Your gospel is too small

Edward Schroeder of the Crossings Community reviews the book Beyond the Passion: Rethinking the Death and Life of Jesus by Stephen Patterson. Patterson’s argument seems to be the familiar one that the important thing about Jesus was not his death and resurrection, but his vision of a just society that challenged the hegemony of the Roman Empire (and, by implication, the currently regnant American “empire”). The resurrection appearances were “really” visions the disciples had of the enduring power and significance of the just society (the “Empire of God”) as preached by Jesus.

Schroeder persuasively argues that this view of the gospel is too is just too small:

[Patterson] doesn’t need a resurrected Jesus because his salvation agenda is so small. Therefore his gospel–Jesus as victim, martyr, sacrifice, but not risen–is so small. Way too small. So he can put Socrates and Jesus side-by-side, finally mirroring each other in dying for a new moral vision. But it’s all small potatoes alongside the real salvation agenda which is cosmic: sin, death, the law. … At the core Christians do not believe in a Christic vision. Instead, they trust a Christus victor. That’s what God’s empire in Christ is all about. That’s the salvation offer of the Christian Gospel. Apart from that salvation there IS no Christian ethic.

Even if it was possible to create a perfectly just and loving community in this life (I don’t think it is, but let’s suppose it for the sake of argument), guilt, suffering, disease, decay, anxiety, depression, fear, error, ignorance, natural disasters, pain, and death, the “last enemy,” would continue to exist. Christians limit the scope of the gospel when they put all the emphasis on justice. Certainly it’s desirable for Christians and others to work to create a more just world, but the Christian gospel encompasses much more than that.