John Macmurray, Christianity, What we mean and What We Don’t Mean

[1] It would clear the religious atmosphere considerably if people wold say what in traditional Christianity they do not believe. Is there anything that we do not believe that people say is essential to Christianity?

Christianity is primarily centred in the life and teaching of Jesus. But two possible conception of a religion may arise from this. Christianity may be a religion about Jesus in which he appears as a kind of lay figure. Such a religion embodies a set of doctrines. But if we read the gospels to try to understand what they say and about God and Jesus which are usually associated with Christianity - indeed a good deal of subtlety is needed to make these agree with what is to be found in the New Testament. If we try to understand what constituted the religious outlook and thought of the early Christian Church we find that they had no theology.

Jesus took it for granted … […]

The degree of difference between orthodox theology and what is to be found in the New Testament is such as to make a canon of authenticity for the N.T. unnecessary. Much of orthodox theology comes from Greek philosophy

[2] Since Jesus was a Jew his first task was to recall his own people to the reality of their own religions.

Religion is for Jesus and for the Jew a way of understanding the world. The Jews are religious … […]

[3] themselves as the children of Israel - the idea of the family developing to that of society - and they thought of society in terms of personal relationships. The Jewish idea of the individual is completely different from the modern European; the individual was never contrasted with society but was thought of as member of the community which as a whole would have to suffer for his sins and benefit from his virtues.

The Jews were chosen by God as the means by which he revealed himself. This statement lent itself to two interpretations - first, that God chose the Jews because he liked them better than anyone else; second […]

The discovery that Jesus made, which was not an ideal but a truth, was that human life is personal. To understand this it is necessary to point the constrasts that Jesus pointed - that human life is non-natural; non-organic; communal, not social; and that relationships between humans are not based on ties of blood or nationality - in fact, it would be impossible to build a human community on the basis of blood relationship. Any such society must inevitability break down. It was this discovery that enabled Jesus to be so certain of the ultimate success of his mission. The rejection of it, which he foresaw, would involve inevitable failurs. Thus Jesus was able to say to his disciples “You can't possibly fail”. In rejecting the truth men would be attempting to live in a way which contradicted their own nature, and so frustrating themselves.

Human community

The positive … […]

[4]

Faith

[…]

Christianity and the Churches

If we look at the set of organised religions that is called Christiniaty we see nothing that can be called the Church - only a series of churches, each one of which has arisen in dialectic [5] opposition to the one fro which he grew.

Text Informations

Reference:
Original Publication: part of “Notes from Christian left Training week-ends”, 1937
KPA: 21/22, 1-5