{Jesus}[19th February 1989]

[Redbook6:98-99)][19890219:1218f]{Jesus}[19th February 1989]

19890219.1218

[continued]

Once again I seem to be* working my way back towards the Trinity. But the crunch is that I do not accept the immaculate conception,** [or] the literal*** divinity of Jesus Christ, or his ****resurrection from the dead as given and necessary facts. While any or all of them might be true, they strike me as unlikely and unnecessary. It follows therefore that I do not accept that Jesus died on the Cross in order to redeem us from our sins:# the meaning of his life and death, for us, is more subtle than that.

What I do believe was [sic] that (to my knowledge so far) he was the supreme teacher of life and religion: the only teacher and teaching of equivalent importance being Buddha and Buddhism. I think Christ and Christianity’s understanding of psychology gives {him and] it a greater significance, and a greater ability to reform the World; but I may be wrong. Islam is (as we see particularly clearly today) far too primitive for the modern World,#* whereas Hinduism is too diverse for classification and comment of this sort. I do not know enough about specifically Chinese and Japanese religions to make comparisons.#**

There is nothing original in this pecking order, of course.

*[See last previous entry (& its footnotes)]

**or the Virgin Birth! (which is what I meant). <890225>

***{=??}

[Underlining added later]

****{physical? Presumably – Otherwise, see later, [[Redbook6:135)][19890532:2218]{The Resurrection of Christ}[31st May 1989],] 135}

#The Sun came out as I wrote this.

#*[By ‘Islam’ here is probably meant Wahhabi, Salafi or Muwahhid Islam, as practised in Saudi Arabia. There are, of course, other ways of practising Islam, more in harmony with the modern World.]

#**[ie principally Confucianism and Shintoism, presumably]

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