QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION IN CIRCLES CHAPTER I I. Does the writer overdo the importance of history? Would not "spiritual religion" suffice without a "historical basis," as some Indians and others suggest? 2. What would our evidence be for" spiritual religion" if we had not the record of actual history to check fancy and support the ventures of faith? 3. Does the writer underestimate the actual impress made on his age by Jesus? Was he not probably more widely known? 4. How can ordinary people" make sure of the experience behind the thought of Jesus?" Does this belittle him? 5. What becomes of ordinary simple people untrained in historical research, who are not experts and merely want help in living and dying? Could not the whole presentation of Christ be much simpler? Where does "revelation to babes" come in? CHAPTER II 1. Look up and verify at the circle meeting the references to the Gospels in the chapter and see if they bear the interpretations put upon them. 2. Was Jesus fond of life and Nature? Give instances. 3. Does intercourse with Nature make communion with God more real? 4. "Jesus showed and taught men the beauty of humility, tenderness and charity, but not of manliness and courage." Is there any truth in this charge as regards (a) the portrait in the Gospels, or (b) the presentation of Jesus in the teaching of the Church? CHAPTER III 1. "One of Jesus' great lessons is to get men to look for God in the common-place things of which God makes so many." Discuss this. 2. Had Jesus a sense of humour? Give instances. 3. "The Son of Fact,"--do you think this a true epithet? 4. What characteristics of the mind of Jesus does this chapter emphasize as principal? Do you agree that they are the principal ones? (5. What do you imagine Jesus looked like? What do you think of the conventional figure of modern Art?) CHAPTER IV I. To what extent was the hardness of the world during the early Roman Empire due to current conceptions of God? 2. What was the secret of Jesus' attractiveness, and what kinds of men and women did he attract? 3. How do you picture the life he lived with his disciples? E.g. Can you reconstruct a typical day in the life of Jesus (cf. pp. 81, 82). 4. Had he a method of teaching: if so, what was it? Give illustrations. CHAPTER V 1. How would you state to a non-Christian the three principal elements in Jesus' teaching about the character of God? Illustrate fully from the three Gospels. 2. What elements in the teaching of Jesus and the relation of God to the individual would be new to a Jew who knew his Old Testament? 3. What did Jesus teach his disciples concerning prayer? 4. "If the friend in the house to your knowledge has the loaves, you will knock until you get them; and has not God the gifts for you that you need? Is he short of the power to help, or is it the will to help that is wanting in God?" Do we pray in order to change the will of God? Why did Jesus pray? CHAPTER VI