The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr
***Originally read/reviewed on January 5, 2020***
(Format for this read: Paperback)
It actually took me a couple months to make it all the way thru this book.
Whew.
Lots to unpack and lots of deep theological critical thinking.
Here is the official summary:
“In his decades as a globally recognized teacher, Richard Rohr has helped millions realize what is at stake in matters of faith and spirituality. Yet Rohr has never written on the most perennially talked about topic in Christianity: Jesus. Most know who Jesus was, but who was Christ? Is the word simply Jesus’s last name? Too often, Rohr writes, our understandings have been limited by culture, religious debate, and the human tendency to put ourselves at the center.
Drawing on scripture, history, and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. “God loves things by becoming them,” he writes, and Jesus’s life was meant to declare that humanity has never been separate from God—except by its own negative choice. When we recover this fundamental truth, faith becomes less about proving Jesus was God, and more about learning to recognize the Creator’s presence all around us, and in everyone we meet.
Thought-provoking, practical, and full of deep hope and vision, The Universal Christ is a landmark book from one of our most beloved spiritual writers, and an invitation to contemplate how God liberates and loves all that is.”
I admit that sometimes Richard Rohr goes WAY over my head….I’ve listened to interviews with him and read articles and blog posts by him…and sometimes I hear him talk in these deep universal metaphors and I’m like….
“Ummmm…whaaat?!?”
He gets kinda out there for my brain…
And I have no idea what he is talking about 🤣
But THEN…. he will say something SO profound and so illuminating and I’m like “YESSSS!”
And that something makes complete and perfect sense.
Both of those things happened over and over in this book for me.
Rohr calls himself a Christian mystic…which I realized I was completely wrongly informed on what that actually is.
A mystic believes in experiential knowing instead of just textbook or dogmatic knowing…seeing things in their wholeness and universal connection….knowing God, experiencing God and seeing His DNA in every living thing in the universe.
Some of the things my head and heart really marinated on were:
– how deeply connected everything in creation truly is
-how Jesus came to show us how to LIVE not just die,
-ancient religious history as well as Eastern/Western varied orthodoxy.
I took furious notes, as I usually do when reading a book for growth, and repeatedly got out my Bible to read Scripture with a fresh perspective and new insight.
There are pages and pages of resources in the bibliography from many diverse sources…I plan to dig into a few of them.
(Although I did chuckle that he used some of his own books 🤣)
I’m still processing and thinking about this book…and I am going to go thru my notes a few times to revisit key thoughts I wrote down…but I think as a whole I liked it.
Even the parts that had me like “huh?”
I’ve been on what I call a “spiritual pilgrimage” the past few years which has involved deconstructing and reconstructing everything I know (or THOUGHT I knew) about my Christian Faith.
Part of this journey is listening to various perspectives and voices on how others believe and live out this Christ following path.
It’s not an easy road and many things have flipped upside down for me…but it’s been painfully wonderful.
I’ve learned to use my critical thinking skills alongside my emotions…..using my heart and my head in correlation…in my faith expression.
I have been reminded that our faith should never be static..that we should always be growing and learning and listening…and Gods voice speaks in so so many various ways.