jesus as a teacher of wisdom

• Repentance


  A radical change of mind-set or heart; more than just saying sorry, but a desire to change a whole way of life
• Parable of the Lost Son


  • Son squanders inheritance on frivolous and selfish lifestyle, then realises his only hope is to return to his father's house and beg forgiveness
• The son's father


  Generously welcomes his son home with joy, while the older brother is unable to forgive
• Forgiveness


  Jesus answers 'seventy times seven' (Matthew 18:22), that is, as many times as it takes
• Forgiving others is at the heart of Jesus' prayer, the 'Our Father' or 'Lord's prayer'
• Moral motivation


  Morality is about developing one's character and requires rigorous analysis of motive
• Sermon on the Mount

  • Checking anger, resisting lust, resisting using oaths
• The aim of the moral life is perfection, as Jesus says: 'be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect' (Matthew 5:48)
• Agape


  Compassionate love, a profound and universal love for all humans, especially those who are suffering
• Jesus' actions


  • Refusing to condemn the woman accused of adultery, healing on the Sabbath
• Archbishop William Temple argued that 'There is only one ultimate and invariable duty, and its formula is 'Thou shall love they neighbour as thyself''
• Exclusivism


  The belief that only Christianity offers the means to salvation, therefore other religions cannot lead people to the right relationship with God
• Pluralism


  The belief that there are many paths to salvation and that Christianity is only one of these
• John Hick argued that traditional Christian doctrines such as the virgin birth or the miracles attributed to Jesus should be re-interpreted to make them more consistent with other world faiths and modern scientific understanding of the world
• Hick's conclusion is that Christianity is one of many religions that each perceive God in different ways, and that the real meaning of salvation is the transformation from self-centredness to other-centeredness and love-centeredness
• Many Christians would say that there are some key Christian beliefs that we must accept as literally true in order to be considered a Christian, such as the resurrection of Christ and the virgin birth
• C.S. Lewis: 'Either Jesus was the Son of God, or a lunatic or something worse. There is no middle ground in which we can say he was simply a teacher of wisdom.'
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer rejected the view that Jesus was solely a moral teacher, linking the incarnation to both human salvation and an understanding that we meet God in human beings