Fr Adrian Smith, in the latest of a series of interesting books that he has written, seems to have no such misgivings. Whereas there were once quasi- biographies or Lives of Christ, so now there are appreciations of the character of Jesus. They are offered, not for contemplation, but as a guide to action and authentic Christian living. In this context, Jesus can be cast as a political revolutionary, an ethical teacher, a spiritual guru or a religious reformer. So Adrian claims to be able to offer a fresh perspective on the message of Jesus.
He takes as a starting point the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) that is used to assess children’s logical ability and develops the idea to include other quotients: Emotional (EQ), Spiritual (SQ) and Creative or CQ for short. The human CQ measures an ability to create, transform and use Christian faith to make a difference. It is a particular kind of attitude which will enable Christian faithful to become ‘artisans of a new humanity’ and a new religious consciousness. For the human race is reaching a point of crisis and crying out for a new vision and new order for the world. In essence, this new awareness needed can be characterised as a proficiency or ability to be able to change your thinking in order to change your life. Adrian quotes approvingly an American author, Laurie Beth Jones, who likens Christ to an American businessman possessing the triple strengths of selfmastery, action and good relationships.
In the second half of the book, Fr Adrian turns a little to present Christ as an archetype of a new humanity and sets out to explore the world of Kingdom spirituality and responsible ethical living. He contrasts this with the anomaly of a powerful church hierarchy (‘a rule by priests’), which is often the target of liberal Catholics who protest that ‘we are the church’. Now this may be heartfelt and even strictly true, but unfortunately authority does not take it seriously. It becomes no more than a blind alley. There is just too much power in the system, too little room at the top.
More encouragingly, he is able to find some counterplay when he describes Christianity as a faith that loves the Earth and reaches out to the other great religious faiths like the Tao and Buddhism. Such a movement from Church Christianity to kingdom spirituality and a Green, earth-centred faith is a movement from a religion of history to a religion of nature. For in a religion of history, only God and humanity really matter; the Earth is just a quarry of petrochemicals and minerals to be exploited and used. In a religion of nature, the subject and concern is life itself.
This book is full of things to think about and the author helps by adding an appendix of thoughts to ponder. On the downside, I felt that the book was a bit of a rattle-bag: full of diverse ideas and thoughts that were sometimes disjointed. Fr Adrian tends to write a fifth Gospel to use for his startingpoint of analysis of the ‘message’ and psychology of Jesus. Yet I hope I am not being too subjective if I identify Adrian’s thinking with the possibility that Christian faith can exist and flourish outside the organisation and the power-structures of the Church which has held a near monopoly on religion for so long. Prayer, meditation, moral action and a commitment to the life of our world are an excellent jumping-off point for a thoroughly modern religious faith for our times.
Adrian B Smith, The Creative Christian, O Books (Winchester), 2006, £9.99, ISBN 1905047754.