Prof. John Stackhouse’s Weblog: Define your terms–such as, say, “Jesus”
Last night I enjoyed speaking on the question, “Who Is Jesus?” to a full lecture hall at the University of British Columbia (UBC), with which my school, Regent College, is affiliated.
UBC has some of the highest entrance standards in Canada and is well regarded as a top-grade university. There are no dumb students there. These are among the best and brightest.
Before my talk, however, the sponsoring group (University Campus Ministries) ran a short video comprised of clips of interviews they had conducted recently with students at UBC on the question of the night: “Who is Jesus?” …
……
When I talk about Jesus in public nowadays, then, I assume no knowledge about Jesus on behalf of my audience other than that they connect him with Christianity, that he was male, that he died a long time ago, and that he is a religious figure of some importance. Poll data in both the U.S. and Canada bear this out: Lots of people say that they admire Jesus and a majority will even say he is the “Son of God,” but they clearly have no Bible-based idea of what they’re talking about.
Indeed, I suspect that most North Americans’ Jesus is simply the projection of their highest spiritual ideals. They have made him into the nicest, noblest version of themselves.
And if they don’t have particularly high or compelling spiritual ideals, then their view of Jesus is correspondingly vague and vapid.
Leave a Reply to will spottsCancel reply