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Jesus & Creativity

Author:	Gordon D Kaufman
Published By:	Fortress Press (Minneapolis)
Pages:	142
Price:	£12.99
ISBN:	978 0 8006 9634 4

Reviewed by Philip Joy.

The first thing to say about this book is that it is Liberal Radical Theology: Christianity ‘freed’ from the mythological or the supernatural, yet presented as still bearing a vital message. Read on only if you are broad-minded enough to hear God speaking through someone who redefines almost every concept you hold dear! Kaufman offers this volume as the natural successor to his book, In the Beginning, Creativity (2004). That volume conceives of God, not as a supernatural anthropomorphic/anthropocentric creator, but as creativity itself. Thus Jesus and Creativity is the logical outworking of the 2004 publication.

The first chapter, ‘The Jesus Trajectory’, suggests an alternative to the traditional narrative of a divine Christ. Removing the supernatural elements of the story brings the ethical requirements of our faith into sharper focus. To follow the ‘Jesus Trajectory’ is to live afresh the life of a man whose immense creativity emphasized the “creation and sustenance of communities of love and freedom, reconciliation and peace.” The second chapter, ‘The Jesus Norm’, develops the theological implications of such a trajectory. To say that Jesus revealed a God who is Love is not to posit a divine being, but to re-describe god as an activity: love itself. Worship is but a response to the creativity we see in Christ: awe and gratitude at the wonder of the universe which brought forth humanity and Christ, penitence and amendment of life at our own spoiling of the world and its people, and a living out of the creative loving that Jesus presented as the norm for life. Needless to say there is no point in supplication!

In ‘Humans as bio-historical beings’, Kaufman offers a theological-scientific anthropology in keeping with this thinking. Contemporary astro-physics and evolutionary theory help us to see humans as products of an amazing, serendipitous line of creativity that spans from the ‘big bang’ to the appearance of life on earth and the emergence of homo sapiens. But we have evolved to the point where we have taken control of our destiny - by no means always to the benefit of ourselves or our planet. In this regard it is not simply enough to possess agency, but to exercise responsible creativity - action for good in the social, political and ecological spheres. Following the Jesus Trajectory can thus have a powerful transformative effect.

All this is, of course, Kaufman’s gospel - his good news - which forms the final chapter. Not that there is any conversion to undergo, sins to be forgiven or other world for which to be saved: rather it is on this earth that ‘abundant life’ may be forged. I suppose Kaufman is advocating a kind of global Social Gospel for the 21st Century. The creativity of the social/radical Jesus provides the inspiration towards precisely the healing, redemption and reconciliation that our world needs today if only Christians can lay aside their outmoded beliefs. What relevance then can this book have for those of us whose experience of Christ and his love means we shall never give up those beliefs? Not much perhaps, unless it be this: Kaufman is in deadly earnest about the mess our world is in, and no-one with a smattering of 20th century history or knowledge of global green issues can disagree, or argue that Christians have made any profound impact in restraining that mess. Yet Kaufman wants to point to a possibility that we CAN be agents for change. As far as it goes, this is true, and the sooner we grasp the radical social and especially ecological dimension of the Gospel the sooner I think we would be respected by the non-christian world, and the more likely our message of a personal, loving, Creator/Redeemer God will be heard and accepted. But I wouldn’t bother actually buying this book!