Epilogue: Healing The Wasteland

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We concluded Repairer of the Breach with the following words of Jeffrey J. Butz:

 

(p.191) Dare we imagine a day when the children of Abraham have made

Jerusalem their shared spiritual home? Dare we be so bold as to imagine the Dome

of the Rock shining like a golden beacon from the center of the reconstructed

Temple, together with the New Jerusalem Church of St. James standing proudly

alongside? Dare we imagine Jews, Christians, and Muslims together worshipping

the God of Abraham, Jesus, and Muhammad? Let us imagine as Isaiah did:

 

Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift

up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your

sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their

nurses' arms. Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and

rejoice. (Isa. 60:3-5)

 

And let us heed the words God spoke through Muhammad:

 

Your community is but one community, and I am your only Lord. Therefore serve

me. Men have divided themselves into factions, but to Us they shall all return.

(The Qur'an 21:92-93)

 

And therefore let us all take heart that Jesus' great prayer might be answered:

 

I ask...that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may

they also be in us, so that...they may become completely one...(Jesus, John

17:20-23)

 

The Brother of Jesus (And the Lost Teachings of Christianity) Chapter 10, pg.

191.

 

Here now, is Epilogue: Healing The Wasteland.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

 

 

Epilogue: Healing The Wasteland

 

(p.192) Fundamentalist Christians, Muslims, and Jews will not want to entertain

the possibilities outlined in the last chapter, which must seem blasphemous.

Fundamentalist Christians would see such theological compromise as a sign of the

" end times " and the coming of the Antichrist. Even the most liberal Christians,

Jews, and Muslims may say it is too idealistic, just " pie in the sky by and by. "

You may say I'm a dreamer, but there are a few of us out here who are not only

ready to entertain such an idea, but are ready to work toward achieving it.

 

If more open-minded Christians, Jews, and Muslims were to sit down at a round

table to try to achieve the holy grail of peace and unity, they would certainly

have to be people of vision, willing to compromise. In working out the

practicalities of such a compromise, one hopes that Muslims and Jews would

graciously refrain from asking Christians to completely relinquish the doctrine

of the incarnation, but rather come to understand how this belief arose, and why

it remains so important to many Christians. There is yet some deep theological

truth to be mined in the doctrines of the incarnation and the Trinity, from

which Jews and Muslims might find their own understandings of God enriched.

 

One hopes, too, that Jews and Christians would graciously refrain from asking

Muslims to relinquish their understanding of the prophet Muhammad as the

mouthpiece of God's revelation. (p.193) As a Christian, I have come to believe

that God continued speaking through Muhammad just as God continued speaking

through Paul. I have come to believe that there are many deep theological truths

in the Qur'an that do indeed come from God, and from which Jews and Christians

can find their understandings of God greatly enriched.

 

And one hopes that Muslims and Christians would graciously refrain from

asking Jews to accept either Jesus or Muhammad as God's 'final' revelation to

humanity. In working together to achieve the grail, perhaps the people of the

Book might all come to see that there is revelation from God still to come.

Christians already know that a fuller revelation of Jesus' teaching came through

Paul. Perhaps an even fuller revelation of God's truth would come if the people

of the Book could combine the revelations that each of the three traditions has

received thus far.

 

I envision a fuller revelation of God's truth forthcoming for all of the

people of the Book through James. F.C. Baur was the first to recognize the true

nature of earliest Christianity, partially by employing Hegel's philosophy of

dialectic. At the table of the grail, Jews, Christians, and Muslims would need

to employ a philosophical model that I would term 'trialectic'--working toward a

synthesis not of two polarities, but a synthesis of three nodes of an

equilateral triangle--a trinity of truth.

 

The quest for the holy grail has always been a quest for truth. Today, the

holy grail seems to be within our reach. To take hold of it will require an

intensive, coordinated effort of those people of the Book who are sincere

seekers. In the grail legends, it is said that when the grail is achieved by

those who are worthy of it, it will heal the " wasteland. " Through James the

Just, perhaps the wasteland of the Western world can be healed at last.

 

The Brother of Jesus (And the Lost Teachings of Christianity)

Chapter 10, pg. 192-193

Jeffrey J. Butz

Inner Traditions - Rochester, Vermont

ISBN 1-59477-043-3