A RELIGIOUS VIEW OF NATURE AND THE UNIVERSE
David Wagstaff
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Jesus, Evolution’s child! It was the theme of Canon Professor Raven’s Riddell Lectures to Durham University in 1935, published in 1936, that Jesus had fulfilled Evolution. I think he was right; but Jesus could only fulfil it as an individual. True, he preached a way of life, and taught about the correct relationship between God and Man, and man to neighbour. But he never got the chance to find out if his Kingdom of God measured up to the realities of community life; he was crucified first. So he could only fulfil Evolution as an individual. But you cannot expect Evolution to stop there. Man is gregarious, and Evolution will not stop at least until it has tried to fulfil itself in Society too. And it may not stop there either.
The Church has turned its back on modern knowledge in every age, including our own. So it knows nothing of Evolution. Indeed some clergy of the Church of England, of which I am a member, are so ignorant they do not even know that Evolution has taken place. And the C.of E. as a whole preaches about an unreal world, or a world that no longer exists. It keeps the memory of Jesus alive, which is vital; and that is about all that can be said for it. So it is necessary to rewrite Religion, if one is to understand in modern terms Jesus’ unique contribution to life, and what he necessarily had to leave undone. This I now propose to do.
Jesus certainly enjoyed life while he could. I doubt if Confucius did; he wanted a government job, and I think never got it. I doubt if the Buddha enjoyed life much. Whatever his personal habits, the impression he left behind is that he renounced life. As regards Mohammed, I could not say. Man is gregarious. Yet Jesus had nothing useful to say about the organisation of Society, or Man’s relationship to it. As regards God’s attitude to world events, or the rise and fall of Empires and Cultures, I doubt if he ever thought about it. But we have to; we are in danger of being blown to smithereens! Hence the need to make a start. I am in the tradition of St.Paul, St.Augustine, St.Thomas Aquinas and Martin Luther. The Empires that have lasted, have always been Empires of the Mind.
The view of Carl Gustav Jung was that we all, from the highest to the lowest, have as an inheritance the spiritual experience of the entire human race in our subconscious. For most of us, this remains in archaic sleep throughout our lives. He regarded Greek and Roman gods as Archetypes in the subconscious, which have a habit of coming alive, if you respond to them. I think one should view Christianity in the same light. Whatever the overarching truth, it too is an Archetype in the subconscious; which Jesus was the first to bring alive in any meaningful way. He dared to believe he had communion with the Creator. So can we.