A Christian In Spite Of Himself

[poliphilo]

I'm not a Christian. I don't believe in the Christian God or the Christian cosmology or anything to do with Jesus but - and it's a big but- I still regard the Sermon on the Mount- bits of it anyway- as the ultimate moral authority. 

I was going to say it's my conditioning- but I was conditioned to accept the whole shebang and I've shucked most of it.

No. The Sermon on the Mount- which I'm using as shorthand to mean the moral teaching of the Gospels- has something about it. 

And it's not that it was handed down from on high. Scholars have demonstrated there's nothing it it that can't be paralleled in earlier Jewish writings. It's not a revelation, it's the distillation of a long maturing Wisdom tradition- the essence  of several centuries worth of Greek philosophy and rabbinical teaching. You want to know how to live the good life? Here are the tried and tested rules. Love your neighbour, despise riches, seek your treasure in "heaven". Impossible demands? Well, maybe- human nature being what it is- but the purest commonsense. If we lived this way we'd be living in paradise.  

When I think about it, I have to admit that nothing has had a larger influence on the way I've lived my life and hone my responses.

Which- seeing how I classify myself  (when pushed) as a Pagan Agnostic- comes as a bit of a shock.  

I don't think Jesus was the Son of God or even The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived  or even that he lived at all- and I don't need to. The Sermon speaks for itself.

Comments

I'm sort of with you there...

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

What I say is that I am a Christian... in the sense that I follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. I think, in my mind, that makes me a Christian. I have no compelling need to argue doctrine with anyone about it... but it has been years since I have been able to make that specific profession of faith that says, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the only son of the living God." I started out at about age 20 leaving out the word "only" and it has gradually crumbled from there. Because I had a whole career as a church employee it's been a little tricky. I hadn't noticed how much pressure I was feeling about that until after I retired and discovered how relieved I was.

Re: I'm sort of with you there...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think one of the problems with Christianity is that it has insisted on doctrinal conformity in a way no other religion does. In the mainstream churches they expect you to stand up every Sunday and say "I believe" in this whole collection of implausible things and it puts the church member- as you say- under a whole lot of pressure.