The New Humanity
"But this principle of freedom from the Law has now to be applied to all religion. Christianity in the course of time has built up its own structure of law and religion, of ritual and dogma and organization, which have now become a barrier, separating the Christian churches from the rest of humanity. So also Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism have developed their own structures of law and ritual and are divided from one another. We have to learn to go beyond all these differences in the external forms of religion and discover the hidden mystery which lies at the heart of all religion. In Christianity it was the mystery of the resurrection which gave this insight into the ultimate meaning of religion. The resurrection of Jesus was seen as the passage beyond time and space to the eternal transcendent Reality. This was accomplished, not merely for Jesus himself, but for all humanity. The resurrection marks the beginning of a new humanity and, as St Paul says, a"new creation.” "
The New Humanity
[Bruno Barnhart]: In ' New Vision of Reality', Bede looks at the
Christian Mystery from a universal and an evolutionary perspective. Jesus came
to bring the Holy Spirit, which would create a 'new humanity,' and immediately
with his death and resurrection the boundaries of Israel, which had
circumscribed the biblical 'history of salvation,' are burst and the Spirit is
poured forth into all peoples. As the barriers of the Jewish Law are swiftly
dismantled, the utter simplicity, luminosity and power of the Mystery are
manifest in the world. It is in the light of this simple, all-embracing Mystery
that the narrowness, rigidity and fragmentation which have plagued historical
Christianity are clearly revealed.
If, in the last text,[95] we felt primarily the interior gravitation of the
Mystery, here it is the expansive power of the Spirit that is evident, reaching
out to embrace all creation. This is the breadth of the vision[96] which has
emerged from the Pauline letters, especially those to the Colossians and
Ephesians. Its length stretches from the first moment of creation over the whole
span of evolution, as all reality is gathered into the one 'Cosmic Person' who
is Christ. We shall look at this synthesis in more detail later.[97]
[Bede Griffiths]: If we look for the basic inspiration which underlies
Christianity, it is to be found in the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus came to set Israel free from its bondage to the Law, that is, to its
religious tradition, and to take it back to the source of all religion. It is
clear that Jesus left behind no definite structure of religion. He chose twelve
disciples, whom he called"Apostles," and by all accounts gave Peter a position
of leadership among them. He also left behind a"memorial"of his death and
resurrection, the central"mystery"of his life, but beyond that it is difficult
to discern with certainty any other formal structure. What he communicated to
his disciples was the gift of his Spirit, which was to lead them into all truth.
The essential mystery of the Gospel is this gift of the Spirit, that is, the
opening of humanity to the life of the Spirit, which had been lost at the Fall,
and its return to the communion with God in which the meaning and purpose of
human existence is to be found. It was this which was to lead his disciples to
discern the significance of his life and teaching and to enable them to become
the nucleus of a new humanity.
It was St Paul who had the deepest insight into this matter of religion and law.
He himself had been brought up as a Jew"educated according to the strict manner
of the Law," [98] but his conversion brought about a radical change in his
understanding of the place of law in religion. He was able to discern that the
whole law of Israel, though holy in itself and given by God, yet had only a
relative value. All the sacred rites of Israel, circumcision, the worship of the
temple, even the institution of the Sabbath were all seen as of relative
importance and could be dispensed with. So he was able to say," neither
circumcision nor uncircumcision count for anything, but a new creation.”[99] In
this way he broke through all the restrictions of Judaism and opened the way of
salvation to all humanity. As he said," There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither
slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, but you are all one in Christ
Jesus.”[100] Thus all the barriers, economic, social, political, even the
division between the sexes, were overcome and the fundamental unity of mankind
was proclaimed.
But this principle of freedom from the Law has now to be applied to all
religion. Christianity in the course of time has built up its own structure of
law and religion, of ritual and dogma and organization, which have now become a
barrier, separating the Christian churches from the rest of humanity. So also
Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism have developed their own structures of law and
ritual and are divided from one another. We have to learn to go beyond all these
differences in the external forms of religion and discover the hidden mystery
which lies at the heart of all religion. In Christianity it was the mystery of
the resurrection which gave this insight into the ultimate meaning of religion.
