Christianity: The Real and the Official

Christianity comes in two different packages, official and real. Official Christianity is doing pretty well, with a head count that is almost twice that of its nearest competitor, Islam, and more than five times greater than Buddhism.

But then there is the question of what the essential content of Christianity is and whether its nearly 2 billion adherents truly subscribe to this content. The content of Christianity is, of course, to be found in the teachings of Jesus as laid out in the New Testament. Although these teachings, also called the Gospel, may be summed up in different ways, they are extremely clear: the Kingdom of God belongs to those who feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, and comfort the afflicted. This is because “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God and God in them.” How have these teachings advanced throughout the world? Here the results are much more spotty.

I think it is undeniable that the world is a more just and merciful place because of the teachings of Jesus: so many of the at least semi-successful movements of modern times (such as the anti-slavery movement, the labor movement, the anti-war movement, the many movements for civil and human rights) have made explicit reference to these teachings as part of their justification. But many Christians seem ignorant of or uninterested in these developments. Many Christians, especially higher clergy, seem principally concerned with the strength of Christianity as an institution--something Jesus showed no interest in--but exhibit little concern for the success of the Gospel of peace and love.

Although the Gospel was originally nourished and protected by the church, the church through the course of its history has often failed the Gospel. The centuries-long history of Christian anti-Semitism is the Christian church’s single greatest failure; the anti-Muslim crusades make a close second. Institutional fear of the new, resulting in persecutions of scientists like Galileo and Teilhard de Chardin and sincere reformers like Jan Hus and William Tyndale, are a third.

Despite all this, the church has generally acted throughout Western history as the most consistent protector of the arts and of the intellectual life--to such an extent that much of our culture (our universities, our libraries, our music and art) would have been impossible without the patronage of the church. The values preached by Jesus continue to challenge everyone--both inside and outside the church--and continue to strengthen considerably the many movements for social justice and human rights. The gentler, more humane aspects of the Western world would never have come to be without the Gospel, protected, however badly, however ignorantly, by the church.

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No one can predict the future; we don’t even know what’s going to happen in the next minute, let alone the next century. But religion, whether Christian or other, seems to be sorting itself out into two poles: the lovers and the haters. The lovers are those who see in religion a force for making a more humane world, based on principles of justice and mercy. The haters are those who use religion as a club against others. I feel much more in common with the courageous Buddhist laywoman Aung San Suu Kyi, who is trying to establish civil rights in Burma, or with the Muslim economist, Mohammed Yunas, who has opened lending banks for the poor of Bangladesh, than I do with Christian haters like the butchers of Serbia and Rwanda or trivial-minded bishops and self-styled evangelists who are more interested in condemning books, movies, art exhibits, and other human beings than they are in advancing love and peace.

We need an international, inter-religious movement to unite the lovers in their common purpose and leave the haters, locked in their petty sectarian prejudices, to go down to defeat.

In the early 19 century, Alexis de Tocqueville called the United States “a big church.” Nearly two centuries later, it still fits that description. There is no other Western country that takes religion so seriously. This, combined with our experience of democracy, could give Americans an essential role in fostering an effective international, inter-religious movement, so necessary to peace and harmony in the future.

One way of determining what progress genuine Christianity has made in the course of its first 2,000 years is to ask ourselves the question: What would happen if Jesus were to appear once more in our world? If Jesus were to return, he would find a situation not so very different from the one he faced--willing if dim-witted disciples, some on fire with the zeal for justice, many very sleepy--and religious and sociopolitical establishments that would find him outrageous, because he would be, as before, so effective.

Would we end up crucifying him again?

Thomas Cahill is the author of “The Hinges of History,” a projected seven-volume series, of which the first three volumes (“How the Irish Saved Civilization,” “The Gifts of the Jews,” and “Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus”) are already published.