The Historical Jesus: A Survey of PositionsRobertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Religion
The Historical Jesus: A Survey of Positions
Robertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Jesus Christ -- Historicity; Jesus Christ -- Rationalistic interpretations
I speak, of course, of the ruck of the vindicators, not of the
believers; and Professor Schmiedel and M. Loisy, I trust, will not
suspect me of classing them with men many of whom are as hostile to
them as to the thesis which those scholars seek by rational methods
to confute. Professor Schmiedel has even avowed that a proof of
the non-historicity of the Gospel Jesus would not affect his inner
religious opinions; and such high detachment has been attained to
by others. That civilized scholars credit, and might at a pinch
maintain in debate, the historicity of the Gospel Jesus as calmly as
they might the historicity of Lycurgus against its impugners, I am
well aware. And to such readers, if I have the honour to obtain any,
I address not a warning but an appeal. There is an attitude towards
the problem which incurs no reproach on the score of tone and temper,
and which will naturally recommend itself all the more to men of real
culture, but which yet, I think, only illustrates in another way the
immense difficulty of all-round intellectual vigilance. Let me give
an example in an extract from a rather noteworthy pronouncement upon
the question in hand:--
Of Paul's divine Master no biography can ever be written. We have
a vivid impression of an unique, effulgent personality. We have
a considerable body of sayings which must be genuine because
they are far too great to have been invented by His disciples,
and, for the rest, whatever royal robes and tributes of devotion
the Church of A.D. 70-100 thought most fitting for its king. The
Gospels are the creation of faith and love: faith and love hold
the key to their interpretation. (Canon Inge, art. "St. Paul"
in Quarterly Review, Jan., 1914, p. 45.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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