This is an inspirational book about the teaching of Jesus. Now, this basically happens when I am a little upset, of course, and like all thoughts has something to do with my state of mind, but sometimes the thought drifts up for my consideration that this Jesus of yours was a schmuck, you know. Basically never in my own life, and very rarely and tenuously, if ever, in mythology has anyone really gone, I’m so happy, and so happy because of Jesus, you know—and meant it, honestly. The Toxic Moms’ Club does that act when they damn well please, but the toxic majority of Christian males pays us the dubious honor of basically never staging that charade, you know.

Now, I realize this is not very correct philosophically, to judge a man by his body: although it is very Esquire-y, and it’s a surprisingly good magazine, really. But yes, we should all be Christians/Gnostics or whatever and say that man and body pass like ships in the night, like characters in a Victorian play….

Now, perhaps it is obvious that the teaching of Jesus can be made to serve evil; perhaps it is also clear to some that the way that the written gospels are structured lend themselves to an overemphasis on death, opposition, and misery. But perhaps it is also well to ask whether the reported moral teaching of Jesus is actually fucking perfect, right. The apparent reported teachings, for example, that an eternal hell is the destination of the majority of humanity, and the preaching the name of Christ is the only way to get anyone off, do not easily lend themselves to being moral in a world where the majority of the public, despite being largely dysfunctional, do not legitimately and honestly become “good” in some way defined for them by others, because some outer organization, whether of right or left-leaning people, religious or political group of any kind, throws hairy men and bullies and codependents and masculinists and people of the old emotions of shame and rejection at them, you know. Certainly this is not the only aspect of Jesus of the reported written gospels, but if you think that there is no aspect of social control contained in them, then you are a might heretic indeed, not at home in either the conservative or the left-liberal church, basically.

There’s also the aspect that Jesus seems to participate in of scripture/things that never change, you know, so distant from the lived-in world. Even the traditionalists of today are very different from the traditionalists of 100 or 500 years ago, to say nothing of biblical times, and when most people hear an old song, they often respond to it nostalgically even if it was risqué at the time—there’s no arbitrary point, 1977 or 2008, when things become modern and stay that modern way forever, and to hear a song from the 80s or the 2000s decade, to say nothing of the 60s, reminds people from that time of a time since gone, the passing of which has often given them burdensome responsibilities, physical aches and pains, or both, you know. For the majority of Christians, though, it’s like—if it mattered, it would be unchanging/scriptural. And sure, there’s an abundance of books saying that the same old story is radical, but really often even the Christian radical is mostly just propping up the same old system, despite their loud, obnoxious, scapegoating inability to come to terms with this, basically.

Even when I was a Christian I didn’t really relate to Jesus very personally or very emotively, couldn’t see the loving, personable, jolly guy that Christians usually claim to see in him. I can see the teacher of wisdom and temperance in the solitary, isolated male, (as the overwhelming tradition, both centralized and decentralized, has seen him, and also a very considerable portion of the scriptural texts—a solitary male…. There’s ~Nobody like Jesus! 😉), but I can’t see the love and relationship guru in someone like that, despite the vociferous claims that he can’t be anything else. I guess I just feel, and even felt then, that most Christians love the ‘personal’ Jesus because of how easy that individual/isolated/specific character then makes it to exclude (and ultimately persecute) others, which you can’t do as easily with a wisdom and temperance teacher, or indeed a healthy married man (if that’s not some kind of contradiction, lol).

So, I didn’t jump right away with the whole ~your mom is dying/Jesus wrote you a letter, thing, and I don’t think I ever could have…. Maybe as a child I thought I did, but I think I would have greeted that with a nod and, ‘Right. Doctrine! Infallible doctrine!’, which is obviously not exactly a dying mom thing. (Unless your mom is a cerebral alcoholic, you know; when she dies she probably will be explaining doctrine to me, although not Christian doctrine, lol….)

