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

Written by Richard Rohr

Narrated by Arthur Morey

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From one of the world’s most influential spiritual thinkers, a long-awaited book exploring what it means that Jesus was called “Christ,” and how this forgotten truth can restore hope and meaning to our lives.

“Anyone who strives to put their faith into action will find encouragement and inspiration in the pages of this book.”—Melinda Gates

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 center.

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.

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Mar 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9780525588382

Richard Rohr

Richard Rohr is a globally recognized Franciscan friar and ecumenical teacher whose work bears witness to the deep wisdom of Christian mysticism. He is the founder of the Centre for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, an educational non-profit that introduces seekers to the contemplative Christian path of transformation. He is the author of many books, most recently, the New York Times bestseller THE UNIVERSAL CHRIST. His work has been featured on Oprah's Super Soul Sunday, Krista Tippett's On Being, and in The New Yorker and Harper's magazine.

Reviews for The Universal Christ

[deusvitae · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really, really want Richard Rohr to be right in the end about much of his theology. I would prove suspicious of those who wouldn’t.

But I don’t know whether I can go there or not.

Richard Rohr is quite famous as a contemplative mystic. He has had much to do with the resurgence of the contemplative prayer movement and his affirmation of the Enneagram has meant much for its advancement.

In The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe (galley received as part of early review program, but full book read), Rohr sets out his perspective on life and faith in terms of God as having revealed Himself in Christ.

At no point does Rohr explicitly contradict orthodox Trinitarianism, but he encourages envisioning a contrast between Jesus the person and Christ as the Reality of God manifest all around the universe.

In Christ God becomes part of the creation and endures it; in Christ God is risen from the dead, and the hope of life can endure.

Through this lens the author explores the story of Jesus and the work of God in His creation. It will seem very baffling and uncomfortable for those very much wedded to the text of the Scriptures in concrete, fixed ways. At the same time, it proves challenging to say the author has completely abandoned the witness of God in Christ.

He does advocate for a form of panentheism and very much has universalist sympathies; there are good reasons to be skeptical of these positions, but I’ve always been sympathetic to universalism. I’d like for it to be true. I would like to see ultimate redemption for everyone and all things in the end so that God can be “all in all.”

But what I might want, and what might make for a good theological story, is not necessarily exactly how things will work out, or truly well reflects what God has made known in Christ according to the witness of Scripture.

The author’s goal is for everyone to focus more on how they might experience something of God in Christ in the creation around them and in people made in His image. It’s a laudable goal. And the whole work is worth reading and considering even if you, like me, cannot “go there” in all or even many respects of what he has to say. His perspective is worth considering to broaden your horizons and imaginary about what God is accomplishing in Christ.

[al9g · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Rohr writes insightfully and with a deep faith drawing on his Franciscan heritage as well as a myriad of mystics down through the centuries and even some modern theologians as well. But while Rohr is a Catholic priest in the Franciscan order this book is by no means only for Catholics. His insights cut across denominational lines and speak to us more abut following Christ than any one practice of religion. The book is easily accessible to the lay reader but is also engaging enough for the theologian or pastor/priest. Calling on the contemplative tradition from which he springs he outlines the deepest understandings of living as a person of faith in the modern world. Yet this is not a book for those who are well versed in mysticism and contemplation but a practical discussion of the depths of the Christian experience - emphasis on experience. We must experience Christ to be able to share the experience of Christ. This is a powerful read for any Christian and for many it could very well change the way they see faith and life and the Christ we all proclaim.

[vpfluke · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is quite a good book. The book intertwines the ideas of who Jesus is with who Christ is.This is beyond who is the Jesus of history, and tries to restores the sense of Christ moving though us in history.Goodness, love, and wholeness are important. Rohr look beyond his Catholic faith and Franciscan formation to take a view that includes Protestant, Anglican, and Eastern Orthodox insights and practice. I am going to recommend my church read this book.