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In Jesus and the Gospel of God, Don Cupitt takes a second look at the doctrine of the incarnation, going back to Scripture itself and especially to the person of Jesus as we see him in the synoptic gospels. His declared aim is to restore the real Jesus to his proper centrality in the Christian faith, and to focus attention on the man and his message rather than on doctrines about him.
He begins by making a distinction between the primitive eschatological faith and the developed dogmatic faith. The primitive faith, he believes, was at its purest in John the Baptist, Jesus and the first generation Christians. It was practical and immediate and concerned with salvation. The developed dogmatic faith was really an adaptation which took place over 22 years by which time Christians were reading back some of the new dogmas into the New Testament.
Today we have to go back and begin again at the beginning with Jesus. The old religion is returning. Christianity must become again a pure religion of salvation.
In thus re-examining the doctrine of the incarnation Don Cupitt leads us on a new search for the religious meaning of Jesus' message and its implications for belief in God today. He writes in his usual clear style, with a minimum of unfamiliar terms, and so produces a book which deserves a wide readership and may well take its place as one of a small number of pioneering works.
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