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First Thoughts
Theological reflection is a subversive activity; it makes people uncomfortable; it will make you uncomfortable. This is to be expected; the discomfort is a sign that you are breaking chains that bind you, that you are investigating new lands, that you are taking greater control over your life. It is your opportunity to distinguish the God who has called you from all other gods (and there are many!) and, like Joshua, commit yourself and your congregants to serving and worship the One God.1
—Rev. Dr. Robert Martin
New Heavens, Many Earths, New Hermeneutic
We live in an age when, almost daily, astronomers are discovering extrasolar planets that orbit nearby stars. This cornucopia of new worlds suggests the tantalizing, wildly optimistic possibility of aStar Trek future when it might be commonplace for humans to fly to earth-type alien worlds on the wings of technologies yet unborn.
Here on earth more readily achievable biotech advances offer the alluring possibilities of an end to disease, vastly increased human intelligence and stamina, and even physical immortality—or at least Methuselan longevity. Yet the spoiling specters of environmental disaster and rampant global terrorism haunt the sacred paths of science. Science alone is not a guarantor of a benevolent future world. Historians and theologians have noted that fascist Germany sprouted from a highly educated, sophisticated society; Hitler coldly adjusted that skill base to his own nefarious devices. The brain trust employed by the Nazis fervently researched the sciences, invented modern rocketry, and produced detailed biotech plans to improve its“racial stock” through eugenics and euthanasia. Germanic Christianity—incontestably the lighthouse of Protestant thought in the early 20th century—could not guide its people through the dark sea of fascism, nor could its great theological and ethical lights prevent the massive cultural shipwreck of the Holocaust.
In a contemporary milieu fraught with tendencies toward sadism and self-destruction, yet offering the potential for unbounded opportunities, perhaps an enhanced understanding of Christology is more important than ever. The model of humanity presented in that“one solitary life” arguably has the potential to counterbalance all the Hitlers and Stalins humanity ever produced.2 Jesus Christ is such an influential figure in human history that a new vision of who he was, how he has changed through time, and what he continues to be in human consciousness might be indispensable for a postmodern, high-tech, galaxy-facing culture.
“Take me to your Savior…”
If a team of visiting scholars from another solar system decided to look into the central figure in Christianity, they would quickly discover a baffling array of Jesuses offered by an equally bewildering marketplace of“Christian” groups. Digging into t
