Introduction

      What’s Christian about this book?

      Though we write this book for people of all faiths and none, we write this book as Christians and yet, as you read, you may sometimes wonder where the Christianity is. Where is Jesus? Where is God?

      For us there is a healing spirit at work in the universe and in the world that was revealed uniquely, but not exclusively, in the healing ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This healing spirit is God. We want to live our lives in service to the healing spirit as revealed in Jesus. We want to share in his journey, his experience, and his faith, and thus to be channels of love. We align ourselves with, and are grateful for, communities of people who seek the same, otherwise called the church. Yes, we write as Christians.

Jesus

      Like all Christians we are moved by three aspects of Jesus’ life: his healing ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. From his healing ministry we see the healing spirit at work in the lives of individuals who were transformed in mind, body, and spirit and also in communities that were transformed. His aim was to encourage and empower communities of people who would care for one another and live their lives guided by love. These communities embody what he called the basilea tou theou: a state of affairs when the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven. From his death and the fact that he responded to being killed, not by hatred but by forgiveness and understanding, we realize that there is a side of God that is empathic and vulnerable; a side which receives and absorbs the sins and sufferings of the world in a non-retaliatory and loving way, refusing to hate even enemies. In his death as well as in his life, he shows us a God who is, in the words of the philosopher Whitehead, a “fellow sufferer who understands.” And from his resurrection we see that the healing spirit is at work in the world through the provision of new and hopeful possibilities for life, even amid the most devastating of circumstances. We see that God is a source of comfort and new life - in this life and in whatever continuing journey there may be after death. Inspired by these and so many other dimensions of Jesus’ life and teachings, we want to walk in his footsteps and share in his faith. This book, then, has these kinds of commitments at its core.

God

      You may also sense some “process theology” in what we say; we are indeed process theologians who understand God in terms of ten key ideas. We can state them plainly here:

      To these ten we can add two more.

      These ideas concerning God are important to us, including the last one. We think that the future is open, that it can unfold in ways profoundly disastrous for the world God so loves, and that it can unfold in ways that are life-enhancing. We believe that God’s hope is that we choose life. And we believe that choice requires fresh thinking: imaginative, analytical, political, economic, poetic. You’ll find elements of all in this book.