Jesus' Copernican Revolution: The Revelation of Divine Mercy - Softcover

Danaher, James P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1557789185 ISBN 13: 9781557789181

Publisher: Paragon House, 2016

Synopsis

We initially read and experience everything through our cultural and linguistic prejudices. However, we achieve higher levels of consciousness when those prejudices are exposed and we move beyond them. Copernicus and Kant offered a higher level of consciousness and a better way to see the world. Jesus also offered us a higher level of consciousness by replacing rational justice with love and mercy. This divine level of consciousness threatens to destroy our sacred prejudices. So we worship Jesus as God, telling ourselves that we cannot ascend to this level of consciousness. But Jesus tells us “to be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect,” knowing that our failure to achieve perfection will bring us to the experience of God’s mercy, and it is the repeated experience of mercy that in time begins to make us into his merciful likeness, and we find that our conventional concepts of faith, love, and justice are transformed.

About this title

About the Author

James P. Danaher, Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Philosophy Department at Nyack College, Nyack, NY. His recent books include The Second Truth; Jesus after Modernity; and Eyes that See, Ears that Hear. Over seventy of his articles have appeared in philosophy and theology journals.

Review

Extravagant love, revealed through divine mercy, answers the most fundamental question we should ask: “Who is God?” In Jesus’ Copernican Revolution James P. Danaher proves again why he is a philosopher who knows the important questions Christians should really ask about Jesus. In helping us see Jesus he shatters our stereotypes of God by showing us what it means to really see God, the Word made flesh. If we could learn how to listen to Jesus we would be enabled to truly see and hear how he alone speaks to our deepest need. Danaher grasps why the indicative (what God has done) must always precede the imperative (what we should do). I needed this book! (John H. Armstrong, Founder and President, ACT3 Network, Carol Stream, IL www.act3network.com)

Danaher (The Second Truth), philosophy professor at Nyack College, attempts to rediscover the revolutionary nature of Jesus' message by linking his words to scientific discovery. Like Copernicus or Newton, Danaher asserts, Jesus inaugurated a revolution in our perception of how the world works. All too often, he argues, Christians can water down Jesus' teachings by twisting them to support a private, convenient notion of justice in which righteousness is earned through adherence to doctrine. Danaher believes Jesus ‘does violence to our sacred prejudices’ with his radical mercy that ignores received wisdom about consequences and rewards. Danaher provides concise overviews of medieval theories of atonement, and close readings of Gospel passages, especially parables, that helpfully illustrate Jesus' narrow but uplifting vision. His choice to structure the book thematically introduces a surprising amount of repetition and sometimes feels cursory in shorter chapters. In the best sections, Danaher exposes how American Christianity's devotion to wealth and the family runs counter to Jesus' strong warnings against both. This is a fresh look at some fundamentalist misconceptions of the message of Jesus. (Mar.)

(Publishers Weekly)

Edition details

• Publisher: Paragon House
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1557789185
• ISBN 13: 9781557789181
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 150