Superman. Superstar. The Yearning For A Savior

Undated (Probably 1979)
Lakeland
Naples

Superman. Superstar. The Yearning For A Savior

As the Christian Easter season approaches, Christians will be reminded with song, sermon, scripture, pageant, and ancient rituals that humankind cannot save itself. Because God assumed the human form of Jesus, the believer is assured that Jesus, who is God, paid the penalty of Adam’s original sin, which all human creatures inherited and carry the inherited trait. Then, because of Jesus’ resurrection, there was triumph over the grave. According to Christian theology, these miracles are impossible for humans to accomplish. A supernatural savior was needed. Jesus is a superstar savior.

Do men and women need a supernatural savior? Is our human condition so corrupt that we cannot save ourselves? Not only would millions of Christian believers assure us that we do [need a savior], but Hollywood seems to be pushing the same message in bizarre forms.

A few weeks ago I saw the movie, Superman. Supposedly one of the two or three most expensive movies ever made, there are spectacular photographic effects, the story is episodic and choppy, the ending is a sure lead-in to a sequel, which will probably be titled Superman II – but without too much stretching, that sequel might be called “Jesus Christ Comes Again” or “The Second Coming of Christ.”

Viewing the movie, I was fascinated by the use of Christian salvation concepts only slightly disguised. (Quotes come from Sojourners, March 1979). In the beginning, the planet Krypton is nearing its end. Superman is a baby and his parents wrap him in swaddling clothes of red, white, and blue. His father Jar-El played by Marlon Brando is a distinguished [-looking] enough to look like a deity (El is one of the Hebrew words for God). [He] sends Superman to Earth in an amazing capsule (cradle) [CJW note: star-shaped manger] with the words, “all that I have, I bequeath to you, my son. You’ll carry me inside you all your life. You will see my life through yours and yours through mine. The son becomes the father, and the father, the son. [CJW note: not a bad paraphrase of the Council of Nicea]

Superman arrives on Earth, [and] is found and raised by a farm family. His super-powers unknown, [CJW note: except to his earthly father and mother] except on a couple occasions when he outraces a railroad train and kicks a football out of sight.

About the age of 18 he goes through experiences which combines a likeness to Jesus in the temple, the baptismal experience and the sojourn in the wilderness. He spends 12 years of study in a magic ice temple and then at the age of 30 [CJW note: corresponds to silent years of Jesus], his father Jar-El, who miraculously materializes, prepares his son for his mission on earth, saying “they only need the light to show them the way. For this reason, I have sent you, my only son.”

From there on, Superman becomes the comic-book character winning over despicable, powerful villains and thieves, Superman says he has come to earth to fight for truth, justice, and the American way. [CJW note: neat combination of Jewish prophecy and the American dream]

At the end of the picture, Superman changes the course of history. The Christian believer would testify that Jesus changed the course of history saving humanity from the hell from which [it] could not save itself. Superman raises Lois Lane from the dead by reversing time, thus enabling him to resurrect her from the dead, even as Jesus raised Lazarus and the daughter of Jairus from the dead, according to the Christian gospels.

And although Superman seems romantically attracted to Lois Lane, and she to him, he seems to lead a celibate life. This is his choice, not hers. Again, seemingly a pointed parallel with the life of Jesus.

Is Superman touching on a need that most people have for a Savior who has powers beyond the powers of this world? Do we yearn for a savior? There seem to be other examples in the world of entertainment – the T.V., the comics, as well as in the movies.

For example, the Bionic Woman, the 6 Million Dollar Man, the Hulk, the Phantom, all save people from themselves by powers not given to us ordinary humans. All these seem to resonate with ancient and continuing hungers within us that long for miracles to solve problems and heal ills which we cannot do for ourselves.

Much of religious lore, myth, ritual in many cultures reflect this: the location for miracles at Lourdes and St. Anne Beaupre, the powers of voodoo possessed by African and Haitian doctors, the hand of God in Egypt enabling the Children of Israel to escape from Pharaoh and his soldiers, the many cultures which have Gods siring human children – one could go on.

