Oboedire | April 13, 2026
If you have followed my writings, you know that I agree with those who make Christology central in the theological task and who make Jesus the hermeneutical lens for interpreting the Bible. [1] This first week of the Easter season is a good time to focus on Christ
But true as this is, there is still much further work to be done if we are to view life and faith through the Christ (excarnate/incarnate) lens. It’s what I am calling in this post “Christ Jesus amplified.”
The amplification begins by drawing horizontal and vertical lines through Jerusalem. With the four quadrants in view, it is easy to see that the biblical view of Jesus comes from the northwestern quadrant, the Greco-Roman quadrant, later expanded into a Euro-centric view of him.
While the revelation of Christ (excarnate) and Jesus (incarnate) is northwestern, it is not the entire story of who the universal Christ is or who Jesus was. We must look to the other three quadrants.
From the eastern quadrants, we get three amplifications: Eastern Jesus, Wisdom Jesus, and Aramaic Jesus. From the nexus of the quadrants (i.e. Israel), we get a fourth one: Jewish Jesus.
The southwestern (African) quadrant is the least known. This is due in part to the burning of the library in Alexandria (by Christians) in 415 CE and its further destruction in 642 CE by Muslims. The derth of Christ/Jesus information from the southwestern quadrant is further due to the comparative lack of the study of African Christianity (e.g. Coptic Christians).
These amplifications leave me realizing that as crucial as the Bible is in revealing Christ/Jesus, it is not the whole story. This does not diminish the place of the Bible; it contextualizes it in an even larger revelation.
Christ/Jesus is larger than the Bible’s revelation! The apostle John had this sense as he ended his gospel, “There are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25 NRSVue).
Wow! This is the sense that the first Christians had of Christ/Jesus, but one we have lost by only using a northwestern-quadrant lens. If a Euro-centric Christ/Jesus is all we have, we need an amplified version. It will, in fact, be nearer to who the universal Christ is.
From the other quadrants, here is the Christ/Jesus amplification that I am discovering….
Eastern Jesus: I have known of this in the term “the hidden Christ” in other world religions. More specifically Marcus Borg’s Jesus and Buddha and Martin Aronson’s Jesus and Lao Tzu have shined good light on the Christ/Jesus amplification, as has Thich Nhat Hanh’s Living Buddha, Living Christ.
Wisdom Jesus: Cynthia Bourgeault’s book, The Wisdom Jesus is my launchpad. Following that, the writings about Jesus in the Deutero-canonical accounts of him in the Nag Hammadi texts (with scholarly works about them from those like Elaine Pagels and Peter Novak) have further enlarged this part of the Story.
Aramaic Jesus: George Lamsa’s translation, Holy Bible: From the Ancient Eastern Text, got me started, with additional study in his other books. More recently, the books by Neil Douglas-Klotz have been very helpful.
Jewish Jesus: This is my latest amplification of the Christ/Jesus paradigm. Amy Jill-Levine’s books The Misunderstood Jew and Jesus for Everyone: Not Just Christians are my current foci for this particular amplification.
These quadrants weave into some key historical insights between the end of the New Testament era and the early sixth century. The key volume for me has been Erin Vearncombe’s (et al) After Jesus, Before Christianity.
Zooming out even farther than the four quadrants, the Cosmic Christ revelation has been amazing. I see it in The Way by E. Stanley Jones (and many of his other books), in Dion Foster’s book, Christ at the Centre: Discovering the Cosmic Christ in the Spirituality of Bede Griffiths, in Matthew Fox’s book, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, in Jürgen Moltmann’s The Way of Jesus Christ, and Richard Rohr’s The Universal Christ.
At my age, I will not exhaust the Christ/Jesus amplification project. But I have begun it, and the discoveries I have made have combined to give me a vision of a “deep and wide” Christ/Jesus that increases my affirmation of Paul’s declaration, “Christ is all and in all” (Colossians 3:11). [2] It is this Christ who offers us abundant life (John 10:10) and leads us into it as the Way, Truth, and Life (John 14:6).
[1] E. Stanley Jones was the first to introduce me to this. Not long afterward, I discovered and benefitted from a similar view developed by Emil Brunner.
[2] E. Stanley Jones wrote, that Colossians 3:11are the six most important words ever written in the English language (In Christ, Week 40, Saturday).
Steve Harper 2024
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The Rev. Dr. Steve Harper is retired seminary professor who taught for 32 years in the disciplines of Spiritual Formation and Wesley Studies. Author and co-author of more than fifty books.. He is also a retired Elder in The Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.