I have been thinking.... sometimes I do that. When I posted some quotations from Rabbi Kushner, Mike made the comment that Kushner sounds more and more Christian. I had thought that too and was wondering what brought that about. I see three possible situations and throw these in to prompt your thinking.
1. Kushner is a thinking Jewish leader living in a culture whose dominant religion is Christianity. He obviously reads Christian literature. So the first scenario is that this Jewish writer's thinking and understanding has been coloured by the thoughts and perspectives of the Christian faith around him. This is perhaps a very arrogant, patronising "Christian-centred" view that would be insulting to Kushner's spiritual journey. (Though I know my perspectives on Jesus are influenced by a wide variety of experiences and perspectives.... I guess that's why I am reading Kushner in the first place.)
2. The second possibility is that Kushner is a good, thinking, "open-to-the-divine" Jew. That Jesus in his time was a good, thinking, "open-to-the-divine" Jew. That here we have two Jewish spiritual high flyers who have come to the same conclusions about God. So Kushner's perspectives as a Jew end up being similar to Jesus perspectives as a Jew. Should that be surprising?
3. The third scenario is one I am becoming convinced of also and I believe gives the world some hope for the future. Henry Fowler has listed off I think 5 stages of Spiritual growth. (M.Scott-Peck suggests that most churches are run by people at stage two!) The higher stages tend toward mystical, communal and universal thinking. They are more aware that the whole world is a community. Now I suspect that whatever "religion" we are, as we grow spiritually, we come closer together in what we see as important. So the "spiritual-high-flyers" of whatever religion are sometimes closer to each other than say the stage one or two people of their own religion. It is a bit like my experience of the Christian religion. There are fundamentalists that I find extremely hard to mix with and talk with. I recall once we had some people visiting who were pontificating about the bible etc etc. and I found myself having to get out of the lounge and go water the garden. I was feeling so assaulted, offended and in a sense "violated". But... when I have been involved in caring outreach into the community (e.g. Habitat for Humanity, the Night Shelter Trust etc. Industrial chaplaincy) I rub shoulders with raving charismatics, seventh-day Adventists, conservative baptists, keen catholics etc. and discover and experience an unmistakable unity in Christ. Because... the people involved are listening to the same sort of nudges, and calling from Christ as I am. We may differ dramatically in heaps of theological areas, but are together in following Jesus. I suspect that higher stages of people from different religions ring bells with each other in the same way. I suspect that there are spiritual realities, experiences and connections that the spiritual athletes from a variety of religions have in common, and those realities end up looking like Jesus' experience and perspectives.
I recall reading some meditations by Anwar Sadat (A Muslim) years ago and thinking, "That is so much like Jesus!" If you read about Ghandi in his actions and thinking there is the same experience... the way of Jesus is expressed. Barack Obama shared this perspective. He says, "I am rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people, that there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and that there's an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived." Marcus Borg edited a book called "God at 2000". In it people from various religious perspectives give their understanding of "God". He sums up the points of agreement.
1. God, or the "sacred," is ineffable, beyond all words and concepts;
2. God is not "a being," but a non-material layer or level or dimension of reality that permeates everything, and at the same time, is more than everything;
3. God can be experienced.
So my understanding is that Kushner is a Jewish scholar who also is in the higher levels of "spiritual maturity" and as such his teachings and perspectives are similar to Jesus' perspectives. This may sound heretical to conservative Christians, but it is evident that my measuring stick is still Jesus. (Not necessarily "Christianity".)
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