Sublime

Augustine might make Christianity plausible again for those who’ve been burned—who suspect that the “Christianity” they’ve seen is just a cover for power plays and self-interest, or a tired moralism that seems angry all the time, or a version of middle-class comfort too often confused with the so-called American Dream.

Faith, the church and theology must demonstrate what they really believe and hope about the man from Nazareth who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and what practical consequences they wish to draw from this.

Part of the claim of the early Christians, in fact, was that in and through Jesus they had discovered both a totally different way of being human and a way which scooped up the best that ancient wisdom had to offer and placed it in a framework where it could, at last, make sense.

Kähler’s more famous slogan: “This real Christ is the Christ who is preached. The Christ who is preached, however, is the Christ of faith.”

Dunham, as you might guess, is not much given to religious impulses, but she is quietly fascinated by Karr’s faith, her association with this guy “Jesus.” So Dunham asks: “What’s it like to be a person who thinks and cares about Jesus and has religion in your life but hangs out with the New York literati?” Karr tries to defuse some mistaken impress

Throughout black history Scripture was used for a definition of God and Jesus that was consistent with the black struggle for liberation.

telos