Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§2 Introduction
Schweitzer was itself only part of a longer period of historical interest in and inquiry
concerning the figure of Jesus, a period which stretches back before
Schweitzer and, of course, forward since Schweitzer. That longer period has produced
several landmark studies and advances, both classical statements of key issues,
historical and methodological, which remain issues to this day, and important
findings which still remain valid in large measure and therefore foundational
for subsequent studies. These statements and findings need to be brought together,
reassessed and restated, not least because the intellectual climate at the
end of the twentieth century seems to have been generally hostile towards the
idea that such statements and findings should still be able to claim assent today.
Such reassessment and restatement will be one of the primary tasks of Part One.
Twenty-five years ago I taught a course on 'Faith and the Historical Jesus'.
Over the years and particularly since once again focusing my full attention on the
subject, the conviction has been strengthened that the quest is best analysed in
terms of the tension and dialogue between faith and history, if we are to appreciate
what was seen to be at stake in the various phases of the quest, and still today.
In the intervening years I have become more fully aware of the hermeneutical dimension
of that tension and dialogue. With that addition or qualification, it still
seems to me that the history of the quest can be profitably analysed in terms of,
first, 'the flight from dogma' and then 'the flight from history'.
My objectives in Part One are therefore threefold.
1. To recall the roots of the quest: that they reach back well before the Enlightenment.
However much, in retrospect, the Enlightenment may have
bent the young sapling of renewed historical interest in Jesus and Christianity's
beginnings in a particular direction, there is no lack of stimulus
and resource for the quest in the developments of pre-Enlightenment scholarship.
2. To note afresh both the genuine advances that have been made in the
course of the quest, most of which should not be lightly abandoned, as well
as the issues posed (historical, hermeneutical, theological) by the generally
acknowledged classical contributions to the quest, most of which remain as
issues today. In structuring my review in terms of 'the flight from dogma'
and 'the flight from history', I am very conscious of imposing a particular
schema on the data. I should emphasise, then, that I regard both 'flights' as
uneven trends (Tendenzen) rather than consistent programmes or consciously
chosen objectives. Also that the allocation of some authors to either
'flight' is more a matter of convenience than of justifiable critique.
Historical-Jesus Research: Previous Discussion and New Proposals (JSNTS 191; Sheffield:
Sheffield Academic, 2000) ch. 1 (28-62).
15