A Spiritual Copernican Revolution
Jun 9th, 2009 by Brian Robertson
Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was the first astronomer to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. His epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), published in 1543 just before he died, is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy and the defining epiphany that began the Scientific Revolution. His heliocentric model, with the sun at the center of the universe, demonstrated that the observed motions of celestial objects can be explained without putting the Earth at rest in the center of the universe. His work stimulated further scientific investigations, becoming a landmark in the history of modern science that is now often referred to as the Copernican Revolution.
Wikipedia
What I would like to suggest is that it is time, in Christianity, for a kind of Copernican Revolution that, curiously enough, brings us closer to the spirituality of Jesus.
We live in a world of competing religious ideas or, perhaps put more at the heart of it, apparently differing views. I would say that they are perhaps different like the same sentence spoken in French, English, Japanese and any of the other languages. They are speaking of something with words that are filtered through cultural bias and slant. What is at the base of many of these religious approaches? That is the question we must ask and answer truthfully and directly.
We cannot expect God in any real way to favor a particular religion and a specific place and time, as religion by and large tends to be geographical when you look at the numbers of devotees or followers. It makes no sense, as the later Christians said, that tens of millions born before Jesus plus those who have never heard his name, much less adding in those who otherwise did not profess their identity as a Christian, were going to spend eternity in Hell.
How do we deal with the fact that God speaks differing languages to others? As an example of the vast compassion and love of God who, thankfully, is not bound by our own prejudices, limitations, love of being exclusive, and more.
However, there is one additional factor, one that is what the metaphor fora Copernican Revolution calls for and one alluded to in my opening line.
A true revolution, the kind that Jesus termed the Kingdom of Heaven which was both within and around us if we had but eyes to see and hears to hear, flies in the face of established Christian thought as it veered away from Jesus’ spirit and teaching. Jesus has been the center of things in the Church and in Christianity, when, in reality (or Reality) just as the earth was supplanted by the sun as the center of the Universe (from our point of view, of course), at the center of our universe must be God, not the dogmatic attempt to tie Jesus in and make him a kind of disguise for God, a notion he protested with his very soul . “Why do you call me good? There is none good but the Father?” among other comments and actions.
How would Christianity be if God was at the center of your Universe? How would you feel about others, perhaps a Vedantist/Hindu, who also has God (as he or she can feel and know) in the center of his life as all else moves around it in celestial orbit? Would you see a different language of God and a follower of that to be akin to you, a fellow seeker whose journey is to be encouraged and supported, not denigrated and belittled as less than your own “right” way?
Since I was a child, meaning as early on as I can remember, my prayers were straight to God, my sense of Presence that appeared in my later years was felt to be that as opposed to a Jesus or a Buddha or a Krishna. I also, later, found myself awed not by God favoring my team, as it were, (white, United States of America, my particular Church), but, rather, the startling universal compassion which Jesus spoke of constantly and said was right here and right now available to us.
So, perhaps it is not time. Perhaps it does not speak to you. All that is fine. But for myself, anyway, the power of a Christian’s Copernican Revolution is Jesus’ desired revolution in the vision and Presence in this world.
May you find Peace,
Brian
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Way too cool. I love that correlation. It really does illustrate the point perfectly. It also gives me a picture of exactly how limited our view is. We are the Copernicians of this age. Centuries from now, our writings will be viewed as we now see those of centuries past. Limited but so passionate. My life was changed when I was researching scripture and found a website on world scripture. The name ,was in itself. interesting. As I read an excerpt from Isaiah (of all books!) found more or less in the holy words from the Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim faiths, it blew me totally out of the water. In my evangelical mode, my first feeling was one of anger. It was as if they had stolen the Holy Grail. How dare they! Then I started to wonder, where did they get this - how did they get this - unless it came from God, in their land, in their time, in their faith - REVEALED TO THEM!!! I could literally see my club membership card vanish before my eyes. My exclusive ticket to heaven crumbled to ashes in my hand and I literally and figuratively cried for what seemed an hour. It took some time to recover from the remorse of what I had been, what I had said, what I had even taught. But then I realized the sin was not where I had been or what I had believed. The only “sin” would be if I stopped traveling the journey. I thank you and all those responding on this website, for being fellow travelers, sharing your thoughts and beliefs along the way.
Ahhh… yes - this is a wonderful post - speaks right to my heart! I totally agree… if you study any other religion, each, at it’s source, goes back to the same principals. The same teachings. The Source is the same.
I resonate with the way Jesus taught, so I’ve come to the conclusion that that is why I’m Christian. But he teaches the same things as all the other great teachers - Buddha, Mohammad… they all share the same essence.
God has always been my center.