Perhaps Jesus just stands in need of forgiveness, that’s all. If Mordred would have been a great and good prince in the realm of faerie, this can certainly be no less true of Jesus. Jesus is not himself bad. His fault, if fault it is, is merely his delusion—I do not use the word in the clinical or the epistemological sense, you know; “first I must prove that I exist!”—that he could make all the world good, that the time had come for the masses to be sent down the straight path, and that all that was needed for such was his preaching, his example, and the sacrifice of his death, or whatever it was. Perhaps the time wasn’t right. Perhaps when Pisces’ Age rolls around again—another day in the life of Brahma or whatever, another little coming and going such as Empedocles foretells—there shall be another Jesus, and all shall be well. He was not himself bad. But he could not make the world good. The time wasn’t right. The world, it seems, saw Jesus through a cracked mirror, and saw in him all sorts of crazy things, you know. A hero is still a hero, I suppose, even if they come to a bad end, you know: a tragic hero.

…. (reads) This is a pretty good review, but let me say that I don’t believe in old C.S. Lewis thing: “obey me or let’s fight”. He just couldn’t imagine someone not himself, or rather similar, you know. A god isn’t “the devil” (don’t let’s take that term apart) for saying the world was his to save when maybe it isn’t, you know. Even if he were a schmuck, most of us are schmucks. It’s not a matter of obedience vs horror and revulsion. “Shocked, shocked.” What is that from, Casablanca? I’ve seen some of the old movies, but there are so many…. Many of them aren’t quite entertaining in the intended way, but it’s a hard knock life….

“Obey me, or let’s fight. Get offended, mister.” (Oscar Wilde) Oh, it’s far more entertaining for me to let ~you~ be the offended one, right….

I guess basically I can just admit now what was always the case, that for me the person of Jesus is a mystery, a puzzle without a key, and that customs and puzzles aren’t enough for me to build a life on, you know. (shrugs) It’s a hard knock world, Christians. You can be offended for both of us, because it’s not my highest dharma to be offended, in the end.

…. (carrot cake) Joe Vitale is right; this does taste good. I guess I was afraid it would taste like carrots….

Anyway: the worst you could say about Trinity el Dos is that he was a little presumptuous, perhaps, although kind and possessing of other positive traits as well. No one is only all light or all dark. Certainly not anybody in a body, but also not gods either, really…. I mean, if you say that you’re reaction to Jesus is either one of obedience/acceptance, horror/rejection, or in between; I mean, that’s true, but in a trivial way. (Carrot cake, etc.) And then if in between is “madman”—and you did not want to be a madman for most of Jack’s life—then it’s not true. Jesus is not a trivial madman, who just…. I don’t know. He didn’t just need his pills, right; it wasn’t that at all. But it doesn’t follow from that I’m doomed to be either a church-burning Satanist, a Christian, or a Harry Styles fan who ought to make up his mind and become a Satanist like a real man, you know.

Those just aren’t the choices, and it’s not a compliment to the cleverness or the kindness of a certain very prevalent slice of Christianity that they think that those are the choices, you know. Like, WHY is Oscar Wilde or Justin Bieber worse than the KKK or Hitler, you know? C’mon. Grow up. Eat your carrot cake; it’s your birthday. 😸 🎂

…. And there’s a lot of subservience, you know. Protestants with their Bible; Catholics with their saints and a million other things; even Lib Prots with their scholarship in the hierarchical academy, you know. If you say, “Jesus said: but I say to you”, then you’re not a Christian, you know. And that to me is a little absurd. A little childish. Like not living in the real world…. Because the real world ended, my friend, two thousand years ago…. (crazy person vibe, staring off into the distance) “Right.” (finished water or whatever) “Well, see you around.”

…. Although I have to give the tragic hero god this: his presumptuousness wasn’t the childish, static presumptuousness of his followers, you know. (I don’t know if that’s enough to save his religion, of course. His religion doesn’t just exist in the third heaven.) A certain amount of presumptuousness is a necessary part of creativity….

The Last Correct Presumptuous Person was:

A. Jesus
B. Mohammad
C. Mick Jagger
D. My TikTok friend, “improbably-username” (you meant the most recent one, right? I didn’t know what else the question could mean)
E. None of the above (you people just need your pills)

The correct answer is of course, C. Mick Jagger. (hands) I can only report what the science tells me…. I have to be as objective as every other fool on this planet. My hands are tied.

