Daoist critique of Christianity

"When everyone knows good as good, this is not good." Dao De Jing, Chapter 2, Thomas Cleary translation.

That's not a very literal translation but Cleary's was my first Dao De Jing, the one I was reading when I entered the stream.

A fairly literal translation would be:

"When all know the good (shan) good,
There is then the not good (pu shan)."(Chen translation)

This doesn't take into account any philosophical insight into how "good" or "not good" is understood but the meaning is pretty clear in the overall context. Opposites give rise to one another. You don't recognize good without an understanding of bad. These are distinctions in the mind. To transcend this leads to the realization that everything just "is" and any distinctions or labels are constructs of the human mind.

But Cleary's translation provides some penetrating insight. In terms of the culture at large, think of those things that become popular. Popular is somewhat akin to vulgur, common, base. In order for something to be popular it must be watered down, filtered, reduced to its lowest common denominator in order that it reach a mass audience.

The easiest example would be pop music. Heavy on hooks, light on substance. It reaches a mass audience. Think about "alternative" music or music that just isn't mainstream. It isn't "popular" in this sense. There may be many who like the music but in the end it has a limited audience. The more "popular" something becomes the lighter it becomes in order to do so. There may be exceptions to this rule but Top 40 captures this for a reason. Commercial radio today longs for this. In order to reach the largest audience it cannot have music that targets only the few. The advertisers on such a station want the same: maximum reach. In order to do this, it must seek to maintain a middle of the road presence, safe enough for everybody.

So "popular" is not necessarily a good word. It's akin to selling out which is a frequent criticism of bands who make it big. They compromise their essence and seek to "sell" a certain sound. In other words it is the selling, not the music, as such, that drives them. Bands that have been around for years with a steady following often have that one big album. Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA"; The Police's "Synchronicity"; J. Geils Band's "Freeze Frame". And then they never quite hit that level of popularity again. Thus the problem with seeking to be popular as there is no way to please everyone.

So it is with Christianity. The Jesus of today is popular. He is everywhere and everyone has an opinion. Everyone has a Jesus in mind, whether the fundamentalist variety, the buddy Jesus, the Muslim Jesus, the Gnostic Jesus or the Course in Miracles Jesus, the historical Jesus, the list goes on and on and on. In this sense, Jesus is certainly popular. But this isn't necessarily a good thing for it doesn't really answer the question: who was Jesus?

It turns Jesus into a pop star, someone we can mold into whatever image we see fit. We can elevate him only as far as is comfortable. And then we can leave him behind when he doesn't match our beliefs. This Jesus doesn't transform; this Jesus aligns with what we already believe.

I would make the argument that, as understood in this context, when everyone knows Jesus, this is not good. This isn't to say it is bad as, from a Daoist point of view, the bad contains the seed of the good. After all, Paul says that even if Christ is preached in contention, at least he is still being preached.

It simply means that the question still lingers, always pushing us further, always drawing us in, never leaving us at complete rest, just out of reach, until we truly answer: "Who do you say I am?"