The resurrection of Jesus was seen as the passage beyond time and space to the
eternal transcendent Reality. This was accomplished, not merely for Jesus
himself, but for all humanity. The resurrection marks the beginning of a new
humanity and, as St Paul says, a"new creation.”[101] Just as Israel closed in
on itself and saw salvation in terms of its own limited existence, so the
Christian churches have closed in on themselves and separated themselves from
humanity as a whole. But in the wider perspective which we can discern today,
Jesus died for all humanity and the salvation which he achieved was won for all
humanity. We must never forget that in its deepest reality all humanity is one
being, just as the whole creation is one being. As St Gregory of Nyssa, one of
the greatest of the Greek Fathers, proclaimed," All men from the first man to
the last are one image of Him Who Is.”Adam in the book of Genesis represents
humanity as a whole, and when this Adam falls all humanity falls with him. So
also Christ is the new Adam, the new representative of redeemed humanity, and
with his resurrection humanity as a whole is redeemed from sin and death.
Bede Griffiths]: It is of great significance that Jesus left his
disciples with the understanding that he would return again at any time and
bring the world to an end. In a real sense it can be said that the resurrection
itself brings the world to an end. It is the passage of human nature beyond time
and space, and reveals the whole of this spatial temporal world as a passing
phenomenon. We see the one Reality reflected through the changing forms of space
and time, but we know that these forms are conditioned by our present mode of
consciousness. When we pass beyond this limited mode of time-space
consciousness, we shall see the eternal Reality as it is. As St Paul says," now
we see in a glass darkly but then face to face.”[102] The whole of human history
is a passage from our present mode of existence and consciousness into the
eternal world where all the diversities of this world are seen in their
essential unity. Our present mode of consciousness is dualistic, but as the
mystics of all religions have discerned the ultimate reality is non-dual. This
new mode of being and consciousness is the 'nirvana' of the Buddha, the
'brahman-atman' of the 'Upanishads,' the 'l haqq' of the Muslim mystics and the
kingdom of heaven of the Christian Gospel. It is here and here alone that we can
find the meeting place of all religion.
As we saw earlier, the sin of humanity had been their separation from the
Spirit, their falling back into the separate self, and thereby coming into
conflict with nature, with their fellows, and with God. Jesus comes as the man
who offers himself in sacrifice in total surrender, to God, to the Supreme, and
in doing this he reverses the sin of Adam. Adam, the primal Man, had fallen by
disobedience, by following his mind and will rather than surrendering to the
Spirit. Jesus, the new Adam, the Son of Man, the representative Man, makes a
total surrender to the Spirit, to God, to the Father, and by that he overcomes
humanity's separation from the Father, from God, reuniting humanity as one body
in himself. He breaks down all the barriers that have been set up and finally he
reconciles creation with himself, as a new creation.
This then is the birth of a new humanity and it can be regarded as a new stage
in evolution. Humanity had developed through various levels of complexity,
through the hunting, the pastoral and the agricultural stages to the great
civilisations. Now with Christ a new stage is taking place and a new humanity is
being born. The new humanity is born"not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God," Jesus is the new Man who is born of God, who is the
Son of God.”
The One Light - Bede Griffiths' Principal Writings
Chapter II, West: Part One Civilization and Christianity, p. 117-120
Edited and with Commentary by Bruno Barnhart
Templegate Publishers, Springfield, Illinois
Notes:
[94] ' New Vision of Reality', 104-112.
[95] See text n.16.
[96] See Ephesians 3:14-21.
[97] See text n. 102.
[98] Acts 22:3.
[99] Galatians 6:15
[100] Galatians 3:28
[101] 2 Corinthians 5:17
[102] 1 Corinthians 13:12
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