Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

FAITH AND THE HISTORICAL JESUS §6.2
Any attempt to reassert the importance of history for faith and to restate sound principles
of historical method will therefore have to engage with the hermeneutical
problems thrown up not least by postmodernism. Fortunately it neither should be
necessary nor is it desirable to enter into the complexities and subtleties of the classic
discussions, on the distinctions between 'meaning' and 'significance', between
'understanding' and 'explanation' and between 'sign' and 'significance', or on the
meaning of 'meaning'. But a number of key principles do seem to have emerged in
the period reviewed and these are worth restating, however tentatively (since I have
little expertise in the philosophical technicalities involved), before we proceed
further.
It should be noted at the outset, however, that all these principles are interlocking,
and while they have to be stated separately, their interrelatedness means
that each qualifies the other in some measure. An effective historical method and
use of historical texts cannot be reduced to a single principle. We are faced with
the unavoidable task of balancing and integrating different and at times competing
emphases. But that is what we call 'life'; why should the interplay of history,
hermeneutics, and faith be any different?
6.2. The Necessity of Historical Inquiry
We start at the same point with which we began. The historical figure of Jesus will
always stimulate curiosity on the part of those who are interested in the great men
and women of history. Those who want to understand better the historical, social,
and ideological forces which have shaped their culture will always want to inquire
more closely about the man whose title (Christ) is borne by the most important
and long-lasting influence (Christianity) on the European intellectual and artistic
as well as religious and ethical traditions. And since individuals are shaped by
their culture, the insatiable human curiosity to 'know thyself means that interest
in Jesus is even part of the quest for self-understanding and self-identity, for the
individual's own deep roots. Already late mediaeval Western piety wanted to
know again the reality of Christ's sufferings, and the Renaissance and Reformation
brought a new concern to get the history of Jesus right. So still today: 'What
was he like? What was he really like?' are questions which rise unbidden where
such historical interest is engaged. Such questions are unlikely to be silenced by
the claims that previous answers have been highly tendentious, or that the evidence
is fragmentary and tainted. Nor will they likely be satisfied by being referred
to a story world detached from the real world. Did Jesus really do that? Did
Jesus really say that? are not simply childish questions, but express the human curiosity
which is at the root of all human inquiry and accumulation of knowledge.
For those within the Christian tradition of faith, the issue is even more im-
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