Library Loot ~ January 25

The Jesus Sutras: Rediscovering the Lost Scrolls of Taoist Christianity ~ by Martin Palmer, 2001, religion

In 1907, explorers discovered a vast treasure trove of ancient scrolls, silk paintings, and artifacts dating from the 5th to 11th centuries A.D. in a long-sealed cave in a remote region of China.  Among them, written in Chinese, were scrolls that recounted a history of Jesus' life and teachings in beautiful Taoist concepts and imagery that were unknown in the West.  These writings told a story of Christianity that was by turns unique and disturbing, hopeful and uplifting.  The best way to describe them is collectively, with a term they themselves use:  The Jesus Sutras.

The origins of Christianity seem rooted in Western civilization, but amazingly, an ancient, largely unknown branch of Christian belief evolved in the East.  Eminent theologian and Chinese scholar Martin Palmer provides the first popular history and translation of the sect's long-lost scriptures — all of them more than a thousand years old and comparable in significance to the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Gathered, deciphered, and interpreted by a team of expert linguists and scholars, these sacred texts present an inspiring use of Jesus' teachings and life within Eastern practices and meditations — and provide an extraordinary window into an intriguing, profoundly gentler, more spiritual Christianity than existed in Europe or Asia at the time, or, indeed, even today.

Palmer has devoted more than a decade to seeking the extant writings and other evidence of this lost religion.  His determined search eventually led him to rediscover one of the earliest Christian monasteries.  At the site was an  8th century pagoda still intact.  Within it Palmer and his team found more evidence, including statues, underground passageways, and artifacts, that helped them uncover and re-create the era and rituals of the Taoist Christians.

The Taoist Christians, who wrote the Jesus Sutras recognized equality of the sexes, preached against slavery, and practiced nonviolence toward all forms of life.  In particular, this tradition offered its followers a more hopeful vision of life on earth and after death than the dominant Eastern religions, teaching that Jesus had broken the wheel of karma and its consequent punishing, endless reincarnations.

Vividly re-creating the turbulence of a distant age that is remarkably evocative of our own times, Palmer reveals an extraordinary evolution of spiritual thought that spans centuries.  A thrilling modern quest that is also an ancient religious odyssey, The Jesus Sutras shares a revolutionary discovery with profound historical implications — imparting timeless messages and lessons for men and women of all backgrounds and faiths.

That long description is from the dust jacket, and I also like this quote from Thich Nhat Hanh on the front cover:

"The Jesus Sutras tells a valuable history of the beautiful teachings of a faith built on living practices of brotherhood and peace.  The Sutras show us the interbeing nature of Jesus, Buddha, Tao, people, cultures, transformation, salvation, and unity through deep and mindful living."

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Linda @ Silly Little Mischief that encourages us to share the names of books we checked out of the library, but Claire hasn't posted a Mr. Linky this week.

Fullness of life

The Living God and the Fullness of Life ~ by Jürgen Moltmann, 2015

Modern humanity has accepted a truncated, impoverished definition of life.  Focusing solely on material realities, we have forgotten that joy, purpose, and meaning come from a life that is both immersed in the temporal and alive to the transcendent.  We have, in other words, ceased to live in God.  Moltmann shows us what that life of joy and purpose looks like.  Describing how we came to live in a world devoid of the ultimate, he charts a way back to an intimate connection with the biblical God.  He counsels that we adopt a "theology of life," an orientation that sees God at work in both the mundane and the extraordinary and that pushes us to work for a world that fully reflects the life of its Creator.  Moltmann offers a telling critique of the shallow values of consumerist society and provides a compelling rationale for why spiritual sensibilities and encounter with God must lie at the heart of any life that seeks to be authentically human.

I'm slowly getting back into the study of theology.  So far I've only managed to read the Preface (3 pages) and the Introduction (20 pages) of this book, but it's a start.  This book contributes to the theology of life that Moltmann began with

The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation, 1992
and
The Source of Life: The Holy Spirit and the Theology of Life, 1997

At such a time as this ~ HOPE

Two things give me HOPE today:

1.  My friend Scott Sheperd, who lives here in St. Louis, wrote a piece of music called The Power of Hope (21 videos on YouTube) about a metaphorical family of humanity moving through a "day" filled with situations that appear hopeless and refusing to be beaten by them.  They rediscover hope and the power it has to help them face anything, and they tap into the strength of love and of people supporting each other.  I plan to spend part of today watching these videos.  Here's one called Before the Day that I picked randomly.  Scott posted on Facebook today:

"Eventually I want to get it choreographed and danced to locally.  I did have a variation of it performed in Kampala, Uganda.  It is about a metaphorical family getting through a day where it swings from a feeling of hopelessness to a sense of hope and back and forth.  It eventually celebrates all of us who have overcome that feeling of hopelessness and moved forward."

2.  The Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe wrote a prayer for this day that I, too, can pray.  She prays for these and more:

• For the good of earth and all of creation...
• For the poor and the oppressed, for the unemployed, and the destitute, for prisoners and captives, and for all who remember and care for them...
• For those who faithfully advocate for justice and peace...
• That we may live our lives in faith and hope, without suffering and without reproach...

My thanks to both of these people for the HOPE they have shared today.

Study notes

The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God ~ by Jürgen Moltmann, 1981

This book provides the long-needed grounding for both liberation and process theologies and a view of both God and the church that emphasizes community based on freedom rather than authority.  People arrive at their own truth in their free and loving inclination towards one another, so Moltmann is inviting us to a "social" understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity.

We used this book in Walt Lowe's class at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in the spring of 1986.  I have notes in the margins and underlined passages through about half the book, which means I never finished reading the whole thing.  Obviously, I don't remember specifics from a class I took 31 years ago, but I learned enough about Moltmann's thinking that I later chose him as the theologian to emulate in my preaching class.  Here are some of the things I underlined:

"The world of growing interdependencies can no longer be understood in terms of 'my private world'." (p. 19).

"In this chapter we are trying to develop a doctrine of theopathy" (p. 25).  Theopathy = religious emotion excited by the contemplation of God.

"The living God is the loving God" (p. 38).

"Awareness means knowing-with, feeling-with and suffering-with.  It is only through pain that living things arrive at awareness of one another and of themselves" (p. 39).

"Misery is the lot of anyone who sins against God.  This misery is already inhyerent in the sin itself.  That is why the sinner is not really a wrongdoer who has to be punished in addition.  He is someone pitiable, and we must have compassion on him" (p. 50).

"True freedom is not 'the torment of choice,' with its doubts and threats; it is simple, undivided joy in the good" (p. 55).

"The triune God reveals himself as love in the fellowship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  His freedom therefore lies in the friendship which he offers men and women, and through which he makes them his friends.  His freedom is his vulnerable love, his openness..." (p. 56).

"If God is love he is at once the lover, the beloved and the love itself" (p. 57).

"His [Jesus's] kingdom is the kingdom of 'compassion'" (p. 70).

"God is silent.  This is the experience of hell and judgment" (p. 77).

"Finally, it is important to notice that it is only here on the cross that, for the first and only time in his life, the Son addresses God, not as Father but as God (Hebrew Eloheni, Aramaic Eloi)" (p. 80).

Just thinking myself back into Moltmann's way of thinking.