The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe

Book, 2019, 260 pp
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What does it mean that Jesus was called Christ, and how can this forgotten truth restore hope and meaning to our lives?

In his decades as a globally recognized teacher, Richard Rohr has helped millions realize what is at stake in matters of faith and spirituality. Yet Rohr has never written on the most perennially talked about topic in Christianity: Jesus. Most know who Jesus was, but who was Christ? Is the word simply Jesus’s last name? Too often, Rohr writes, our understandings have been limited by culture, religious debate, and the human tendency to put ourselves at the centre.

Drawing on scripture, history, and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. “God loves things by becoming them,” he writes, and Jesus’s life was meant to declare that humanity has never been separate from God—except by its own negative choice. When we recover this fundamental truth, faith becomes less about proving Jesus was God, and more about learning to recognize the Creator’s presence all around us, and in everyone we meet.

Opening themes:

  • Christ is not Jesus’ last name.
  • Accept being fully accepted.
  • See Christ in every thing.
  • Original goodness.
  • Love is the meaning.
  • A sacred wholeness.

Thought-provoking, practical, and full of deep hope and vision, The Universal Christ is a landmark book from one of our most beloved spiritual writers, and an invitation to contemplate how God liberates and loves all that is.

Also see related devotional guide, Everything is Sacred.

"If inclusion is to be meaningful it must be based on the idea that every one and every thing is included from the beginning. Not included in socially constructed hierarchies with allegiance to one political system or another but included in a web of life set forth from the foundations of the earth." --Rev. Dr. Barbara Holmes

"I have to admit that when I first heard about this book I rolled my eyes. "Universal Christ" is often used in a way that extracts, commodifies, and generalizes the moral principles of Jesus Christ so that all particularity disappears. But that is not what Richard is doing." -- Cynthia Bourgeault

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