When the Saxons arrived, the potential leaders were in cloisters, and no-one with sufficient character rose to unite the whole country to resist. So Britain went down before the invaders, and Christianity was wiped out in England for 150 years, though not in Wales. Did the Risen Christ think this was an improvement? Were a few saintly souls worth the destruction of his Church and of the incomparable benefit it conferred on ordinary people? Or was this cloistered virtue a thoroughly selfish and irresponsible response to duty?
The brutal truth is that Western Civilization has flourished by taking what it wanted from Christianity: not by practising it. Even in as mundane a job as the Law, my experience is that evil will always triumph if you rely on Christian precepts. You need something much more robust, if you are to win good cases by honest means. What is true of the Law, I am sure is equally true of most other trades and professions. It is impossible to take any part in civic life, unless one has confidence in one’s own inner judgement, and refuses to pay homage to a religion outside oneself. Religion has to be based on the indwelling spirit of God, or it is useless, except as a social accomplishment .
Bonhoeffer was saying, before he was murdered by the Nazis in April 1945, that mankind had come of age. If he was right, you now have to preach to adults who are capable of making up their own minds, and whose opinions may be much better informed than the preacher’s. Your only authority now is the eloquent authority of persuasion and example. To persuade, you must believe every word you speak; which means that your beliefs must be the fruit of your experience, and not a dogma learned by rote. To be an example, you need to have had power which ultimately you have used for good. Jesus remains the most persuasive example, because after all he had no official position during his three years Ministry; but that does not mean one takes everything he said literally, or that one is excused from using one’s own judgement and discretion.
Even Albert Schweitzer thought Jesus made mistakes. He was hopelessly wrong if he foretold his second coming within the lifetime of some of those present. He is recorded as having done so; the legend of his imminent return lasted a long time, and it must have sprung from something he said. So it looks as though he did say it. Far be it from me to denigrate the possibility that he will return in clouds and glory; but the fact stares us in the face that he may have been hopelessly wrong about that too. It looks more likely that any second coming will be an outpouring of spiritual power which will overshadow Pentecost, as Pentecost overshadowed what went before it. Traditionally the gospel healings have been exalted into a proof that Jesus was God. But nowadays the many stories of the gospel healings are taken rather as proof that the Gospels are largely fantasy, because no-one can reproduce them. Only if they can be reproduced in part at least, will the Gospels once again be restored in popular imagination. If they are, then men may believe that the spirit of God was in Jesus, whether or not he was immortal in the flesh, and however many mistakes he made.
If that is what he was, immortal in the flesh, then most assuredly we should follow him through thick and thin. But suppose we did, and men and women found themselves to be immortal; what would they do? It would be unthinkable for them just to enjoy themselves, and do as they pleased; they would become diabolical in no time. That is what happens when you are so arrogant as to think God will serve your convenience. The only thing they could do would be to build the New Jerusalem. But could they do it? Just consider for one moment the publication “Putting Asunder”, the product of a committee of the Church of England, which was meant to offer wise advice to the secular world on marriage and divorce. It was a shambles; and I explain why in my book. The C.of E. is in no position to offer advice to the secular world; and perhaps literal immortality in this world is a consummation best avoided. Perhaps the idea of immortality in this world should be limited to the quality of a man’s actions, which is what I argue for at great length in my book. The willingness to die, that another may live.