The Religion OF Jesus - not ABOUT Jesus: Toward the theology OF Jesus
By setting itself apart from the worldwide traditions of mystical religion, Christianity appears, not as unique, but as an anomalous oddity with imperious claims. Thus the religion OF Jesus became the religion ABOUT Jesus, lost its essence and appeared more and more ridiculously aggressive as the context of world religion came into view.
Inspiring and worshipful as the character of Jesus may be, it was not what inspired Jesus himself, for he was what he was because he knew of himself that 'I and the Father are one,' and not - obviously - because he had accepted Jesus as his Savior. But from the beginning, institutional Christianity has hardly contemplated the possibility that the consciousness of Jesus might be the consciousness of the Christian, that the whole point of the Gospel is that everyone may experience union with God in the same way and to the same degree as Jesus himself. On the contrary, one who says, with Eckhart, that 'the eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me' is condemned as a heretic.
In the context of monarchical monotheism to say, 'I am God,' doesn't seem to carry the implication, 'and so are you,' because it has the same ring as saying, 'I'm the boss around here.' Within this context the mystic is always in danger of that spiritual megalomania which Jung called 'psychic inflation' in which one takes one's ego for God instead of God for one's ego - and Christianity has maneuvered Jesus into just that position.
Can Christianity abandon the monarchical image of God and still be Christianity? Why should this be of concern? For which is more important - to be a Christian or to be at one with God? Must religion be Christian, Islamic, or Hindu, or could it simply be religion? Certainly there must be the same variety of style in religion as there is culture, but the concern to preserve, validate and propagate Christianity as such is a disastrous confusion of religious style with religion. Indeed, this sectarian fanaticism (shared alike by Judaism and Islam)is all of a piece with the monarchical image and its necessary imperialism."
Is there any difference between the monarchical autocratic God of religious authoritarians and the God of mystical experience referred to repeatedly by Jesus?
Do most modern Christians worship Jesus' God of compassion and mystery or do they work out
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