Hermann Weyl, the Swiss mathematician, in his book Space-Time-Matter, in Chapter III discusses Galilei’s Principle of Relativity (or Newton’s first law), and says that the union of space and time gives rise to difficulties, and their solution is one of the greatest feats of human intellect, and is associated above all with the names of Copernicus and Einstein. To imagine in the Medieval World that the Earth is not the centre of the Universe, but merely a minor planet in the solar system, was an act of genius (despite Aristarchus having had the same thought 1800 years earlier). And to imagine that space and time were not absolute (as Newton had to assume to construct his theory of gravitation), that there was no aether and no simultaneity, was also an act of genius. Hence Weyl’s homage to Copernicus and Einstein. It is impossible for the ordinary mind to question the firm assumptions of those around him. Even Roger Bacon, 1210 until at least 1292, who wrote that the greatest science was experiment, and who did more than anyone to break the stranglehold of scholasticism, and open the door to scientific research, could not question that biblical truth took precedence over experimental truth. He was a Franciscan, and could hardly defy the whole discipline of his Order. Besides he spent long years in prison for daring to question as much as he did!
So what are today’s unquestionable assumptions that must be questioned?
The other way of beginning again is to treat Jesus as his disciples did at first, just as a man. A good man, a gifted man certainly, probably a charismatic man of great charm, who loved a party; even a man filled with the spirit of God. The prophets of old had been filled with the spirit of God, and perhaps he was one of them. But above all, he was a leader, someone who seemed to know where he was going. Where was he intending to go? Well, he saw himself as destined to fulfil the Law and the Prophets; and people could interpret that in a number of ways. He interpreted it as meaning that he should preach to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. He had no interest in a wider mission.
It was St.Paul who became convinced that he must preach to the Gentiles, which means us. And very sensibly he left the historical Jesus behind. The Gentiles would have had no interest in him. St.Paul preached Christ crucified and resurrected. He was right; the important thing was the Incarnation, and its meaning for us. To concentrate on the historical Jesus, and whether he could have dodged the crucifixion, and gone to live happily with Mary Magdalene, with whom he was probably in love, is speculation we can do without. The fact is he did not dodge it. The one thing that nobody considered was that Jesus might have once been sitting on a throne in heaven, and had come down to earth as part of the process of Evolution, which of course was God’s way of leading mankind from spiritual childhood to spiritual maturity. Nor were the Jewish High Priests exactly children. No-one had these esoteric thoughts.
It is all very well to speculate on the Creator desiring to taste his own creation, and find it was not a children’s party for Him to enjoy, but a very bitter pill for him to swallow. But it is flying in the face of common sense to imagine that Jesus grasped the full implications of his Ministry at the start. His violent denunciation of Bethsaida and Capernaum makes no sense, unless we credit him with expecting them to repent. In other words, when he preached that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand, he did actually think that it was a realistic possibility. Disillusionment came later. But for us it is crucial to bring modern science to bear on the problem, which the Church never does. For Jesus to have believed it was his vocation to fulfil the Law and the Prophets necessitated him identifying himself with the archetype of God in his psyche, either the wise old man, or the perpetual youth. There is evidence that Jesus did both. In Mathew’s Gospel when he first sent out his disciples, after choosing them, his commission included raising the dead, Chapter 10 v.8. Near the end of his life, in one of his interminable rows with “the Jews”, they questioned how he could have seen Abraham? And Jesus replied that he was alive before Abraham, and therefore had lived from all eternity, John Chapter 9 v.58. There are other examples.