Jesus As Brother
by Phillip Griffin, Ph.D.
Galde Press, Inc

The basic theme of Dr. Phillip Griffin's book is the unrecognized evil that undermines American democracy. That unrecognized evil is triumphalism.

Triumphalism is the belief that one religion is essentially superior to, and is divinely ordained to, supercede and replace all others. The evil that faces American democracy in general and American Christianity in particular is the unrecognized element of triumphalism. It infects America's churches and schools, its political and economic institutions and its popular culture.

Griffin wrote that Harold Bloom was one to first use the awkward-sounding term in his 1992 book, The American Religion, "The American religion moves towards the twenty-first century with an unrestrained triumphalism." Griffin wrote this book to make a radical statement about the "Christ" of Christianity. His thesis is that the unique quality of Jesus is that of an entirely different order of person from the popular "Christ." Jesus as Brother is the brother of every person, of whatever race, gender, or heritage.

This makes a family of all humanity, each person due the same respect and advantage.

To segregate any portion of humanity as less worthy than others violates the example and teachings of Jesus.

This segregation is the root of the evil of triumphalism, which infects our American culture. Christianity in America has assimilated triumphalism from the Puritans down to the mainline churches today and their multitude of branches and twigs. The equality of all citizens, which is enshrined in our historical documents, is undermined by this evil belief. Greed and arrogance flow into our domestic and global policies from the poison of personal, political, and denominational triumphalism.

Christianity owes to America a vision of Jesus as brother that is not obscured by triumphalism so that our culture is not infected by triumphalism. Christian triumphalism is the root cause of the erosion of our social conscience.

In the past, triumphalism sanctified the conquest, subjugation, and extermination of less powerful human beings by adherents of American triumphalistic religion. Enslavement of imported Africans and deliberate decimation of the native population was one of the ways in which triumphalism was expressed in America in the past. Currently, the triumphalistic attitude is manifest in other ways, most grievously in the acceptance as "normal" a dysfunctional economic system that produces great extremes of hereditary wealth and hereditary poverty. Typically the mainline churches accept poverty, homelessness and economic exploitation as inevitable, and charity as the "normal" way of dealing with them. The hungry need food, but hungry children need a way to escape a future of hunger.

This normalization of poverty is part of the culture of Christianity, but is it compatible with the way Jesus lived and taught? Jesus placed his priority on mutually respectful and nurturing relationships between people. For us as individuals and as a society, this way of life is a valid source of hope that we can improve the America of the future.

This review originally appeared in the May 2003 issue of Humanist News and Views, a publication of the Humanists of Minnesota.