…. I don’t mind reading this, you know—it’s not quite that standard-issue Christian devotional where it’s like— suffer and obey! Suffer and obey! You can’t say I’m making it complicated, so….! Suffer and obey. 😉

(shrugs) I do kinda find it to be more super-spiritual than I find I like anymore: the fruits (for Paul) are basically all about internal states, you know: you feel peace (then flip through the thesaurus). Internal states are the root, but they aren’t the only form of goodness. A lot of Christians feel justified manifesting terrible finances, even health, even relationships, (I’m so angry! I’m getting no respect for being at peace!), and pretty much negative everything else (knowledge, etc.), while also having negative internal states, because of the almost (ye olde Western civ.) woo woo thing—which I don’t care for very often, and despite wanting to crush the Gnostics and Buddhists, because…. (shrugs) Different art history brands?…. Even for Jesus, he says, “fruit”—like grapes, maybe, because they’re grow on a vine, but there is more than more product or goodness out there, even just in agriculture. It’s like, very monotheist, you know: there’s One Fruit. Right? It is kinda woo woo, philosophical…. And not so many details to philosophize about: not like, there are grapes, figs, strawberries, blueberries…. But it’s all the One Fruit. Likewise, there’s kindness to your parents; kindness to your children; kindness to…. ~No. It’s just kinda…. Do good. And if that doesn’t work: do good. You know: the woo woo devolves into marching orders. (If you can suffer and obey, then suffer and obey, blah blah blah, while the heathen play!….).

And it does seem like some of it goes back to Jesus and Paul, as their teachings are written down in the Bible, right. It doesn’t feed everyone perfectly well. It just gets promoted for that. Ironically by people who probably would take the pre-“promoting” feudal system back in a heartbeat, you know.

…. And I do like this better than the sort of theology where they say, “…. and if you want to be relatable, you can read Shakespeare and Sophocles—those are some of the most relatable authors you can read (without getting kicked out of the philology club).” Part of me is glad I did that: but mostly I’m just glad it’s over, you know.

You could probably also find real life (‘I need to forgive my parents before I die; ah, my back! I’m so old!’) in the non-biblical classics, but most Christians (and most people are Christians, in this country) and equally perhaps post-Christians, read those books to preen, you know: not to find out what’s in them. There is sometimes though, a certain amount of engagement with life in non-theological Christianity, despite the wounds that that body of thought bears upon its body, you know. ~Suffer and obey: because it’s the only way…..! To be happy, or better yet, to be miserable, and correct. Suffer and obey…..! I dumbed it down—for you!~ Sometimes it’s not quite as bad, you know.

…. I would be the last person to say that no one has ever made progress using a Christian system, you know. I just think that if you try to punch people inside the magic circle, you inevitably degrade and corrupt it. You try to privilege one psychological type over another: and that is actually the more reliable and fundamental form of corruption, and not the actual literal shady financial deals, you know.

…. I really think that Christianity becomes hardened by the evil in the world and in people generally, a lot like how parents are trained/expected to become hardened by their children’s immaturity, you know. Then those people grow up and become hardened to not care about oppression; “I’m on the left but I don’t care about the oppression of Background X; they’re not good Ideology Y followers—we’ll have to crush the oppression in my way to make progress”; and parents become hardened at different lifestyles in even adult, mature children and children become hardened at immaturity in parents, sometimes even dead ones. And church leaders become hardened at people who resist their control or who think that God doesn’t have inflexible standards he applies cruelly, you know. None of that is to say that there aren’t real provocations—bullshit people, to use that term unscientifically or incorrectly, you know. But hardening yourself against it just ensures that you’ll become a tyrant, the Christian no less than the bitter, ranting alcoholic, you know.

