Logos

Pope Benedict XVI, when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, stated: "From the beginning, Christianity has understood itself as the religion of the Logos, as the religion according to reason." Start from the beginning and tell the story of Jesus' life, then step back and judge how reasonable it sounds.

A virgin was impregnated by a holy spirit, in the form of a dove, and she gave birth to a child, whom she called (as instructed) Jesus. When Jesus grew up, he did a lot of pretty impressive miracles, such as raising people from the dead after they had already "begun to stink". Like Lazarus, Jesus too rose from the dead after three days in the grave, and probably could have used a shower himself. He appeared to his disciples, then sort of disappeared again, once or twice, as I recall (it's been a while since I read this stuff), and was eventually taken up bodily into heaven, which is of course in the sky. Does that sound rational to you?

Christianity, at its worst, is false logic and the pretense of reason. The savior myth is common; read about Krishna, Zarathustra, and Mithras, for example. The archetypal concepts in their stories include being raised from the dead, being born of a virgin, ascending to heaven, and being the son of God. We are expected to believe, however, that the story of Jesus is the only one that's literally true.

At Christianity's best, it is one of the mystery traditions. Jesus, who, in my opinion, is not who he is portrayed to be by modern Christianity, told us, "Ye must be born again". Being born again is not recognizing that you're a sinner, and if you want to go to heaven, you'd better join the church. It is a mystical experience that involves a painful change at the deepest levels of one's being. We shortchange ourselves if we simply accept the common interpretation of this and the rest of Jesus' teachings.

Another of Jesus' teachings that I like is, "whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it". Jesus was a guru, a leader for his disciples, and he understood that they needed him to follow if their spiritual journey was to make sense. But he could just as easily have said "whosoever will lose his life shall find it". Losing oneself is part of the process of being born again.

One of the few things I remember from my Greek class in college is the phrase that opens the Gospel of John: "En arch hn o logos" (which looks a bit different in Greek letters, which won't publish here). In the beginning was the Word. "Logos", in Greek philosophy, was understood to mean the inherent principle of cosmic order. John knew that God was the inherent order of the universe. Conversely, the inherent order of the universe--in all its various manifestations--is God.

Mystical, not logical. And as true as anything our hearts can know.