Jesus's Mission Was a Direct Assault Against Ontological Totalitarianism

11/5/2025

Expanded and edited from a comment I left at Bruce Charlton's Notions:

The motivation to align with God the Creator because of his power or his totality is the expression and acceptance of a sort of ontological totalitarianism.

Christians regard this ontological totalitarianism as part and parcel of the Christian revelation, namely, that all humans (and every other being and "thing" in Creation) are subject to God.

Christians regard this subjection as subjection to reality, as reality "really" is, despite any personal insights, assumptions, or discernment that may point to something different.

Part of the subjection to this ontological totalitarianism is the understanding that there is no way out of it. Even the demons who rebelled against God the Creator remain subjected to the ontological totalitarianism of the Christian revelation.

The willing acceptance of ontological totalitarianism entails the acceptance of viewing God as an all-powerful dictator who rules over an intrinsically and necessarily totalitarian system. Of course, God allows people the "free will" to reject his power and rule within such a system, but will ultimately and eternally punish any free-will choice that does not align with ontological totalitarianism.

Within such a framework, obedience and submission to power and totality are the only viable and rational choices Christians can make. Seen from this perspective, the choice to align with God is hardly heroic or loving.

On the contrary, the choice may stem from fear more than it does from anything else.

I have a difficult time accepting that God the Creator would set Creation up in such a way.

Anyway, on the matter of Christian revelation, I would assume the revelation somehow involves Christ, that is, Jesus.

Jesus's primary mission or revelation was the creation of Heaven and making Heaven accessible to those who chose to follow him. Oddly enough, the creation and offer of Heaven does not seem to support the ontological totalitarianism of the Christian revelation.

On the contrary, the creation of Heaven draws such assumptions into question. The dispelling of assumptions about God the Creator as dictator was very much among Jesus's secondary aims during his mission in this world.

Put another way, Jesus's mission was a direct challenge to assumptions of ontological totalitarianism. I sense that a big part of Jesus's mission involved changing the way people thought about and understood God the Creator.

Part of his mission involved shifting consciousness away from ontologically totalitarian assumptions and toward something else entirely.

Most Christians appear to have missed this, at least as far as I can tell.

1 Comment

bruce g charlton

11/5/2025 09:33:29

Yes, it has been missed; and this isn't surprising.

Christianity is (if IV Gospel is to be believed, and if it is to be coherent) primarily and simply a next-worldly, post-mortal religion.

But that was not what was wanted by most of those who called themselves Christians. It is clear that many or most of these (e.g. the authors of Matthew, and Luke) wanted a Messiah who would set this world to rights ASAP. And if not that, then an institutional approximation who would hold the fort until the second coming.

The problem is that, like all this-worldly religions - Christianity became vastly complex (and incoherent, although the incoherence is concealed by the complexity).

In attempting to be this-life-comprehensive - it grew beyond the power of individual comprehension.

I suppose the motive behind this was that Christianity "needed" to become a fully comprehensive blueprint for the conduct of mortal life - at every level and in all respects - if it was to make this a better world and mortal life.

Consequently, the simple question of "what Christianity is" was rapidly "outsourced" - and indeed the job of description and explanation has been divided between many expert advisory groups, and executive committees.

Now, the question has become almost unanswerable - yet it seems that Jesus was able to tell (and show, e.g. with Lazarus) people what he was offering very quickly and simply (of course, some/most did not want what he offered).

The making of Scripture was part of this and the ways it was/is interpreted - such that "understanding the Bible" became asserted as understanding Jesus, and an impossibility, in practice.

After centuries of this, whenever people tried to simplify and clarify "Christianity" (as in the 1960s, eg with Jesus Freaks) they usually tried to summarize all the *this-worldly* guidance in a few maxims - on the lines of "everybody should love everybody else, then everybody would be happier".

It seems that nothing is so difficult to grasp as a clear and simple answer - that is not the answer you want!

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Jesus's Mission Was a Direct Assault Against Ontological Totalitarianism

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