JESUS OF HISTORY:
Sources:
-
New Testament
-
Archeology
-
Roman History
New Testament:
-
Not written as a historical document (meaning,
that it is not written for the sake of preserving an objectively accurate
historical record), but as the articulation of a living faith of a community
convicted of the truth of Christ as the Risen Lord.
-
This faith provides the interpretative
lens by which the entire life story of Jesus is told.
-
e.g., knowledge of the self as a being-towards-death,
‘map is not the territory,’ and selectivity of an autobiography.
-
Inconsistencies and Contradictions within
the New Testament account.
-
Did Jesus’ earthly ministry last 1 or
3 years?
-
Did Jesus proclaim himself as the Son
of God, or did he attempt to preserve the ‘messianic secret’?
-
Did Jesus visit Jerusalem only once, or
three times?
-
Was he born in Nazareth or Bethlehem?
Did his family take him to Egypt as an infant or not?
-
Incompletion of the historical record.
-
What occurred during the ‘lost years’
up to the beginning of his ministry at age 30?
-
What authority do other ‘gospels’ written
concerning this period of his life hold for a more complete understanding
of the historical Jesus?
-
Issue of the canonization of the New Testament
and the establishment of orthodoxy.
-
This means that some ‘gospels’ were excluded
from the New Testament b/c they were not in full agreement with what had
become the established, institutional Church.
-
e.g., Gospel of Thomas?
Archeology:
We know certain things about the
variety of ways in which ancient Judaism was practiced during the time
of Jesus.
Competing/Contrasting interpretations
concerning what faithfulness to YHWH meant (e.g., Sadducees, Pharisees,
Essenes, Zealots)
Roman History:
Turbulent socio-historical milieu
Threat of persecution and oppression
from the Roman Empire
Widespread spirit of unrest and
many different religious alternatives (e.g., mystery cults)
[Albert Schweitzer: Quest
for the Historical Jesus
We know virtually nothing about who the
historical Jesus actually was.
What we do know means that he was wrong
(i.e., Jesus as apocalyptic prophet)]
CHRIST OF FAITH
Sources:
-
New Testament
-
Church Councils
-
Christian Tradition
New Testament:
-
Gospels were written as a record of the
significance of Jesus’ life and teachings for the contemporary life of
faith.
-
Jesus as moral example
-
Jesus as teacher of wisdom
-
Jesus as interpreter of Law
-
Jesus as Lord and Savior
-
Epistles interpret Jesus’ significance
as th Christ on a cosmic, or world-historical, scale.
-
Christ as ‘stumbling block’ and
as an offense to Reason
-
Incarnation as the meeting-point
between the divine and human realms, as the coming together of eternity
and time
-
Christ’s death and resurrection
as the atonement for sins
-
Message of Christ makes God’s covenant
with Israel open to all (“In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile,
slave nor free, male nor female”)
-
Paul mythologizes Jesus as the Christ
– the creation of Christian theology
-
New Testament tells the history of the
early Church
-
Followers of Jesus gifted with the
Holy Spirit on the day of Pentacost
-
Community is set apart by their
love for one another
-
Record of the developing institutionalization
of Church offices and discipline
Councils:
Formation and Refinement of Orthodoxy
Doctrine of the Incarnation:
the two natures of Christ – fully God and fully human
Doctrine of the Trinity: Economic
and Immanent Trinity as means for expressing the ongoing salvific activity
of God
Tradition:
Major Branches of Christianity:
1. Eastern Orthodox
2. Roman Catholic
3. Protestant