Much of this yearning for a savior is born in the nature of human experience. Always there have been tragedies and ills which defy explanation, personal and in society. So many have known the numbing impact of personal failure (e.g., disillusion with behavior of persons who had been trusted), discouraging events, frustration, death of hope, devastation of war, social conflict, ... physical world – tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, killing thousands somewhere in the world almost every year.

So many persons in all times have not received a fair share of liberty, rights, justice, food, shelter, care on this earth. Look anywhere – this has always been true. One can understand the dream of a heaven where there is reward, compensation, bliss. There are millions, living and dead, who like the Psalmist have prayed in their agony, “out of the depths have I cried out to Thee, O God.”

But for good or ill, there are those of us who see “salvation” or better, wholeness, improvement, justice, as a task for us in this world, in spite of limits on our power, knowledge, and strength. Think of the concluding verses in the collection of sayings attributed to Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 7 – 24/26):

“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand....”

[CJW notes: each built his house. God did not build – nor prevent rains and floods. The ... & resp was human... it would be true no matter who said it]

This has truth not because Jesus said it but because it is true in human experience. The way we build, the way we live, has more to do with the qualities and gratifications of this mystery of life than Superman or Jesus Christ Superstar.

One of the historic statements of Unitarians is “salvation by character.” Character is what we are and what we do. John Murray Atwood used to tell the story (from a Quaker source) about the little boy who was smeared with dirt as he happily made mud-pies. A lady said to him, “come with me and we will wash you up and tell you how to get to be an angel in heaven.” The little boy answered, “I don’t want to be an angel in heaven, I want to be an angel here in the mud.”

Regardless of what may await us in worlds beyond our experience, character involves what we are and what we do in this world. The English educator L.P. Jacks once asked, “What should we know of goodness if we only heard it talked about and never seen a good man or a good woman?”

One thing more about Hollywood and comic book saviors. With all their super-powers, they do not seem to address or suggest solutions to the big problems. They do well with devilishly clever thieves, con-men, and perpetrators of individual crimes. But if I lived near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, I might be tempted to shout, “Superman, where are you, now that we need you!”

A supernatural savior won’t save us from nuclear power failures. The remedy resides in our acquiring the consciousness that with radiation technology we may be like unto the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. We turned something on that we can’t turn off. There could well be more such failures and the cure is not going to come from outer space and the planet Krypton. If we are willing to trade-off such danger, and possibly, devastation, in order to satisfy our needs for energy fuel, then let’s say so. But if not, let’s not listen only to the nuclear industry but concerned scientists. [CJW notes: Pres – “stable + improv.” Today – possibility of “explosion – wider ... actuation....]

This is one of many issues where it will be difficult to target an individual sinner for key social problems. I wonder how many of the 22,000 employees of the Department of Energy with its $10-$12 billion budget know whether the citizenry just want energy or whether we want safe energy. [CJW note: We probably don’t know ourselves. But high time we asked, “what are the tradeoffs?”]

That is of course just one issue – possibility of war will be stronger if we fail to reach an arms limitation with the Soviet Union. On and on.

Do we need a Savior? Yes, but the only one I see or understand combines us all in a saving process, an effort to be informed, to focus on human values, and to never permit our decision-makers to forget what we want for this family of humankind to be and to become. William James once wrote, “habit is the great flywheel of our social life.”

I cherish the hope that I and others will make a habit of advocacy of human values wherever and whenever we can.

The Myth of God Incarnate

January 1, 1978
Lakeland
(also: Naples, 1/8/78)

The Myth of God Incarnate

Among the faults I have found in myself, and other religious liberals, is the error of the single road to truth. Fact, reason, and logic have been our way of judging the rightness or wrongness of an idea or image presented for our belief. If a story cannot be historically verified, or seems unreasonable, then for us it is either superstition or swindle, or so we say.

