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Argues that Christianity does not require its supernatural aspects.
Christianity without an omnipotent god, without a divine savior, without an afterlife? In this bold and hopeful book, theologian Daniel C. Maguire writes that traditional, supernatural aspects of Christianity can be comforting, but are increasingly questionable. A century of scholarly research has not been supportive of the dogmatic triad of personal god, incarnate savior, and life after death. Demonstrating that these beliefs have questionable roots in historical traditions, Maguire argues for a return to that brilliant and revolutionary moral epic of the Hebrew and Christian Bible. Rescued from god, Christianity can offer a realistic global ethic to heal a planet sinking under the effects of our ungrateful mismanagement.
"…[a] well-thought case … Both atheists and theists will appreciate a revamped view of Christianity relevant to today's fraught world." — WATER
"Once again Dan Maguire's new book is at the cutting edge. Passionate, yet crystal clear, Christianity without God distills the essential Christian message from the mythological and theological accretions that have distorted it. It's a message we need today, more than ever." — David R. Loy, author of Awareness Bound and Unbound: Buddhist Essays
"For many of us, Maguire's book will be a kind of homecoming. Someone, at last, has had the courage to write what so many of us have been thinking." — John C. Raines, author of The Justice Men Owe Women: Positive Resources from World Religions
"With immense learning and considerable charm, Daniel Maguire evokes a Christianity freed from dogma, literalism, self-righteousness, and terror. Believers and skeptics alike can delight in what's left: poetry, morality, a sense of awe and wonder. In a word, humanity." — Katha Pollitt, author of The Mind-Body Problem: Poems
Part I. God
1. Overture
2. Deification
3. Proliferation
4. The Beginning That Wasn’t
Part II. The Divinity of Jesus
5. The Greatest Story Never Told
6. From Jesus to Christ
7. From Christianity to Cross-tianity
Part III. The Living Dead
8. From Hell to Jiggledeegreen
Part IV. The Quest for a Global Ethic
9. When We Are as Remote as Charlemagne
10. Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby?
11. From Prose to Poetry
12. When History Turned a Corner
Epilogue: The God Loss
Notes
Selected Annotated Bibliography
Index