FROM THE MANUSCRIPT
In the author’s words
The Jesus of colonization. The Jesus of Black churches singing through suffering. The Jesus of mystics. The Jesus of Islam, known as Isa, honored as Messiah and messenger but not worshiped as God. The Jesus of political campaigns. The Jesus of frightened children. The Jesus of people who met love through him. The Jesus of people who were wounded by those who claimed him. So when someone says, “ Accept Jesus,” I have to ask: Which one? Because sometimes people are not asking me to accept Jesus. They are asking me to accept the version of Jesus they inherited. That is different. And the difference matters because Jesus has been interpreted, preached, translated, defended, institutionalized, weaponized, worshiped, softened, radicalized, commercialized, politicized, mysticized, and reduced for centuries. His name has carried mercy and violence, liberation and control, healing and trauma, humility and empire, prayer and conquest, love and fear. That does not make Jesus empty. It makes the question more serious. A name that has carried so much history cannot be handled carelessly.
The God They Inherited, manuscript p. 216. Transcribed from the supplied manuscript; line breaks normalized.
The definition above is an editorial summary of this chapter, not a separately named theory or a claim of scientific proof.