I read to you from a statement by Rosemary Reuther. Let me repeat a key sentence: “For myself, I find a certain shallowness in the rationalist or liberal tradition, a certain lack of the depth [in the] symbolic dimension, the intuitive, the symbolic which in fact has been more characteristic of what has usually been called religious experience.”

Is she touching a weakness in us?

In taking as a focus point the recent book, THE MYTH OF GOD INCARNATE, my object is to present the possibility that we are depriving ourselves of some of life’s fullness by switching off the power of myth (although we do make an exception at Christmas – albeit some of us are unnecessarily apologetic and vaguely guilty about singing the Christ carols or going to midnight mass).

I will speak of a few of the main points of the book, discuss why myth seems a universal human experience, and attempt, or begin to attempt, to deal with the place of myth in a religion such as ours, a religious emphasis which seemingly places its trust in rationality.

First, THE MYTH OF GOD INCARNATE, a book by seven English scholars (theological professors, N.T. studies), has caused a minor furor in more fundamentalist Christian circles. The historic creeds of the Christian church have maintained that, basic to the Christian faith, is the belief that God took human form in Jesus, incarnated. That is, the deity took on the flesh, bone, blood, and mind of a human being, Jesus. The orthodox church wrestled for centuries with the difficulty of expressing this God-Man relationship. How could God become man and still be fully God? How could man be God and still fully man? In two historic councils of the church, Nicea (325) and Chalcedon (451), the orthodox bishops found their formulas for creedal understanding of how Jesus could be both God and man.

Nicea (325): “Jesus was Very God of Very God, Begotten and not made, being of one substance with the Father; who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary.”

Chalcedon (451), in the attempt to stifle heresies adopted clarification of Nicea: Jesus was “perfect in Godhead and perfect in manhood; in two natures, unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably.”

The writers of the book are Christian scholars who attempt to deal with considerations which are certainly not new to us. In their preface, they quote T. S. Eliot: “Christianity is always adapting itself into something which can be believed.”

From the mid-19th century on to the present, “Western Christianity has had to make two major new adjustments in response to important enlargements of human knowledge. It accepted that humans are part of nature and ... emerged within the evolution of the forms of life on this earth; and it accepted that the books of the Bible were written by a variety of human beings in a variety of circumstances and cannot be accorded a verbal divine authority.” (Of course, fundamentalists have not accepted either evolution or biblical errancy).

Furthermore as the varied studies of the Christian literature (N.T.) proceeded, there was increasing recognition that the Jesus portrayed in the Gospels (except for John) was a man approved by God for a special role within the divine purpose and that the later conceptions of him as God incarnate, the second person of the Trinity, living a human life, is a mythological or poetic way of expressing his significance for Christians.

The Christian myth is that God was incarnate in the baby Jesus through the miraculous conception by the God of the Virgin Mary. Miraculous births were not unusual attributions to be made of outstanding leaders or extraordinarily gifted persons. It [was a] way of explaining genius....

Plato, greatest of philosophers, was believed by many to have been of divine birth. Others said that Pythagoras was the divine son of Hermes. Plutarch, [the] biographer, seemed to believe it was beyond question that Alexander was a descendant of Heracles on his father’s side and from the mythical heroes of Troy on his mother’s [side].

Augustus was Caesar during the time Jesus was born and court circles suggested and promoted the notion that Augustus was a god come to earth – an incarnation.

In 48 BCE [an] Asian inscription speaks of Julius Caesar as “God manifest, offspring of Ares and Aphrodite and common savior of human life.” Perhaps the most noble – beautiful and different – God incarnate [was the] child of poor people whose message was to the dispossessed.

The book, THE MYTH OF GOD INCARNATE, attempts to deal with how a Christian today can confront the myth and reconcile its poetry and metaphor with the age we now live. That is not my concern today.

