Physicist Brandenburg gives us an explanation of the Cosmic Jesus and the metaphysics of the Bible and what it says about the cosmos. Brandenburg reveals: the relationship between GEM theory (Gravity-Electricity-Magnetism) and Gematria; the importance of Israel being on the Silk Road; the Aquarian Nazareth; The Genesis Catastrophe; The Revelation; introduced the idea of a One God of Law who was master of all Physics and the Cosmos and lots more! Brandenburg discusses the Greek philosopher Aristarchus of Samos (200 BC), his work on the modern structure of the cosmos and his influence on the Biblical Paul (who also had a companion named Aristarchus) as well as how the Bible appears to contain a sophisticated mathematical allegory centered around Jesus and the 5th dimension of Kaluza-Klein and GEM theory that runs through millennia—where Jesus is the repairer of the effects of the collapse of the fifth dimension to subatomic size. Brandenburg tells us how we must necessitate human contact and travel to the stars and establish trade in ideas and merchandise with those who dwell there. We must be proactive in this, and not wait for others to come here—we must make every effort to go to them.

This is volume 2 of a wide-ranging interfaith reading of the Letter to the Ephesians—a New Testament text whose words have inspired and enhanced Christian spiritual life and liturgy over the centuries. Unfortunately, at the same time, Ephesians has provided apparent scriptural support to those who would defend slavery, patriarchy, misogyny, and the physical power of Christ over the cosmos. How on earth are today’s Christians to receive and understand such a text as this? Earthing the Cosmic Christ of Ephesians: The Universe, Trinity, and Zhiyi’s Threefold Truth draws upon a broad array of scientific, theological, and philosophical thinkers who enable us both to marvel at today’s ever-expanding knowledge of our vast cosmos and to appreciate the importance of the Ephesian letter in the canon of our Christian scriptures, even while we acknowledge the archaic geocentric cosmology that underlies its claims about the cosmic Christ and reject its accommodation to the patriarchal, misogynistic, and slaveholding norms of its first-century culture. Throughout this reading of Ephesians, we look to Chinese Buddhist master Zhiyi and his “threefold truth” to enhance our understanding of trinity and the nascent trinitarian themes within this letter. As a whole, this work constitutes a new appreciation for Ephesians as well as a twenty-first century apologetic for doctrinal humility and for theologizing within a global theological commons.

This is the introductory volume of a multivolume, verse-by-verse, interfaith rereading of the New Testament letter to the Ephesians. It looks to the Tiantai Buddhist master Zhiyi and his "threefold truth" to enhance our appreciation of nascent trinitarian themes in Ephesians. And it draws upon a broad array of scientific, theological, and philosophical thinkers in aid of rejecting the epistle's ancient, geocentric cosmology and its accommodations to the misogynistic, patriarchal, and slaveholding norms of its first-century surroundings. As a whole, the work constitutes a twenty-first century apologetic for doctrinal humility and for theologizing within a global theological commons.

In a Tiantai theology, conventional truth is conventionally arisen, which means that such truth is never set once and for all, but is to be cherished and rethought in new circumstances, whether interreligious or scientific—but always in critical consonance with its ancient embodiments. Contexts shift frameworks, but life in Christ is translatable across cultures. Christian faith and theology discourage the assumption that the point of it can be clearly pinned down. God’s appearance to Elijah out of the whirlwind is an eternal reminder of the paltriness of all human perspectives. Symbolic worlds of faith and wisdom are not themselves finished products. Because it has a past and a future, the cosmos itself is unfinished. Christian creeds ought not be defended as last-word ideological positions and bastions against relativity, but instead recognized in their cultural contexts and affirmed as grammars of communal and personal assent.

As both a scholar of Buddhism and a Christian priest, John P. Keenan engages with the New Testament letter to the Ephesians, written by a member of the Pauline school likely near the end of the first century—a time when both the cultural world and the cosmos were much narrower than for us today. In pondering this scripture’s significance for residents of the twenty-first century, Keenan looks to the work of scholars and thinkers both ancient and modern, Eastern and Western, scientists and philosophers. Particular attention is given to Chinese Buddhist master Zhiyi’s explanation of a threefold truth, which resonates with an early trinitarian theme in Ephesians and suggests the riches to be discovered upon the global theological commons.

