"Creating God, Recreating Christ"
Ian Harris
An overview
Part 1: Creating God
1. God
This chapter tackles the central question head on. It argues that in the modern world people
must consciously create God; outlines four aids to creating God; highlights the significance
of Jesus in the task; and affirms the God experience that can follow.
2. Our secular world
After briefly clarifying the meaning of "secular", "secularisation" and "secularism", this
chapter sets the context for religion today by outlining 12 major elements that characterise
the secular culture.
3. The religious life
This brings the God dimension of Chapter 1 and the secular dimension of Chapter 2
together and asks: Is a religious life possible any more? The focus here is on individual
experience, and the chapter proceeds by way of a series of questions and answers, of a kind
which will occur to people brought up in traditional ways of thinking about God, worship,
prayerr, mystery and faith.
4. Yes, but...
Further objections to this approach and comments on them.
5. A church for tomorrow
This picks up the social or community aspect of religious experience. In doing so, it
distinguishes between the core faith tradition of Christianity and the lesser traditions that
have accumulated around it, and encourages secular men and women to claim the freedom of
the 1st century church to start again from scratch. Moving beyond mere theory, it sketches the
experience of two New Zealand groups which are doing just that.
6. Making the secular culture work for religion
This explores how the strands of experience that make up the secular culture can
enhance faith and the expression of faith.
Part 2: Re-imagining the Christ
1. Jesus in the Jewish world
This sketches the way Jewish Christians came to understand Jesus in terms of their
history and religious traditions, with special regard to Jesus as the new Moses, Jesus as
the new Adam, and the Jewish understanding of sacrifice.
2. Jesus in the Greek world
This shows how a quite different understanding of Jesus emerged in the world of
Greek culture, philosophy and religions, culminating in the definitions of the creeds.
3. From Jesus to Christ
This focuses on the process of transition from Jesus the man to the Christ of faith in the
first centuries of the Christian era. It argues that a similar process is necessary in today's
secular culture, where the supernatural assumptions no longer apply.
4. Imagining the Christ today
This chapter asks how the Christ myth can be given new meaning in the secular world of
the West. It concludes that Christian faith could have a vital future - but only if there is a
new resurrection.
5. Sin and salvation
This applies a new perspective to the old conundrums of sin and evil, gives two
ancient myths a contemporary twist, and concludes with the centrality of relationships
both for sin and for wholeness (or salvation).
6. Conclusion
Appendix
The origin and import of selected words in our religious vocabulary.
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