Huston Smith: Christianity 2

1) Here, Smith is referring to Jesus' following. He means to say that Jesus' had such an impact and had endowed the Church with the Holy Spirit, therefore, even though he had died, his followers were still capable of doing good deeds and spreading the word of God.

2) The three most important tenets of Christianity, as Smith sees, them are The Incarnation, Atonement, and The Trinity.

3) People have a tendency to gravitate towards the more earthly principles in any situations, things they can identify with. This means that when told a story, it is much easier for the human brain to accept the morals and the lessons embedded within it and cast out the mythical parts as additives or ornamentation, things included simply to increase the awesomeness of the tale. That is why more people focus on the teachings of Jesus rather than the mythical aspects of the religion. This brings up the issue of almost having two religions within Christianity, one centered around the ethics of Jesus and another around the theological aspects of his life. This is the distinguishing line between the religion OF Jesus and the religion ABOUT Jesus. Jesus' personal religion was focused on having love in one's heart and doing good deeds on earth, more ethical matters than the religion created about Jesus after he died, claiming his magnificence because of the mystical, other-worldly things he was said to have done. This divide causes some controversy because of the difference in emphasis. Some say you must believe in Jesus' and his Godliness to be admitted into heaven, whereas others believe you must simply follow his moral compass.

4) Smith claims the spiritual experience to be the greatest because, as "faith's focal point is a vision of reality that sets morality in motion" one must experience these invisible feelings of greatness and love said to be found within morality in order to achieve the coveted vision of reality. Seeing as we are dealing with intangible things, it is an imperative to actually feel something towards these intangible things.

5) The Doctrine of Incarnation is the belief that Jesus was God Incarnate. He was literally all God and all Human (minus sin).

6) The assertion of Jesus' complete divinity and complete humanity was upheld because to claim one or the other or a little of both was to either (on the side of humanity) declare that his life was not normative or (on the side of divinity) separate his example from humanity, making his example not fully relevant.

7) Docetic Heresy is the notion that God merely feigned to brush with humanity, but it was really a farce. In other-words, to deny the Doctrine of Incarnation.

8) Atonement in Christianity is God reconciling the world by giving up his son. Also, it refers to a process by which a follower makes amends and redeems themselves for wrongdoings.

9) The legalistic metaphor is akin to a system of justice. Adam sinned against God, an infinite sin requiring infinite punishment. Thus God vicariously canceled the sin debt through the Person of Christ.

10) Smith refers to our bondage as the estrangement from the Divine and the confines of our egos. Christ was sent to bring us closer to God and away from ourselves. Through Christ, God accomplished his mission in awakening the souls of the earth and bringing them back to him.

11) Historically, the Jews believed wholeheartedly in the existence of God the overlord, invisible but all encompassing. Thus, when Jesus came along, believed to be God Incarnate, he was easily assigned the role of the Son (of God). The Holy Spirit arrived later with the arrival of Pentecost, but Jesus' teachings of God within the individual fortified this idea of God being the feeling of life within man. This trinity is essential because of the basis in love. If love is nothing without love returned, then God must have had others to share his relationship with, even in the beginning of his existence. Therefore, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit were together from the get-go and are in essence, the same as each other.