because I am a Unitarian Universalist committed to religious diversity, a Unitarian Universalist deeply inspired and sustained by the person and work of Jesus. The narrow exclusiveness of so much Christianity deeply grieves me. I find it un-Christian, even a sin against the person and Spirit of Jesus. It may be part of our destiny as Unitarian Universalists to help the world, even the Christian world, find ways of opening to the inclusive spirit of Jesus. Many of our early founders would leap for joy. That's where they believed they were heading.