Alister McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction Chapter 12 Faith and History The Christological Agenda of Modernity Wiley-Blackwell 2010
The Enlightenment and Christology The Problem of Faith and History 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 hope Wiley-Blackwell 2010