The ancient world believed that the universe was made up of elements both material and spiritual. These elemental forces affected human life positively or negatively and any human being who could share their energy was a person of great significance - a human agent of cosmic power. This is a significant part of the background of the life and career of Jesus of Nazareth. The present work is a reappraisal of Synoptic accounts of Jesus and his followers in the light of recent developments in the study of ancient magic.

Keith Ward clarifies the Trinitarian doctrine in light of contemporary scientific thought, offering a coherent, wholly monotheistic interpretation of God.

J. J. Johnson Leese discusses how the apostle Paul's writing on Christ's relationship to creation, read alongside the interpretations of Irenaeus of Lyon, provide a meaningful contribution to contemporary debates on the interrelationship between religion and nature. Leese draws upon the integration of three related scholarly trends – the increased importance placed on biblical creation themes, the emergence of ecotheology, and the history of reception – while focusing on the Pauline corpus and readings of Paul by Irenaeus, thus uncovering a robust creation and ecotheological theology. Irenaeus' approach provides the possibility for Paul to contribute to ecotheology, by way of a theological vision where the whole of reality in relationship to Christ and creation and by extension, to soteriology and ecclesiology, are central components of Paul's theology.

The question of the cosmic reality of Christ is central to modern Christian awareness. We see lively debate about Christ's nature in relation to the earth and creation, not only within the Church itself but also in more speculative areas of thinking and feeling, such as creation spirituality and the New Age movement. The works of Teilhard de Chardin and Fritjof Capra have stimulated many to think spiritually about the created world and the part of humankind in its evolution. These issues were also illuminated by Rudolf Steiner in his Christology, which placed the Incarnation at a pivotal point of earthly evolution. Exploring the work of the cosmic Christ, Schroeder draws upon these sources and clarifies the concepts of "reality, evil, and the meaning of cosmic." He summarizes the cosmic dimension of Christ in the New Testament and the developing consciousness of humans in relation to the Logos, and examines how we are to engage personally in a natural but deeply conscious relationship with the Christ among us. Hans-Werner Schroeder, born in 1931, is a priest of the Christian Community. He teaches at the seminary in Stuttgart and is part of the leadership of this movement for religious renewal.

Reverend Potter holds that there is a great esoteric knowledge hidden in the Christian Gospel in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ about the evolution of the human race and its ultimate goal. This esoteric knowledge is also found in ancient cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, Greece, and Rome. Here can be found the belief of a pre-existent archetypal Cosmic Christ or God-Person. Jesus, being a recipient of this knowledge, achieved in his lifetime for humanity a "New state of being," a "New humanity," to which we are all heirs. Teilard de Chardin referred to this new state of being as Christ's "third nature," meaning that his human and divine natures transcended into a third realm that is neither human nor divine but cosmic. Chardin refers to this process of transformation as the Christification (Divinization) of humanity. Reverend Potter believes that the ultimate goal of humanity is to birth this "Cosmic Christ" or God-Person, this Kingdom of God within all, as Jesus refers to it. This Cosmic birth is a shift from terrestrial life to universal life where humanity realizes its Oneness with all creation. This new "Cosmic birth, this Kingdom of God within achieved by Jesus Christ, to which we are all heirs as he foretold, is the Principle of the Godhead active in history and can be seen working in and through the Israelite people and speaking through the great Biblical patriarchs and prophets. This principle of the Godhead can be seen moving in and through all the great religions of the world in every age. Buddhists refer to it as "becoming the Bodhisattva" or "becoming the Buddha." The Yoga and Vedanta traditions of Hinduism refer to it as "Self-realization" or "God- realization." Sufism of the Islamic tradition refers to it as "becoming an adept or master on the path," by finding the inner Way. Jewish Kabbalah refers to it as "achieving personal development and Self- realization based on the Tree of Life (Map of consciousness). Primordial people referred to it as "all my relations." In the New Testament, Paul speaks of this as the Mystical Body of Christ. This Body embraces the whole of Creation and is the Body of a true realized and awakened humanity as foretold in the Book of Revelation, the book that closes out the Bible. The world, including Christians, has yet to understand the fullness of Jesus Christ's revelation for humanity. This book is an attempt to understand more fully the meaning and purpose of his revelation for the human race while looking at the revelations of other world religions and sacred teachings. We live in a time when the earth itself and all its creatures are in peril because of humanity's disregard for or lack of understanding of the cosmic laws that govern the universe. The most fundamental question for Christians and people in general today is what happened to the body of Jesus after his crucifixion. Did Jesus die a physical death, or was his physical body transformed into another cosmic state-a state that he declared is the goal for the human race?