Most of us who are Unitarian Universalists think of Jesus as human, [and] do not have to deal with a particular doctrine of God-Man or supernatural redeeming savior based on an exclusive redeeming scheme by a savior who was God Incarnate.

In a peculiar sort of way, we religious radicals, as most might think us, are in the same position as those Christian fundamentalists who are disturbed by such treatment of myth as in the book. The Christian fundamentalists do not want to entertain the thought that the Christian salvation scheme (virgin birth, crucifixion, resurrection) is mythology; they believe it to be a literal fact. We do not easily accept the Christian scheme as mythology because we believe it has been preached as fact – a fact we deny is true on historical, literary, theological, and rational grounds.

However, we Unitarian Universalists, who presume ourselves to be rational creatures, are mistaken if we easily or quickly put down or dismiss myths as stories that just are not true. We tend to forget, or ignore much of the time, that the human being is not just a creature using logic and reason, but more often is a creature possessing creative imagination.

Joseph Campbell, the scholar with the widest knowledge and deepest insight into myth, said that “myth is an imaginative elaboration of fundamental problems and tensions in the form of a story speaking symbolically to the whole human condition.”

Others speak of myth as a “rise to consciousness from the depth level of the human psyche” or the myth “wakes realities which logical thought will never be able to express.”

Jung wrote “nothing influences our conduct less than do intellectual ideas. An idea molds man/woman only when it is an expression of psychic experience.”

Persons, pre-historic as well as historic, have a hunger for meaning. Who am I? Why am I alive? Why is the cold bitter? The sun scorching? The tiger ferocious? Why does drought and flood destroy our food and leave us hungry? Why do I hurt? What and why is death? What is the God power or Powers that made man/woman, beast, field, and stream? The seasons, the tides, the sun, the moon, and stars? Does the Power care about us? Does the Power care about me?

My surmise is that the variety of incarnation myths represent answers people have made to the last question. If there is an all-powerful god, does he/she care about us? The mythical answer has been yes – He (in historic times, God has been he in the monotheistic religions) came to earth as a babe of miraculous birth, as with Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, Mithra.

Welling up from deep unarticulated feelings, many peoples in many cultures have created a god who cared about people; who was incarnate in human form; who in some cases sacrificed all for the people who worshiped him. So it was with the ancient Egyptians, Hindus, Greeks, Romans, even the ancient Hebrews, for Yahveh appeared to Gideon (Jud. 6/14) and Abraham (Gen 18/1 ff). In the creation myth of Adam and Eve, Yahveh was walking in the Garden in the cool of the evening – a vivid, anthropomorphic and pastoral incarnation.

We are part of a religious group that imposes no myth in the form of dogma, creed, or incarnated God. We number among us agnostics, atheists, and believers in a God based on reason. Many there are among us who assert that no myth is needed, only fidelity to the ongoing search for truth and the achieving of a greater measure of social justice for people on earth.

Yet I have a hunch that there are many among us who have asked, even as I have asked myself and speculated many times, is there love, care, imagination, beyond, behind, or underneath our human experience? Are these experiences of love, imagination, caring, sensitivity as we know them in our human condition, incarnations of forces that are part of all creation, somehow?

I do know that in those moments when I can say “yes” to that speculation, the universe is a home; in my skeptical moments, when I say “no” the universe is a house, but not a home.

The most difficult part of this talk is how to conclude it. I believe we all have mythologies – justice, truth, a better society – these are myths, too, born of our ideals and imagination – a bit thin because of being rather abstract. We have not usually allowed our imagination to bubble over with images born of our feelings [and] metaphors.

Let me end this with two thoughts, one by John Hick in the book I have referred to where he writes (p. 180) “It seems clear that we are being called today to attain a global religious vision which is aware of the unity of all mankind before God and which at the same time makes sense of the diversity of God’s ways within the various streams of human life.”

Many years ago, William James wrote “truth and fact well up in our lives in ways that exceed verbal formulations. There is in the living act of perception always something which glimmers and twinkles and will not be caught and for which reflection comes too late.”