We have just completed our summer series on Voidness and all things Void. The methodology employed has been a systematic one incorporating Doctrinal, Hermeneutical, Exegetical, Spiritual, Experiential and Transcendental disciplines. You’d be hard-pressed to find any other comprehensive approach to the subject matter anywhere else on the internet. Our most recent segment, The Experience of No-self (and related sequential blogs), conjoined the experiential and transcendental components in the life of one prominent Contemplative-Sojourner, Bernadette Roberts and her coming face to face in a series of life-transcending events with the very essence of the Void-Factor. Her subsequent volumes, What is Self, The Path to No-Self, further extrapolate the meaning of her No-Self experiences. Her essential contribution to the field of Contemplative-Spirituality places her alongside spiritual giants like John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila—actually eclipsing them on several points. She has also written a book on Christology, The Real Christ, which nicely compliments our series on a Docetic Assessment. Her approach is keenly aware of the pitfalls of relying too heavily on an anthropocentric approach to Christhood and the Divine…
The reason for this writing, then, is my perception that the real Christ has been all but lost to Christianity. This book permits no anthropomorphic view of God (the Trinity) or Christ. Reference to the man Jesus is always to a particular human being and never to God. “Jesus” is the particular man of the Gospels, the historical person no longer with us. With his resurrection and ascension his human nature was totally transformed and glorified, thus he is no longer the historical figure of the past, but remains the example or icon of everyman’s journey and eternal oneness with God. We must never, then, mix our terms – the Logos is solely God, Jesus was solely a distinct human person, and Christ, the eternal oneness of God and Man.
That Christianity has been degraded to the worship of a human being not only robs it of its profound Truth and meaning, it is contrary to monotheism and totally incapable of promoting any true spiritual life with God. When the focus is solely on the human Jesus, people are kept from developing any true understanding of Christ, kept on the surface little better than the naive level of a five year old.
The Logos’ (God’s) own earthly human nature, was transformed beyond itself, beyond everything we now think is human nature, beyond what could even continue to live in this world. And how this transformation went for the man Jesus is exactly how it will go for everyone. No question, having a right understanding of Christ makes a huge difference in how one understands his spiritual journey and eternal life with and in God.
…we must be careful not to anthropomorphize the essence of God’s “triune modes of Existence” (the Trinity) as three beings or three entities – three gods, in other words. Also, because God transcends all gender, we have to be careful not to get caught up in the metaphors used for the Trinity as “Father and Son”. Since God is neither mother, father, son or daughter, these metaphors must not be taken literally or understood as God ad intra (God-in-Itself.) To avoid this pitfall, this book refers to God’s Triune essence as “Transcendent-Logos-Spirit.”
This vast opus (572 pages) should be required reading not only in Christian circles, but also in inter-religious ones as well.
Thus ends our Summer of the Void. May you continue to enrich your own Life in Spirit.