Sunday, May 6, 2007

Whitehead on Caesar-fying God

"When the Western world accepted Christianity, Caesar conquered; and the received text of Western theology was edited by his lawyers…The brief Galilean vision of humility flickered throughout the ages, uncertainly. In the official formulation of the religion it has assumed the trivial form of the mere attribution to the Jews that they cherished a misconception about their Messiah. But the deeper idolatry, of fashioning God in the image of the Egyptian, Persian, and Roman imperial rulers was retained. The Church gave unto God the attributes which belonged exclusively to Caesar."
Process and Reality 342

1 comment:

Zach Roberts said...

I like this quote.

Crossin's book is amazing by the way. I read the final chapter and epilogue in preparing for my sermon this past Sunday. Now I am starting at the beginning.

Thanks for the book!