Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§4.5 The Flight from Dogma
society, of assumptions and aspirations, should always cause us something of a
shock. Indeed, the absence of some element of strangeness probably indicates
that the depth of historical distance and the degree of historical difference have
been underestimated. Weiss and Schweitzer brought home the fact that Jesus had
been domesticated, and in consequence could be presented somewhat as a superior
kind of nineteenth-century Sunday school teacher. In short, the Liberal attempt
to get behind the Christ of dogma to the Jesus of history had simply produced
bad history — nowhere more clearly pointed up than in the aside of
William Temple: 'Why anyone should have troubled to crucify the Christ of Liberal
Protestantism has always been a mystery'. 110
b. Re-Enter Faith!
The more effective block on the Liberal quest was the surprising re-emergence of
faith as a factor which could not be ignored, the sobering realization that a historical
inquiry into the life of Jesus had after all to take account of faith. After giving
way to the claims of history for so long, faith at last bit back!
The case was put no more boldly than by Martin Kahler in his Der
sogennante historische Jesus und der geschichtliche biblische Christus
(1892). ln The title makes Kähler's point for him. It distinguishes the two German
words Historie and Geschichte, both meaning 'history'. Historie he understands
as the bare data, independent of any significance which might be placed
on them. Geschichte, on the other hand, denotes history in its significance, historical
events and persons which attract attention by reason of the influence they
have exercised. The English translator's distinction between 'historical', with the
suggested overtone of merely historical, and 'historic', denoting lasting fame,
catches something of the same distinction. Kähler's central claim, then, is that
the Christ of the Bible is Jesus seen in his significance.^ 2 For Kahler there is no
such thing in the Bible as 'the historical Jesus', a figure devoid of significance
(hence 'So-called Historical Jesus'). The Liberal lives of Jesus had attempted to
get back to a Jesus behind the Gospel texts, by stripping away the interpretative
110. W. Temple, Readings in St. John's Gospel (London: Macmillan, 1945) xxiv. See
also M. D. Chapman, The Coming Christ: The Impact of Eschatology on Theology in Edwardian
England (JSNTS 208; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2001).
111. ET The So-Called Historical Jesus and the Historic Biblical Christ, ed. C. E.
Braaten (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1964).
112. 'From a purely historical point of view the truly historic element in any great figure
is the discernible personal influence which he exercises upon later generations'; 'The real
Christ, that is, the Christ who has exercised an influence in history . . .' (Kahler, So-Called Historical
Jesus 63, 66).
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