A place for Jesus?(The Future of Jesus)(Book review)

The Future of Jesus, by Peter Jensen; ABC Books, 2005, $22.95.

FOR THE FIRST TIME in over forty years, a cleric has been invited to deliver the Boyer Lectures. Dr Peter Jensen, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, not surprisingly made the life and death, and the words and works of Jesus Christ his subject. In an attempt to start a debate about the most influential figure in world history, Dr Jensen asks whether the Jesus depicted in the Gospels has any future in an affluent, self-assured and increasingly secular society like Australia.

Before one word was uttered there were, of course, the inevitable objections to both the lecturer and his topic in the letters columns of the national newspapers. The fact that the ABC Chairman, Donald McDonald, attends an Anglican Church led some to allege denominational favouritism. Others complained about another apparent intrusion of religion into public life.

But Dr Jensen does not write in a manner that offers a particular advantage to the Anglican Church. Indeed, he is critical of institutional churches, despite heading the largest Anglican diocese in Australia. He also endeavours to examine Jesus in relation to national affairs, political life and personal choices. In the first lecture he claims not to be "a religious person" while resisting the charge that he is commending some private truth beyond public scrutiny. He believes that Jesus has had a profound and lasting influence on Australian intitutions and popular culture, and that he remains a timely figure because "at a time when other cultures seem menacingly assured and powerful, we seem to have become very modest about our own past, very nervous about identifying who we are, very shy of receiving inspiration from some of the greatest words ever spoken".

In his six lectures (and an additional section headed "Jesus and the Question of Faith" that was not part of the broadcast), Dr Jensen's aim is "to inspire a widespread, adult reading of the New Testament Gospels" in the hope that his listeners will "see what a surprising man Jesus was ... and whether Jesus can speak with something like his old power about central cultural issues such as personal freedom, human relationships and the future of our country".

Dr Jensen presents a clear and concise case for belief in Jesus as more than a moral teacher and spiritual guide.

He concedes that elements of Jesus' teaching are exclusivist and will offend those of liberal disposition or post-modern mind; he acknowledges that Christians claiming to speak for Jesus have grossly distorted his words and acted in ways contrary to his teaching; he accepts that the institutional church fails to recognise the distinction between itself and the Kingdom of God preached by Jesus, and that many Australians find church-going unattractive; and he recognises that not everyone will find in the Gospels' depiction of Jesus the complete fulfilment of their hopes and desires, or the universal cure to this world's ills and evils.