Wow, crazy. I’ve been thinking exactly the same thing these last six months. A spiritual ‘Copernican’ revolution in which we move from a Christo-centric to a Theo-centric Christianity. What’s funny is that I didn’t even come upon this post by entering any of those keywords. Who are you?
You got me thinking about this one! I too have started to wrestle with the idea of giving Jesus a demotion and putting God in the center of my universe. Then again, Jesus never pointed to himself but always to the Father.
Keep up the good work!
As with all Truth, there is always a few, who after a while, eventually take over and create something false out of the Truth. As Jesus always pointedto God, His followers also did at first, with the end of the Apostle’s age, men suborned the Truth, and did exactly what the Apostle Paul said, worshiped the creature, instead of the Creator. I wonder how our world would be if Jesus’ followers had kept to the original idea, and instead of creating a religion about Jeus, followed Jesus’ religion. I see eliments of this in all religious expressions, Hindu, Buddhist, Islam, even early Greek Philosophy.
Blessings…Charles.
I was taught that when Jesus took on the role of The Christ after his resurrection, He became Lord of ALL religions and that every religion has a holy and constructive purpose.
Along the lines of a spiritual revolution, these words by Flower A. Newhouse from the 1950’s still resonate w/ me today.
“The Christ Way has never actually been universally tried. Systems have been dedicated to Him; lives have been sacrificed in His little understood Cause, yet neither piety nor heroism has revealed the Christ fully to the world. Through the misconceptions of its interpreters, the Christ Message has been tainted by a spirit of hypocrisy, dogmatism, and intolerance. If we are to understand His complete doctrine rather than its fragments, we must return to a devotion of the Christ Spirit, to His remarkable exampleship and His unequaled deeds. The study of His life is the best text from which to learn of His cardinal precepts.”
Brian, thank you for the perfect analogy!
I also believe that God is a Parent for everyone. He has a special approach to every child, just like all good parents do. That’s where all the different religions are coming from.
Note, that every religion originates from one person, who experienced God in his own special way. Who had a relationship with God and received a “revelation”, a “message from the Lord”.
Many people don’t even bother to look for their own Answer, didn’t try hard enough to experience God themselves. They just assumed that they are of lesser value and ability, and therefore should just follow the One, who had the experience. Truth is - we are all the One, even when we don’t know and don’t believe we are.
Jesus said that - we are all sons and daughters of God. Therefore, every person should experience God in her own special way. Isn’t it what He is waiting for?
Almost everyone has had a genuine mystical experience at some time or times in their life. although they may not recognize it as such. The feeling of being at one with all (around you, on Earth, in the Universe) is awesome and, for most people, unfathomable. Unfortunately, the leaders of many of the major religions would not recognize it as such unless framed in the terminology of their institution
You’ve rightly said: “We cannot expect God in any real way to favor a particular religion and a specific place and time…”
God just Is, beyond all descriptions and antrophomorphic distortions heaped on Him by various religions.
As for Jesus, He came on earth as an Avatar, for the sole purpose of saving us. His teachings are particularly valuable (i.e. made culturally familiar, through the centuries of religious movements) to the westerners; similarly, as Buddha’s are to the people of the East.
I’m glad to see this. I’ve been teetering on my own self spiritual discovery as I feel kindred with other religious beliefs in the idea of holding God as their center and found a common denominator in most. This is my own experience mind you but I ended up letting go of the specific Christian denominations because my beliefs were common with many but going further into specific denominations, I felt too conflicted just the same. And so I went back to the root of it all and took God as my center and identified myself as a Mystic being on a journey of Truth and acknowledge all His creation, man, nature and whatever is unknown. Just wanting a direct, immediate relationship with God without needing another man to do so. I’ve been at peace and very happy since.
However in the same aspect I acknowledge Jesus and his teachings as well, he was an amazing man. In regards to that, I use Christian terminology because that is what I am most comfortable with as I was initially raised a Christian (Lutheran specifically), but I don’t place him as my Center like I do God, I don’t worship Jesus. I respect him and acknowledge all he is and has done but I place him next to me as an equal Mystic who learned from God and taught what he learned. He is a wonderful role model. With the way I see things I’ve been termed a Christian Mystic and even ordained as one but am worried that it may be a mis-label (I hate labels honestly but I unfortunately needed one for my legal ordainment). My concern is I don’t want to insult anyone or hurt anyone if my beliefs don’t follow the majority of a Christian Mystic’s ways, which is kind of ironic in a sense I know. It’s why I normally just say Mystic just to be safe.
Anyway this article that was posted was actually one of my thoughts on why I did take the path I chose. What happened to the people pre-Christ? God was there before him and I have difficulty accepting that an entire civilization before Christ was condemned per se because he didn’t exist to worship or use as a guide to God and Heaven.
Sorry just thinking out loud with you all.
Happy I found this…