The Wisedom Jesus

The wisdom Jesus : transforming heart and mind : a new perspective on Christ and his message / Cynthia Bourgeault.— Boston : Shambhala, 2008.

x, 223 p. ; 21 cm.

Contents: The teachings of Jesus -- Jesus as a recognition event -- Jesus in context -- The kingdom of heaven is within you -- The path of Metanoia -- A gospel of Thomas sampler -- Kenosis : the path of self-emptying love -- Jesus as Tantric master -- The mysteries of Jesus -- The incarnation -- The passion -- Crucifixion and its aftermath -- The great Easter fast -- Christian wisdom practices -- Centering prayer meditation -- Lectio divina -- Chanting and psalmody -- Welcoming -- Eucharist.

Bibliography: p. [211]-216

Includes index

ISBN: 9781590305805

1. Jesus Christ. 2. Wisdom -- Religious aspects -- Christianity.

232

Wisdom is not what you believe about Jesus or even what know about him. Wisdom is when you encounter him, recognize him, and enter the mind of Christ.

Bourgeault, an Episcopal priest, goes through familiar canonical gospel material, the beatitudes and hard parables, and the “Gnostic” gospel of Thomas to explicate how Jesus asks us to free ourselves from our primitive selfish nature and by emptying the self make room for the divine. It is the path of kenosis, the path of self-emptying love.

“The word metanoia, usually translated as “repentance,” literally means to go “beyond the mind” or into the larger mind.” It means to escape from the orbit of the egoic operating system, which by virtue of its own internal hardwiring is always going to see the world in terms of polarized opposites, and move instead into that nondual knowingness of heart which can see and live from the perspective of wholeness. This is the central message of Jesus. This is what the Kingdom of Heaven is all about.” (page 41)

From this point of view she recounts the significance of his incarnation, passion, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and then succinctly describes the Christian wisdom practices of contemplative prayer, Lectio divina (Bible reading), psalm chanting, welcoming or embracing the world, and Eucharist.