Is Jesus God?: Finding Our Faith [Paperback]

Michael Morwood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2001

In the new millennium, the most central question is how to understand God and Jesus. This book is an invitation to Christians—and non-Christians—to challenge their inherited notions of how and why Jesus is to be thought of as divine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: The Crossroad Publishing Company (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824518918
• ISBN-13: 978-0824518912
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #265,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reveille for Dogmatic Slumberers, July 31, 2001

By 

V. Urbanowicz "Instructor" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Is Jesus God?: Finding Our Faith (Paperback)

We were having dinner at the home of Jewish friends. The other guests were a Catholic couple whom I will call George and Emily. George had lost his teaching position at a local Catholic college because of his liberal theology. Emily, a student health nurse, had been dismissed for giving information about contraception to students. I told these two that my wife and I shared their religious heritage but were now Unitarian Universalists. Emily compressed her lips, looked down, and said, "We decided to stay and fight." They are indeed scrappy people. Recently George accepted a teaching position at a Catholic high school. He did not modify his progressive opinions, the bishop learned of these, and he was fired. I suspect these two are closer to me theologically than they are to the Pope, and I wonder why they remain Catholics. But I respect that decision "to stay and fight."

Michael Morwood also stays and fights, and he is a nimble strategist. When in 1998 his book 'Tomorrow's Catholic' received unfavorable attention from the Archbishop of Melbourne, Australia, he resigned from the priesthood. He continues to find groups of Catholics and others who engage him as a teacher and lecturer.

His main concern in this book is that official doctrine and the way it is taught are driving people away from the Catholic Church. Current teaching, Morwood says, depends too much on an outmoded cosmology, on the assumption that heaven is in the sky somewhere and that the universe is a lot younger and smaller than we now know it to be. This style of teaching, and its emphasis on unquestioning faith rather than on free intellectual engagement with tradition, hinder what he calls "adult faith development." Morwood spent 29 years as a priest, many of them teaching, and in that time he noticed much "arrested faith development" in Catholic adults. Symptoms of this condition include literalism regarding Scripture and certain doctrines; uncritical loyalty to "external authority"; "unquestioning acceptance of dogma and doctrine"; adherence to childish notions of heaven, hell, and judgment; ignorance of how the Christian faith developed over the centuries and of how the Gospels were written; hostility to more sophisticated views of Christian doctrine.

A notable item in this syllabus of errors is "Claims of exclusivity: we are the only true religion." This belief, he says, reflects an inability to appreciate that "all of humankind shares the one Transcendent Spirit," a sharing that is implied by "the universality of God's presence." The claim of exclusivity certainly was Catholic doctrine as I remember it from my years in a Catholic university in the 1960s, and it is reasserted in the recent 'Dominus Iesus' declaration from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Morwood would remind me, though, that the church is not just the "teaching authority," but the entire body of believers.

And Catholics do at times pull their leaders in a different direction. An example is the reputedly weakening resistance to ordination of women. Morwood knows that some rank and file Catholics are receptive to his ideas, and he probably hopes that these will become widespread among the laity and percolate into the hierarchy.

If his hopes are realized, it will not be because they are modest. For instance, besides challenging Catholic claims of primacy among Christian churches, Morwood would also recognize prophets from nonchristian traditions. Yes, Jesus was "raised by God," but so also were Isaiah, Buddha, Zoroaster, and Confucius.

As for the redemptive sacrifice of the cross, it was never necessary: The Spirit of God, "at work in all places at all times, offered to people in all places at all times the possibility of eternal life with God. Jesus did not regain it, for it was never lost." Jesus came not to heal a rift between God and humanity, but to teach us that God has never been estranged from us; that by loving each other we do God's will; and that this is more important than professing the correct creed. The early followers of Jesus "came to understand that this man's life was like a mirror to them, revealing the ultimate purpose in life: living in love is intrinsically connected with being raised in death into eternal life with God."

In the past I've wondered if Morwood has used the notion of worldviews as a ploy to avoid charges of heresy. While he was still a priest, a bishop asked him if he believed that "Jesus was God in a way that we are not," and Morwood replied that he had "difficulty with a worldview that necessitated this belief." In this book, he answers such questions more assertively: "the onus is on those who insist on the truth of a doctrinal proposition to show, in a contemporary worldview...why Christians should keep on believing this as an article of faith." Rather than say, "I don't believe this," he says, "To keep our faith vital, you need to show me why I should believe this."

