Ten years ago Teacher,Guide, Companion: rediscovering Jesus ina secular age came out. It was my
first book, and my first collaboration with the good folks at Skinner House
Books. It seems like a wonderful
opportunity to look back at what I thought then and what I'd say now if I were
to write it again. There is a marvelous
story about Ralph Waldo Emerson. In his
later life he was sometimes was asked to give readings of one or another of his
earlier essays. It is said that as he
did so he would occasionally look up and say, "I no longer believe
this." He would then return to his
reading. As I prepared to reconsider Teacher, Guide, Companion I was hoping I wouldn’t have to say
"I no longer believe this" too often.
The good news is – I didn’t.
Thanks in very large part to Ms. Mary Benard, Senior Editor at Skinner
House, it’s a very readable book. The
prose is clean, and the ideas flow smoothly.
The structure I used for this "rediscovery" came from a
passage in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus is
remembered as asking his disciples, "Who do the people say that I
am?" After his friends answer with
what they’ve heard people say, he asks the more pointed question, "But who
do you say that I am?"
Teacher, Guide,
Companion follows the same general pattern – beginning with what others
have said about Jesus, then sharing my own perspective, and then offering
suggestions for the reader’s own explorations.
I don’t think I’d change that. One of the good things about the book is that
it is so readable – I was able to re-read it over the course of one
evening. That does, however, mean that
there is a lot that could have been
included that wasn’t. And that’s one of
the things that I might change were I to write it again – or create an expanded
edition.
The section on the historical Jesus could easily be
expanded. Details could be added to the
section looking at what we learn from the study of pre-industrial agrarian societies
in general, and the Judeo-Roman world at the time of Jesus in particular. This work is mentioned, yet there could be
more details about what has been learned.
Similarly, there is only a passing reference to the existence of – and questions
about – a handful of references to Jesus outside of the New Testament, and
there has been done some wonderful work attempting to reconstruct the earliest
Christian communities. Both of these
would be worth including. And the discoveries
of Biblical archaeology wasn’t mentioned at all!
So, too, could the chapter on the images of Jesus conveyed
in the five Gospels could also stand some expansion. There are details in the Gospel stories that,
if included, would have more fully illuminated each of the author’s depictions
and would have helped create even greater contrast among them. And while it was an intentional choice to
limit consideration to Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, and Thomas, it would be
interesting to take a look at what messages the authors of the other Gospels we
have discovered – the so-called apocryphal gospels – had intended to convey.
Missing entirely is any consideration of how Jesus has been
viewed (and experienced) throughout history.
This could involve looking at historic figures – Saint Francis of
Assisi, say, or Mohandas Ghandi – and examining the way(s) they related to
Jesus. Or it could consider the ways
Jesus has been seen in different times and different places. Many books have been written about the ways
Jesus has been depicted in art – both visual and literary – and a work like
Edward Blum’s The Color of Christ: The
Son of God and the Saga of Race in America looks not just at how Jesus has
been depicted but how that depiction can have very real-world
consequences. (James Cone’s The Cross and the Lynching Tree is
similarly eye opening.) The insights of
Liberationist and Feminist Christian traditions is missing as well.
Several scholar/theologians were introduced in the chapter
about the historical Jesus – Marcus Borg, Stephen J. Patterson, John Dominic Crossan, John Spong – yet each
has, by now, written about their own personal encounter/experience with Jesus,
and these are just as important as their more academic works. And when I wrote Teacher, Guide, Companion I had not yet discovered the works of
Brian McLaren, Richard Rohr, or Ilia Delio, to name just a few.
The chapter on my own personal perspectives could be
expanded to include more about how experiences and view have been influenced by
my particular situation as someone who was raised Presbyterian and Methodist,
studied and practiced Zen Buddhism for nearly two decades, and now is an
ordained Unitarian Universalist minister.
More of my wrestling with what this exploration and rediscovery means to
me – which, I will confess, has
continued fairly unabated since writing the book – might also be worth
including.
And then there’s the section on how the reader might conduct
her or his own exploration more fruitfully.
I could imagine including what for want of a better word I’ll call “testimonials”
– brief stories from readers about how their searching has unfolded. These could provide not only more details
about the various imaginative techniques that are described but also offer some
encouragement and inspiration to readers.
I have to say – I have heard some truly wonderful things
over the past decade from people who’ve read this book. I am grateful to each and every person who
has written to me to share what Teacher,
Guide, Companion has meant to them, as well as to all the clergy and laity
who have seen fit to offer workshops and book study opportunities in their
congregations. If you have questions or
comments you would like to share, or suggestions for ways to continue and
expand on the conversation this book started, please don’t hesitate to be in
touch.
Pax tecum,
RevWik
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2 comments:
I read it not long after it came out. I had been reading Spong and started reading Borg not long before I read your book. I found it so clear and a great companion for the books I had been reading. I was especially blessed to attend the UU Christian Fellowship Revival in Worcester, Mass where you gave a talk about it. I could never have imagined you'd end up the Senior Minister at TJMC not long after we moved away but was so excited for the church. You are a "good match." Hope to have a chance to get together some time. Lots to talk about.
I, too, read your book not long after it was published, enjoyed it, and was glad that a UU was writing a book about Jesus. I had been reading Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, Robert W. Funk, John Shelby Spong, N.T. Wright, Juan Luis Segundo, etc. I had started with Marcello Cravari's "Life of Jesus," (Paperback in English, 1967)and Geza Vermes "Jesus the Jew," (1973). At the time your book came out I thought it was good, and wanted a little more. If you did an expanded edition, I would appreciate that.
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