Incarnation has always been Christianity’s fundamental belief. Yet we have focused on dogma and abstract ideas instead of the actual transformation of our own incarnate humanity. Many religions have given in to the hard-to-resist temptation of power and control, emphasizing Jesus’ Gospel as a matter outside of us, instead of His truth within us.
A good example is the theological symbolism of the literal belief in the virgin birth of Jesus. It has not been translated into a spiritual discipline of inner poverty and human vulnerability. It has remained a “mere lesson memorized” as Isaiah puts it (29:13). It “saves” no one.
Likewise, the belief that Jesus rose from the dead is a good start, but until we realize that the crucified and risen Jesus is a moral allegory about our journey as humans, and even the universe, it will leave us and the world largely unchanged.
Many of us are now beginning to access the skills to go deeper into things in search of God.
Today, we are recovering the freedom and inner consent to move toward depth. It would be tragic if we never respond to this divine prompt. Male initiation rites since ancient history have assumed this, but today, such inner journeys and basic initiation experiences are considered unessential and outside of faith and religion.
2 Corinthians 3:6 "He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life."