This is not a strategic evasion but the best answer. He does not see the current dogmatic and exclusivist stance of Catholicism as suitable for dialogue with other religious traditions. He has seen many adult Catholics leave their faith because of hidebound traditionalism. As an educator, he seeks not to put the stamp of his own mind on his students but rather to spur them decide for themselves what makes sense to them intellectually and what speaks to them spiritually. His subtitle, Finding Our Faith, suggests that he sees faith more as a process than as a destination, and is more interested in the process than in the statements of belief that might result from this engagement.

This book will appeal to the many who have long been growing restless over ancient teachings which have dwindling relevance and credibility. If this book, an eloquent and inspiring statement from a committed Christian, and others like it, stimulate and embolden enough of today's Catholics, their church might begin to treat people like George and Emily more justly, not to mention make better use of them.

55 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Faith Restored, May 29, 2001

By 

Catherine Berry Stidsen (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Is Jesus God?: Finding Our Faith (Paperback)

Both this book and Morwood's previous work,Tomorrow's Catholic are authentic, succinct, simple insights into the potential for Christianity, and Roman Catholicism in particular, in the modern world. Together they answer questions of inquiring Catholics and other persons of good will. The books are in- tended for those in particular who have moved or are moving beyond conventional stages of adult faith development. They know that their religious tradition/spirituality is a truth and not the truth. It is for those who need and want cosmic generating principles for their lives. Morwood give them that. The book will initially be upsetting for those who think of Jesus only in the sense of having provided a bloody sacrifice to redeem humankind from a "fall". But the invitation to live in one's own time and place with the Spirit of God even as Jesus did in is is irresistible for those who heads to learn, hands to work, and hearts to love. Morwood has done a great service for all who do not want to leave their brains at the doors of their churches, or their mosques or synagogues for that matter. He has paid and will likely continue to pay a high price for speaking the truth in love but one can only admire him for having done so and hope he will continue to do so.

40 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reconciling religion with reality, May 28, 2001

By 

John Rice (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Is Jesus God?: Finding Our Faith (Paperback)

Michael Morwood spent 29 years of his life as a Roman Catholic priest in Australia. When he wrote "Tomorrow's Church," he got the attention of the Vatican. Eventually he chose to leave the priesthood. The present book responds to the questions that arose from the former. What Morwood believes is that religion comes from a worldview that is based on the realities one perceives. When humans learn more about those realities, they find their religion unable to explain the divine story. Morwood suggests that Christian religions, notably Roman Catholic, are based on philosophical and linguistic perceptions that no longer are relevant. For instance, he rejects the notion of Original Sin. He writes that the Adam and Eve story has been shown to be a myth borrowed from other cultures. Our scientific studies have shown that life evolved. Original Sin theory is a way of explaing evil in the world. But it poses some serious problems as the kind of God who could punish all people is not the same God of later philosophers and theolgians, indeed the God the Church proclaims.

Morwood refers to a New Story, meaning the way humans see the world today. Anthropology, arhceology, psychology and other sciences have revealed knowledge long accepted. Yet the language of religion has not adapted, causing many to perceive that Christianity is irrelevant. Morwood believes that religious leaders need to explore language and rituals that speak of this New Story by reconciling the Old with it.

An example of this is to try to explore how Jesus is God. He refers to the Trinity teaching as being irrelevant today. Yet many people, evne though they do not subscribe to this teaching, believe that Jesus was something special and was God in a way we are not. The divinity of Christ needs further exploration. This means looking at things like resurrection and what it means. Does Jesus go somewhere else? If God is everywhere, how do we consider a heaven where God lives?

These and other questions Morwood explores with the hope that others will also try to explore through prayer, reading and dialogue.

This reviewer did not agree with the idea of a "New Story." There are realities known today not known hundreds of years ago. This revieweer believes the challenge is to relive the old story in this current reality. Christians shoudl explore language and rituals that reflect current realities, but integrate them into the old story. This is nothing new really. In Roman Catholicism to some extant new realities have always been added, even though the old story remained.