Rohr’s attempts to downplay Jesus and extol a false version of “the Christ” notwithstanding, the Incarnation was a one-of-a-kind and once-for-all event. An infinite God cannot become anything finite. Even in the Incarnation, Jesus’ divine and human natures remain distinct and do not blend. As the Council of Chalcedon (451) stated, Christ is “truly God and truly man,” one divine person “in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union.” 20 Sold out with 2,200 people registered to attend, the conference, which began Thursday(March 28), is the center's largest-ever event.

Rohr writes that Christians can “take the leap of faith” 19 that “God’s presence” was “poured into a single human being”; but then he adds, “so that humanity and divinity can be seen to be operating as one in him — and therefore in us!” (14). While Christians are brought into union with Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit, this is not an incarnation, since they have been redeemed through Christ’s work of incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Moreover, Jesus is God’s “one and only son” (John 3:16), and we are not.To return to the story with which we began: only Michael Gungor knows his own heart—or perhaps only God does (Jer. 17:9–10)—and it’s impossible to know what cause-and-effect relationship there may have been between Gungor’s exposure to Rohr’s teachings and Gungor’s loss of Christian faith. But one wonders whether Rohr’s work offers readers a spiritual and theological bridge toward something post-Christian, interreligious, or naturalistic. This may especially be true if our damage to our planet home continues to lead to the dramatic changes for humanity that have been widely predicted. Drawing on scripture, history and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. ‘God loves things by becoming them,' he writes, and Jesus’ life was meant to declare that humanity has never been separate from God – except by its own negative choice. When we recover this fundamental truth, faith becomes less about proving Jesus was God, and more about learning to recognize the Creator’s presence all around us and in everyone we meet. When I know that the world around me is both the hiding place and the revelation of God, I can no longer make a significant distinction between the natural and the supernatural, between the holy and the profane." There is something somnolent in Rohr’s sunlit satisfaction that everyone’s fine and everything’s okay. No one with real problems in life—a violent gang infesting one’s street, an alcohol or drug addiction, a family member who committed suicide—will find much encouragement in learning that “Christ is another name for everything.” Those crushed by life might respond to Rohr’s Panglossian optimism with outrage. Despite Rohr’s talk in The Universal Christ about overcoming social privilege, this is a book likely to be read by the comfortable and privileged few. It’s not a book that someone in a homeless shelter is going to read or appreciate. To quote Dorothy Parker, “This is not a book to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown aside with great force.” Real Christian Spirituality

Grace had already been granted to us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, and now it has been revealed to us in the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus. —2 Timothy 1:9-10 I cannot help but think that future generations will label the first two thousand years of Christianity “early Christianity.” They will, I believe, draw out more and more of the massive implications of this understanding of a Cosmic Christ. They will have long discarded the notion of Christian salvation as a private evacuation plan that gets a select few humans into the next world. The current world has been largely taken for granted or ignored, unless it could be exploited for our individual benefit. Why would people with such a belief ever feel at home in heaven? They didn’t even practice for it! Nor did they learn how to feel at home on earth."A prolific author with more than 30 books in print, Rohr says "The Universal Christ" is the culmination of everything else he has written and taught and preached in a lifetime of ministry and contemplative practice. It is his magnum opus, if you will. References:
[1] Visit universalchrist.org to learn much, much more about the Universal Christ. Or read my book, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe (Convergent: 2019). The Christ who comes forth from the Trinity is both the Alpha and the Omega point of all history. This metaphysical and cosmic statement gives the whole universe meaning, direction, and goal! ( Wednesday)

Rohr wants you to meet this Christ who has always existed (eternal God), became incarnate in time (Jesus of Nazareth), and who is still being revealed (by the power of the Holy Spirit). This is deeply Trinitarian, to use a traditional Christian doctrinal word, but this is not a doctrinal book so much as it is a philosophical one.It seems we only give attention to that which we are told to give attention. The Franciscan alternative orthodoxy has given me the intellectual and spiritual freedom to quietly but firmly pay attention to different things. For the most part, Christianity has ignored the fact that Christ existed from all eternity, but Franciscan teaching emphasizes the significance of the universal Christ. If we don’t balance out Jesus with Christ, I think our theology is going to become a more and more limited worldview that will end up being in competition with the other world religions. Balancing Jesus with Christ gives us a vision that is so big, so universal that it includes every thing and everybody. You don’t even have to use the words Jesus or Christ to contemplate this Mystery. While he blithely says he never expected to live to the age of 76, Rohr assures a visitor that his death is not imminent. I take four horse pills every day that amount to oral chemotherapy," Rohr told Religion News Service on a chilly morning as he strolled the grounds of the CAC in late March. "That I could have two things that would normally be fatal and still be sitting here? I am nothing but grateful for the miracle of modern medicine."

Drawing on scripture, history and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. ‘God loves things by becoming them,' he writes, and Jesus’ life was meant to declare that humanity has never been separate from God – except by its own negative choice. When we recover this fundamental truth, faith becomes less about proving Jesus was God, and more about learning to recognise the Creator’s presence all around us and in everyone we meet. The Apostle Paul will speak the final word to Richard Rohr, who has turned the gospel itself upside down.

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In some ways, it is rather odd that the book carries an endorsement from Bishop Michael Curry, whose frequent description of the Church as the Jesus Movement encourages us to look at the particular example of Jesus himself and his early followers. In Rohr’s view, our sights should not be set so much on the historical Jesus but, as the title of the book indicates, on “the universal Christ” to whom he points. As Rohr cheerfully admits, “I am really a panentheist . . . exactly like both Jesus and Paul.” Being a Christian requires no “leap of faith” in the sense of fideism, as I argue throughout Christian Apologetics. Rather, we can take a step of faith based on knowledge. Rohr’s position amounts to a doctrine of self-salvation—and completely eclipses the historical reality of Jesus. Like many heretics, Rohr wants to liberate Christianity from any narrow limitations for the purpose of making it more appealing to the ungodly (2 Timothy 4:3). Not so for Paul: “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10). Rohr ends up liberating Christianity from the truth of the Bible and from the gospel itself. To counteract his counterfeit teaching, consider the real “universal Christ” and the atonement achieved by Jesus Christ.