In our lively and wide-ranging conversation on “The Spiritual Life,” the spiritual master Richard Rohr, O.F.M., often makes mention of one of his most well-known phrases, the “Universal Christ,” which is also the title of one of his most popular books.
But what does it mean? In his book, Richard Rohr introduces the topic in this way: The Universal Christ is “the Christ Mystery, the indwelling of the Divine Presence in everyone and everything since the beginning of time as we know it.”
As I understand it, Rohr is inviting us to focus on what theologians might call the “Christ of faith,” which we might say is the risen one who is now present to us through the Holy Spirit. (And of course, he is also the second person of the Trinity.) Theologically, this is distinguished from the “Jesus of history,” the man who walked the dusty roads of first-century Galilee and Judea.
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With thanks to America and James Martin SJ, where this article originally appeared.
