Is Jesus God? Finding Our Faith
by Michael Morwood
Crossroad Publishing, 141 pages

Is Jesus God? is the provocative title of a very readable book being studied by the Wednesday night House Group (Paetkau residence).  The author, Michael Morwood, is an engaging Australian former Roman Catholic priest who specializes in adult faith formation. 

Our current knowledge of how the universe developed and how the earth was formed are impacting us now to the extent that traditional Christian theology, with its stories of creation, the fall and the need for redemption, no longer suffice as an explanation of our relationship with God and the role of Jesus in that relationship. With our understanding of the new cosmology comes the realization, says Morwood, “that God’s creative spirit has always been present and active at all times and in all places in this vast universe. . .”

Yet, it remains true that a certain people at a certain point in history experienced, in a man named Jesus, a perfect expression of a God. It was a presence so intense that their challenge is still our challenge: how to make the “experience of God revealed in Jesus more relevant to our world today.”

Morwood suggests that the reader explore the idea that “the “good news” would be universally “better news” if it were linked to Jesus preaching about the “reign of God” in our midst and the experience of the sacred in decent everyday human actions. “It is the message of Jesus, not his death, which sets us free.”

Our House Group likes using this book for several reasons.  It is written in a non-academic style, making it most accessible. It is not a dissertation that supplies us with all the answers; rather it engages us by exploring fundamentals, confronting important issues and raising questions and reflections on ideas that may be new or disturbing. We like the set up of the book. Each of the ten chapters ends with a series of questions for points of discussion and this naturally helps us with our round table conversation.

Here are some of the questions that Morwood has posed and which we have pondered:

 What images and thoughts about heaven and hell did you acquire as a young person?  What are your images and thoughts now? Were you ever a literalist in reading Scripture?  Has that changed?  Is the physicality of Jesus resurrection an important issue for us? Might not the resurrection be better understood as an entering into the mystery of life beyond human existence that belongs to all who die with an orientation to love in their hearts?

Morwood explores the impact that our advanced understanding of cosmology has on the traditional tenets of the Christian faith and how, within that new frame of reference, Jesus becomes not less but more relevant.

Morwood lays down this challenge. If the Christian Church wants to keep on teaching that Jesus is true God and true man and in this sense, “God in a way we are not,” then the church must demonstrate this without reference to a worldview which relies on dualistic thinking (i.e. an outdated fourth century view) and a literal understanding of the Genesis story of creation and Adam’s fall. 

We also have Morwood’s 7 1/2 hour DVD presentation We highly recommend his thought provoking works. There are copies of the book available in the library. The DVD may be borrowed from David Moul.

Buy this book on Amazon.ca