Philip Jenkins' book: JESUS WARS.

"[I]f Jesus is just God and not man,

"then he's not somebody who can be emulated

"-- he's just a divine tourist."



Snippet from the interview of Philip Jenkins by Jeremy Lott in The Catholic World News. May 2010.


The full title in CWR is: God and Man: Philip Jenkins on the battles in the early Church over the nature of Christ.

Question:

"You say that the various parties were wrong to resort to violence, but you also argue that ancient Christians were exactly right to be so passionate about their causes because the debates were critical to the definition of Christianity today.

"How so?"

Answer:

"I look at different ways that Christianity might have emerged.

"The Orthodox / Catholic Church did a lot of things wrong but it was fighting for this basic belief in the humanity of Jesus.

"What might have happened to Christianity had this been lost?

"It would have affected the whole ethical basis of later Christianity.

"The imitation of Christ, the whole idea of What would Jesus do?, becomes impossible because if Jesus is just God and not man, he's not somebody who can be emulated -- he's just a divine tourist..."

Good points, you all! :)