Monday, April 10, 2017

Jesus: Our Guide to Mystical Love in Action


This year for Holy Week I share three excerpts from an interview with scholar and teacher Andrew Harvey.

This interview, conducted by Michael Bertrand and first published online soon after the release of Harvey's 1999 book, Son of Man: The Mystical Path to Christ, focuses on Jesus as "guide to mystical love in action." It's an interview that can also be found in Harvey's 2012 anthology, Radical Passion: Sacred Love and Wisdom in Action (previously highlighed here).

The Wild Reed's 2017 Holy Week series also includes images that seek to depict Jesus as the embodiment of the Cosmic Christ, which, as Harvey reminds us, is an expression in the West for the universal force of divine love, "the force of active, divine love that streams from the godhead to the creation."

The authentic Christ is a mystical revolutionary – an emotional, social, and political revolutionary. The force of the Cosmic Christ is one which [equips] us on all of these levels to make us capable of not only being directed to the Divine but of acting with that divine connection in the inferno of reality. This whole vision of mystical action is very important at a moment when [humanity is] so much in danger.

Resurrecting the authentic Christ [is therefore] the most important work at the moment, because what is essential is that the heart of the West be transformed. Western civilization must go through a very radical and very complete transformation, because, after all, it's the West that has the overwhelming power at the moment. The fate of the world depends, in a way, upon that power.

I believed once that the Eastern religions by themselves had enough mystical power and great tradition of understanding to be able to transform the West. Now I believe that the Western transformation can come through not only making available the great mystical practices of the East, but also through a restoration of the authentic Christ to the heart of the West.

The Cosmic Christ is the universal force of divine love, the force of active love that streams from the godhead to the creation. It is also the force of divine love that is incarnate in the human being. It's a transcendent and immanent force that is at once one with the divine love that's sustaining the universe at every level and also incarnate in every one of us, whether we're Christian, Buddhist, or whatever we call ourselves, at the very core of our being.

– Andrew Harvey
Excerpted from "Resurrecting the Authentic Christ:
Jesus as Guide to Mystical Love in Action"
in Radical Passion: Sacred Love & Wisdom in Action
pp. 229-231


NEXT: Part 2


For more of Andrew Harvey's writing at The Wild Reed, see:
The Cosmic Christ: Brother, Lover, Friend, Divine and Tender Guide
Jesus: Path-Blazer of Radical Transformation
The Essential Christ
Andrew Harvey on Radical, Divine Passion in Action
In the Garden of Spirituality – Andrew Harvey
Toby Johnson on the Mysticism of Andrew Harvey
A Dance of Divine Light
Reclaiming a Wise, Spacious, and Holy Understanding of Homosexuality





For The Wild Reed's 2016 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Richard Horsley's 1993 book Jesus and the Spiral of Violence, accompanied by images of Juan Pablo Di Pace as Jesus in the 2015 NBC mini-series A.D.: The Bible Continues), see:
Jesus and Social Revolution (Part 1)
Jesus and Social Revolution (Part 2)
Jesus and Social Revolution (Part 3)






For The Wild Reed's 2015 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Cletus Wessels' book Jesus in the New Universe Story), see:
The Two Entwined Events of the Easter Experience
Resurrection in an Emerging Universe
Resurrection: A New Depth of Consciousness


For The Wild Reed's 2014 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from John Neafsey's book A Sacred Voice is Calling: Personal Vocation and Social Conscience), see:
"To Die and So to Grow"
The Way of the Wounded Warrior
Suffering and Redemption
A God With Whom It is Possible to Connect
A Discerning Balance Between Holiness and Wholeness: A Hallmark of the Resurrected Life




For The Wild Reed's 2013 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Albert Nolan’s book Jesus Before Christianity, accompanied by images of Jesus that some might call "unconventional"), see:
Jesus: The Upside-down Messiah
Jesus: Mystic and Prophet
Jesus and the Art of Letting Go
Within the Mystery, a Strange and Empty State of Suspension
Jesus: The Revelation of Oneness




For The Wild Reed's 2012 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Cynthia Bourgeault's book The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind – A New Perspective on Christ and His Message), see:
The Passion: "A Sacred Path of Liberation"
Beyond Anger and Guilt
Judas and Peter
No Deeper Darkness
When Love Entered Hell
The Resurrected Jesus . . .


For The Wild Reed's 2011 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Albert Nolan’s book Jesus Before Christianity, accompanied by images of various cinematic depictions of Jesus), see:
"Who Is This Man?"
A Uniquely Liberated Man
An Expression of Human Solidarity
No Other Way
Two Betrayals
And What of Resurrection?
Jesus: The Breakthrough in the History of Humanity
To Believe in Jesus



For The Wild Reed’s 2010 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Andrew Harvey’s book Son of Man: The Mystical Path to Christ), see:
Jesus: Path-Blazer of Radical Transformation
The Essential Christ
One Symbolic Iconoclastic Act
One Overwhelming Fire of Love
The Most Dangerous Kind of Rebel
Resurrection: Beyond Words, Dogmas and All Possible Theological Formulations
The Cosmic Christ: Brother, Lover, Friend, Divine and Tender Guide




For The Wild Reed’s 2009 Holy Week series (featuring the artwork of Doug Blanchard and the writings of Marcus Borg, James and Evelyn Whitehead, John Dominic Crossan, Andrew Harvey, Francis Webb, Dianna Ortiz, Uta Ranke-Heinemann and Paula Fredriksen), see:
The Passion of Christ (Part 1) – Jesus Enters the City
The Passion of Christ (Part 2) – Jesus Drives Out the Money Changers
The Passion of Christ (Part 3) – Last Supper
The Passion of Christ (Part 4) – Jesus Prays Alone
The Passion of Christ (Part 5) – Jesus Before the People
The Passion of Christ (Part 6) – Jesus Before the Soldiers
The Passion of Christ (Part 7) – Jesus Goes to His Execution
The Passion of Christ (Part 8) – Jesus is Nailed the Cross
The Passion of Christ (Part 9) – Jesus Dies
The Passion of Christ (Part 10) – Jesus Among the Dead
The Passion of Christ (Part 11) – Jesus Appears to Mary
The Passion of Christ (Part 12) – Jesus Appears to His Friends

Opening image:
Artist unknown.


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