Summary
William T. Cavanaugh considers why Christians – and people in general – are not as good as they should be.
Christianity, in some ways, has the explanation for why Christians are not as good as they should be kind of right embedded within it, right? I mean we have a doctrine of original sin, which explains that people are not what they should be. And this is a kind of not just a pessimistic doctrine, but it’s a sort of optimistic doctrine which says that we’re created to be something; we’re not what we ought to be; and that gives us hope that we can be other than we are.
Christianity, of course, has a … its central figure is a crucified god. And so the idea that this is what humans do to God – that they kill God, and God forgives them anyway – that’s the kind of central message of Christianity. The central message is not that Christians are good people, right; the essential message is that there is this offer of forgiveness despite our sinfulness and our evil.
