Marcus J. Borg (in his Jesus, 2006, pp. 5-14), identifies four dominant ways of talking about Jesus in North America:
a. The dying saviour – “Jesus died for our sins”.
b. Jesus as the Divine Human – Jesus is “God in human form”. The technical word is “incarnation”.
c. The Apocalyptic Jesus – The end of the world is near and “Jesus will come soon”.
d. Jesus as Teacher – Jesus provided guidance for the moral life.
While d above is the prominent image of Christians who are theologically liberal and those others, theologically conservatives emphasise a, b, and c. The liberal Christians view Jesus in the same way they see the other prophets mentioned in the Hebrew scriptures, such as Moses, Jeremiah, Amos and so on.
There are other “images” of Jesus emphasised elsewhere. For example:
a. Jesus as the “liberator” among those Christians inclined toward “Liberation Theology”.
b. Jesus as a “satyagrahi”, not violent protestor, an image dominant in Mahatma Gandhi’s thoughts, later picked up many Indian Christians and Martin Luther King, Jr.
c. Jesus as a “mystic” – one who was filled with “God Consciousness. A good non-Christian (?) book on this is Deepak Chopra’s The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore, New York: Harmony Books, 2008.
The traditional titles Christians give for Jesus also will provide us some clue to discover the Christian image of Jesus. Some of them are:
a. The Saviour.
b. The Christ or the Messiah.
c. The Word – Logos.
d. The Son of God.
e. The Son of Man.
f. Lord.
g. God.
You may note:
b. Jesus as a “satyagrahi”, not violent protestor, an image dominant in Mahatma Gandhi’s thoughts, later picked up many Indian Christians and Martin Luther King, Jr.
c. Jesus as a “mystic” – one who was filled with “God Consciousness. A good non-Christian (?) book on this is Deepak Chopra’s The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore, New York: Harmony Books, 2008.
The traditional titles Christians give for Jesus also will provide us some clue to discover the Christian image of Jesus. Some of them are:
a. The Saviour.
b. The Christ or the Messiah.
c. The Word – Logos.
d. The Son of God.
e. The Son of Man.
f. Lord.
g. God.
You may note:
a. Thomas, a disciple of Jesus called Jesus: “My Lord, my God” (John 20:28).
b. Peter, the chief of the disciples of Jesus, called him: “… the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:17).
c. Paul, one of the chief spokes person for the early church, about Jesus said: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created …” (Colossians 1:15ff).
b. Peter, the chief of the disciples of Jesus, called him: “… the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:17).
c. Paul, one of the chief spokes person for the early church, about Jesus said: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created …” (Colossians 1:15ff).
Question to explore:
List five traditional titles of Jesus prevalent among Christians and explain in detail the content the Christians provide for two of them.
List five traditional titles of Jesus prevalent among Christians and explain in detail the content the Christians provide for two of them.
