Christ Beyond Christianity
Christianity Is Not Christ
Interview with Will Bourne
The conversation begins where love for Jesus and trust in a Christian institution no longer feel like the same thing. Some readers are grieving harm, examining inherited beliefs, or standing outside a church they once called home while still asking whether Christ remains trustworthy.
Will Bourne does not answer that tension with contempt for the church or pressure to return. In this written interview, he distinguishes Jesus Christ from every institution that bears His name, addresses safety and accountability, and asks what faith, Scripture, community, and formation can become after disillusionment.
Why did you write Christianity Is Not Christ?
I wrote this book because I kept encountering people who were not simply rejecting God. Many were trying to make sense of the difference between Jesus Christ and the Christian environments that had shaped them. Some had experienced hypocrisy, racial distortion, coercion, institutional betrayal, or leadership without accountability. Others had watched the church speak forcefully about private behavior while becoming strangely quiet about public cruelty, abuse of power, or harm inside its own walls. I did not want to answer those concerns with defense or slogans. I wanted to take them seriously without surrendering Christ. The book grew from that tension. I believe the church must be able to tell the truth about what Christians and Christian institutions have done, including what has been done in the name of Scripture, while still confessing that Jesus Christ is not reducible to our failures.
What do you mean when you say, 'Christianity is not Christ'?
I mean that Jesus Christ is not identical with every institution, denomination, political project, cultural tradition, leader, or historical expression that carries His name. Christianity is the human and historical witness that has formed around Christ. At its best, it preserves Scripture, proclaims the gospel, forms communities, serves neighbors, resists evil, and directs attention beyond itself to the Lord. At its worst, it can borrow sacred language to protect power, justify prejudice, demand silence, or make institutional survival feel like faithfulness. The distinction does not make Christianity irrelevant, and it does not make the church unnecessary. Christ gathers a people. The gospel comes to us through apostolic witness, Scripture, teaching, worship, and community. But every Christian form remains a servant and witness. None becomes the source or Lord. Saying Christianity is not Christ is therefore not an anti-church statement. It is a Christ-centered confession.
Who did you have in mind while writing this book?
I had several readers in mind. I thought about the person who still loves Jesus but no longer feels safe inside a particular church. I thought about the person examining inherited beliefs and wondering which parts belong to the gospel and which parts belong to culture, fear, family expectations, or institutional control. I thought about Black Christians and other communities carrying the historical weight of slavery, colonialism, segregation, mission, resistance, and faithful witness. I thought about pastors and leaders who genuinely want to serve well but may not recognize how systems protect power. I also thought about readers who have left Christian faith entirely and do not want another pressure-filled appeal. I am not asking all of those readers to occupy the same position. Their experiences and conclusions differ.
How should churches respond when people say they have been harmed?
The first response should not be reputation management. It should be careful listening, immediate attention to safety, preservation of relevant information, and clarity about who has authority to act. Churches should distinguish pastoral care from investigation, legal interpretation, medical treatment, and clinical care. They should cooperate with appropriate civil authorities and qualified professionals when necessary. They should not pressure a person to meet privately with someone accused of harming them, withdraw a report, forgive on demand, accept mediation in place of investigation, or disclose more private information than a responsible process requires. At the same time, accusations should be handled with evidence, due process, and measured public communication. Safeguarding the vulnerable and treating the accused fairly are not opposing commitments. Both belong to truth.
How can Scripture remain authoritative when it has been weaponized?
Misuse of Scripture is serious precisely because Scripture matters. A text can be quoted accurately at the sentence level and still be used falsely when it is detached from context, the whole biblical witness, the character of God revealed in Christ, and the dignity of the neighbor. Proslavery interpreters did this. Controlling leaders still do it when commands to submit become louder than commands to serve, tell the truth, reject partiality, protect the vulnerable, and submit authority to judgment. The answer is not to pretend difficult passages do not exist. It is better interpretation. We need historical context, literary context, the context of the whole scriptural witness, attention to power, and communities where interpretation can be questioned. Scripture remains the governing witness, and Christ is not a device for ignoring the Bible. He is the incarnate Lord to whom the whole witness points and through whom Christians learn its center.
What does it mean to decolonize faith without losing Christ?
It means separating the gospel from claims of cultural supremacy while preserving Jesus Christ, Scripture, apostolic faith, formation, and communion. Decolonization is not the assumption that everything Western is false or everything indigenous is good. Human sin appears in every culture. The question is not simply where a belief came from. The question is whether it is faithful to Christ as witnessed in Scripture, consistent with truth and love, and capable of bearing good fruit without coercion or dehumanization. Some inherited practices deserve gratitude. Some require correction. Some are mixed. Decolonizing faith includes recovering neglected Christian histories, listening to communities whose voices were suppressed, examining how power shaped interpretation, and refusing to confuse one culture's preferences with biblical necessity. It also means allowing Christ to correct every culture, including the culture doing the decolonizing.
What place does the church still have in your vision?
A central place, but never the place of Christ. The New Testament does not imagine permanent solitary discipleship. Christ forms a people for worship, teaching, fellowship, prayer, mutual care, correction, generosity, witness, and mission. The church can carry faith when an individual is weary, preserve wisdom across generations, and become a community where gifts are shared and burdens are not borne alone. That vision must not be used to force someone into an unsafe congregation or impose a timetable after betrayal. A local church proves trustworthy not by claiming perfection but by how it responds when problems are named. Does it investigate fairly, protect those at risk, tell the truth, accept consequence, distinguish forgiveness from fitness for leadership, and change? The church remains beloved and necessary, but it remains under the judgment and grace of Christ.
What is the final invitation of Christianity Is Not Christ?
The invitation is to come and see again. Not to return blindly, defend an institution, or pretend the past did not happen. Come with memory, questions, grief, evidence, and whatever hope remains. Come to the Gospels and attend to Jesus. Notice how He uses authority, receives outsiders, confronts hypocrisy, treats bodies, responds to suffering, forgives sin, and calls people into costly obedience. Come into honest prayer without performing certainty. Move toward trustworthy community when wisdom and safety permit. Allow Scripture, the Spirit, history, and faithful people to test what you have inherited and what you now believe. Christianity must continually be corrected by Christ because Christ is greater than every expression that bears His name. Institutions may fail. Distortions may collapse. Christ still stands.
A Closing Invitation
The invitation is not to defend Christianity as though every expression of it were Christ, or to reject Christ because people carrying His name caused harm. Tell the truth about what happened. Protect safety, conscience, and appropriate accountability. Examine Scripture in context, keep Jesus at the center, and remain free to move slowly. Christ does not need institutional denial in order to stand.
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