…. And yes, although I’m not a Christian and I’m not trying to cobble together a biblical consensus or whatever for whoever I am, although I imagine some of the Bible writers may have had similar thoughts: yes, I spent many years being a Christian and I’ve read the Bible more than once, and heard people talk about it many times, and as this involuntary, automatic thing, as I wrote that paragraph of course I thought of Exodus Pharaoh and the parable of the agricultural plots, right.

(concession hands) There will always be Christians.

…. I sorta agree with the idea of giving up things that aren’t productive or whatever, you know. But unlike a, you know, a ~plant~, I think that people should have a choice whether they make a trade. (Pruning one thing for something else.) You could talk to a lot of people about almost anything, meditation, Bible Church of X-ville, whatever, and they might ignore you, right? I mean, a retiree might ENJOY playing golf and visiting Hawaii and playing golf in Hawaii, right. He might not want to go on a mission trip to influence, sorry, to help the Hondurans….Would he be ok with the Hondurans following him back to Florida or wherever?…. You know, a lot of Christian do-good-ism comes with this baggage, I gave up my ideal workout routine, I gave up movie night, I gave up golf—and then there’s the expectation that people will defer to them, or people will sign up and agree to stop watching Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on TV, right? Actually a GREAT show, but a lot of Christians would be like, I made a list of things you could give up for the LORD, and romantic TV shows are number 7….

(shrugs) And also, sometimes people do waste their resources. Sometimes novels and narratives are actually better, because in nonfiction you get so abstract, it gets easy to BS people, you know, and in situations where non-BS-ing would use many of the same words and formulas, basically.

…. I realize that the Good Christian, the Good Anglo, is concerned about the prevalence of salty crackers in his community, but perhaps all these attempts to ‘prune’ them, (joke not intended), is just setting Team Jesus USA up for failure, both when the little baby salty crackers tell mommy that they don’t want their ‘prune juice’, (ok, now I’m into it: that was a joke!), and then, you look, and you yourself….

You yourself!

Ok.

But remember: you gotta tell these people, you gotta tell people, that they gotta give it up! Gotta give it up!

(You know I’m talking about letting Jesus into your tent, right?)

I’m sorry it’s just so…. It’s a lot. And he just assumes that you want it all, right. You want all of it, right down your throat…. After all, you don’t want shame, do you? (It’s not easy to teach people in this congregation!)

I’ll stop now. I’ll try. Honest. 🥸

…. I know it sounds like I’m just being inexplicably difficult right, (You’re about as easy as a nuclear war! Seriously—take that top off and wear something suitable! Be easy with me! ~Oh daddy: you’re as sexist as Duran Duran!), but I’m going to make it worse now by explaining it, lol sry—I don’t know which faction Bruce is in theology and his theory on who God persecutes and why, right: but a lot of the Christian story, almost from the beginning, from when they converted the village by cutting down Donar’s oak, Up! Guess you can’t worship Donar anymore; but you can worship Jesus, unless…. ⚔️, and not least in the Calvinist version of the story: ‘irresistible grace’, is basically a story of divine rape, you know.

And then Jesus swayed his hips and sang over synths, You’re about as easy as a nuclear war! ~And then three or four of the disciples grabbed me, and carried me up bodily into the upper room, while Jesus kept on carrying on about how I would be in him and he would be in me….

(fundie) (angry/shut down) But the rules don’t apply to Jesus. He’s God. Saying no to God is taboo. The tribe forbids it.

And that’s kinda how I see this book. It’s funny how it’s not even especially bad; it’s just…. Christian, you know.

…. Or, you know.

—My word is FINAL! End of discussion!
—But Dad, you’re 80 and I’m 60.
—I’m still your father! I’m the absolute tyrant, you, the helpless dependent. I was there when you came into the world, and I could still take you out of it!
—Wouldn’t that be as bad as, abortion, only…. You know….
—(calm, serious) No abortion is forbidden in the Bible, son. (beat) You see, without me, you still wouldn’t know these things. I’ve trained you poorly…. (judging finger) (beat) But wait a minute…. Well, it doesn’t matter. I’m your father!

