Alister McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction

Chapter 12

Faith and HistoryThe Christological Agenda of Modernity

Wiley-Blackwell 2010

The Enlightenment and Christology

• Reason, revelation, and the nature of history• The philosophical uselessness of history• The critique of miracles

– David Hume, Essay on Miracles (1748)• The development of doctrinal criticism

– The “history of dogma” movement

The Problem of Faith and History• Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

– The chronological difficulty– The metaphysical difficulty

• The “ugly great ditch” between faith and history• The scandal of particularity

– The existential difficulty Wiley-Blackwell 2010

Questing for the Historical Jesus

• The original quest of the historical Jesus– Hermann Samuel Reimarus

• The quest for the religious personality of Jesus– Liberal Protestantism– “life of Jesus” movement

• The critique of the quest, 1890-1910– The apocalyptic critique

• Johannes Weiss (1863-1914)• Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

– The skeptical critique• William Wrede (1859-1906)

– The dogmatic critique• Martin Kähler (1835-1912)

Wiley-Blackwell 2010

• The quest suspended (“no quest”): Rudolf Bultmann– That: All that is necessary is to believe that Jesus Christ lies behind

the kerygma (gospel proclamation)• The new quest of the historical Jesus

– Ernst Käsemann, 1953– Need to explore continuity between preaching of Jesus and

preaching about Jesus• Joachim Jeremias: what Jesus actually said and did• Käsemann: continuity in the theme of the kingdom of God• Gerhard Ebeling: the “faith of Jesus”• Günter Bornkamm: confrontation with God

• The third quest of the historical Jesus– Focus on relation of Jesus to his Jewish context– Main contributors

• John Dominic Crossan• Marcus L. Borg• Burton L. Mack• E.P. Sanders• N.T. Wright Wiley-Blackwell 2010

The Resurrection of Christ: Event and Meaning

• The Enlightenment: the resurrection as non-event– Truth and the autonomous, rational individual

• David Friedrich Strauss: the resurrection as myth– “Myth” - the gospel writers’ social and cultural outlook

• Rudolf Bultmann: the resurrection as an event in the experience of the disciples– Jesus raised in the kerygma

• Karl Barth: the resurrection as an historical event beyond critical inquiry– Faith as a response to the risen Christ, not historical evidence

• Wolfhart Pannenberg: the resurrection as an historical event open to critical inquiry– Revelation as public and universal historical event– Proleptic disclosure of the end of history

• Resurrection and the Christian hopeWiley-Blackwell 2010