The Good Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

April Magazine Editorial

Groucho Marx famously remarked that he wouldn’t belong to any club that would have him! I wonder, if many people today think the same thing about being part of life of the Church? The world-wide Church at its heart is not an institution but a living vibrant body; a band of people from every walk of life trying to follow Jesus. Can we look at membership of the Church afresh and present it in a more positive light?

Of course, it’s all to easy to imagine that the historic Church is an invention of man and nothing near what Jesus would want. Philip Pullman in his controversial new book, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, resells this old chestnut. In the author’s view Saint Paul is the ultimate spin doctor who has recreated Christianity and made it into something it was not meant to be. The same kind of slant on the Church is painted by Dan Brown in The DaVinci Code but with Emperor Constantine as the one who invents Christianity rather than Paul. Neither Pullman or Brown are practising Christians or theologians, rather they are in the business of telling stories and selling books.

The alternate view to these contentious authors is to see the Church as Christ’s body. This does not mean that Church people have not got things wrong in the past or have done terrible things in the name of religion. But, it does mean that at the centre of Jesus’ work, here and now, is this spiritual family. So, even if clergy and laity make a hash of it, the Lord somehow will make good of bad. We, fallible human beings, are the only material that He has. Maybe the Church has many centuries to go before it reaches its perfection? Could it be that we are in the infancy of the Church?

Sometimes being part of a church can be testing but it can also be tremendously rewarding, welcoming and spiritually, intellectually and emotionally nourishing. There can be politics and squabbles in our churches which can drive us to distraction. But, just as ‘no man is an island’, surely no Christian can be truly fed without some participation in the life of Christ’s Body? Maybe this Easter we all need to give the Church a second look, and think afresh about how we can be part of it?