…. Hmm, let’s see: you’re being productive, working hard, successful, but you feel burned out. Well, maybe you just need a vacation. Take some time off, buy yourself something. Do something to restore the ~playful~ part of your personality, right. Up! (facepalm) I forgot! You’re a ~Christian!~ You need something GRAND, something you can brag about to your friends! ‘I get up at 2:30 in the morning, and it’s not even hard anymore. It’s brought so much FRUIT, and it’s so EASY.’ Fuck man, and here I am asking you to do things that will get you ~shamed~. (facepalm again)

Ok, a Christian solution: remember that you have ~no agency~, No Matter What, bitch. You’re a mortal; you’re zilch—don’t ever forget! Ah, but so Loved, too…. So loved, and you didn’t even need to get feces wiped all over your cheeks to get you there, down on your knees where you belong…. So remember! Just love your husband like you love God, like they did in that old 1930s Oklahoma kwassik, (God I hated that book), and the masculine deity who rules the universe alone with nary a one beside him, will bless your life. 👌

Yeah.

I mean, ‘rationally’ or whatever—rationalism is ‘supposed’ to be accepted so uncritically, it’s funny—I guess I should be ‘offended’ and freaked out and angry, probs in a pretty naive way, you know…. But I don’t know. It’s just so familiar, you know. Nothing surprising. I guess it wasn’t even ‘rude’, you know. Certainly a lot out there is worse…. I’d even say it’s readable, you know, both in the sense of style and content.

But I’m also not a Christian, you know. 🦹‍♂️

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Jim Hatchet: An amazing story of Jesus teaching his Disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. Would recommend to anyone seeking inspiration. 2022-09-04

My review for this book is very similar to that of "The Prayer of Jabez." I read both around the same time, and both Protestant commentaries/studies in the "Prosperity Theology" line of thinking. I don't read many non-Catholic devotionals. But I am more familiar with this one since it was greatly popular among Protestants in the years before I became Catholic. I didn't read it until recently. My parents, who are Baptist, have it at their house for decoration, so I decided to read it.

Books like this are popular among adherents to the so-called Prosperity Gospel, which seems to be more popular during strong economic times. The idea is this: God is waiting to give us all sorts of material blessings (health, wealth, land, etc.) if we would only ask him. If we don't ask him, we won't get these things.

As a Catholic, I felt that Wilkinson had many important insights with relating how grape vines grow and how that connects with Jesus' sermon in John 15. Further, Wilkinson espouses some sort of theology of merit (which Protestants have always rejected), but it falls short of the orthodox, Catholic view. In short, Wilkinson's beliefs expressed in this book are that if you do have X, Y, Z, you lack faith or you are not praying properly. Conventional Christian wisdom (both Catholic and Protestant) says, "God will give you what you ask for if and only if it is in conformity with the will of God" but Wilkinson's message says, "God will give you what you ask for if and only if you ask for it." The Catholic belief about merit is more that God gives us sanctifying grace through the sacraments and actual grace through various good works, prayers, etc. It is sanctifying grace that is redemptive, but actual grace, through good acts, that makes us holier.

I think that in some sense Wilkinson is trying to restore the concept of merit, but it has no place in Protestantism, largely due to once-saved-always-saved and salvation through faith alone, which, though is rejected in the Bible, is accepted by Wilkinson and almost all Protestants. I give the book 1 1/2 stars because of it's insights that I mentioned above, but essentially the prosperity gospel is deficient, so any book that presumes it will be deficient as well. ( )

Similar to Wilkinson's previous book "The Prayer of Jabez," this book ("Secrets of the Vine") is short and to the point. Reading the entire book in one sitting, I felt it read like a sermon -- a study on the text and its application on John 15.

Throughout the book, Wilkinson presents clearly on how to achieve an abundant life as taught by Jesus. The author talks frankly and shares his (and others') life experiences. Indeed, God deals with his children progressively based on the season of the child's life. I believe the book is theologically sound with a strong sense of evangelicalism.

If you are "chart" person, you will probably find the chart in chapter 5 (compare and contrast of disciplining and pruning) is surprisingly helpful. ( )