A Deist Jesus

 

Setting aside the multifarious creeds and dogmas of all the various denominations and faiths, there is a core as old as humankind that can be termed natural religion. This is what arises from human observation and experience processed through reason.

Natural religion started to acquire a more formal aspect in 17^th Century England when deism began to emerge. The word “deism” comes from the Latin “deus” which means God and was adopted to differentiate from the Greek “theos”, the root of theism, denoting the beliefs of Trinitarian Christians.

Deists proposed that the universe in general, and humankind in particular, are not some random, chance creation. The intentional Originator is commonly called “God”, although deists often prefer the word Deus.

God or Deus, it is insisted, defies human comprehension and description, but the existence of such can be inferred from the complexity of creation acting according to discernible laws. Humans have purpose in their lives, so why should purpose be denied on behalf of wider creation.

Early deists mostly considered themselves to be Christians, their thinking emerging from the Trinitarian orthodoxy of the day. However, they insisted that Jesus had taught natural religion, his teachings subsequently subverted by Paul of Tarsus.

This subversion was further exacerbated when Christianity became a formal religion and the “word of God” was set into creeds and dogma by Church councils, beginning with the first in 325AD.

Jesus taught within a Jewish context, but his genius was to transcend it. The natural religion he promulgated was that one God was/is creator, with love of God and love of one’s neighbours being the two commandments.

Evidence that Jesus transcended his Jewish background can be seen in his broadening the concept of neighbour. At his time, according to Jewish law, a neighbour was a fellow Jew or a non-Jewish “sojourner”, a guest of the Jews. Jesus extended the notion of neighbour to include every Jew and gentile in the world.

Deists opposed Trinitarian doctrines such as original sin, the sacrificial atonement by Jesus’ crucifixion, the condemnation to Hell of non-Christians, the Trinity of God and the divinity of Jesus. Deists intended restoring the natural religion of Jesus.

Scientific thinking was embraced by deists as demonstrating the organised wonder of creation. Science was an ally not an obstacle to expanding human understanding of some of the Originator’s intentions. If science contradicted a religious precept, then that precept had been falsified and must give way.

Deism accepted the example Jesus set, that orthodoxy is no guarantee of veracity. Indeed, natural religion requires each individual to engage with creation, look beyond accepted orthodoxy and employ reason to gain some appreciation of divine being.

Differing Deisms

All ideologies, religious and secular, have their internal differences. Christianity, for example, has the three major divisions, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant. Taking the latter, it sub-divides into Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers and others. Within each of these further divergences can be identified.

The same is true of politics for instance. The British parliament boasts three main parties and representatives from a number of others. Take any of those parties and within it a variety of views will be found, coalescing around official or semi-official groupings.

This is perfectly natural as it is the way ideas contest and prove themselves or change or become discarded. All positions, no matter how formidable they may seem for a time, are provisional, influenced by changing times, events and advancing knowledge.

Unfortunately, problems arise when a particular ideology becomes so dominant it considers all opposition as heresy requiring the apparatus of repression. This engenders bitter opposition often resulting in violence: the bloody history of the Reformation being but one example of this tendency. An agreement to differ is not only more civilised, it opens up possibilities for the exploration and formulation of new thinking.

Just as Christians of whatever stripe have fundamentals on which they agree, so it is with Deists. Deism is usually broadly defined as belief in God founded on Reason, Experience and Nature (of the universe). However, this does not imply all deists are alike in their thinking.

There is a variety of deist positions, some of them being:
• Monodeism – The universe was created by a single god that does not intervene in human affairs. Instead, God observes the universe, and therefore people as a sentient element, and its development in the way of an impartial scientist.
• Polydeism – Rather than the creation of one god, the universe is the product of various gods, each responsible for creating a different part, which is why there isn’t a single god taking an interest in the universe as a whole.
• Pandeism – God is the universe and the universe is God. Not only did God create the universe the divine pervades every aspect of it, living and non-living. This does not imply God takes a personal interest in human affairs, but that the whole universe is the extension of God.
• Panendeism – The universe is only a part of God, the divine power extending way beyond physical limitations. The philosopher Immanuel Kant insisted the power of omnipotent being cannot be limited, and allows for the idea of some cosmologists of the existence of multi-verses.
• Process Deism – God, like the universe, is subject to change. Not omnipotent, but omnipresent, God is eternal and experiences the passage of time. For people who also change over time, their lives can be validated by sharing this experience of God.
• Christian Deism – Interprets the teachings of Jesus in a Deist way while rejecting supernatural elements or that Jesus is the Son of God in a literal sense, other than as all people are ultimately the sons and daughters of God.
• Philosophical Deism – Draws on a broad range of religious and philosophical sources for deist ideas, while discounting as myths all suggestions of miracles.
• Scientific Deism – Scientific precepts and methodologies have pre-eminence, so any religious thinking must not be in contradiction with science. Particular reference is made to quantum physics as a demonstration of the strangeness of the universe.

These are some of the main strands of deism and there may well be others. There can be no definitive deism because God stands beyond human definition. Reason and experience applied to the nature of the universe is, for deists, suggestive of God, but by no means a proof.

Even what is meant by God is open to question, certainly not an anthropomorphic figure often suggested by religions. Language can only go so far to express what is little more than an inkling at best. Deism thus has much in common with Humanism that would not use the word “God”, but still express spiritual concepts drawn from the religion it grew.

Deism is not a proselytising religion, knocking on doors with the intention of securing converts. In its many forms it offers views of creation and suggests to those who are in some way in agreement that they also may be deists.

Those who are prepared to accept such a designation will, most likely, favour the form of deism that most closely accords with their thinking, or maybe prefer to be just deists, reflecting an implicit imprecision.

Difference for deists is a strength and should be embraced as an opportunity for keeping the conversation alive: reason and experience are not limited to a particular moment so there will always be room for new ideas and shared speculation.