網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

wherein even individual mistakes contribute in the end to the clearer knowledge of details.

It will be seen that, throughout the construction of the present work, our author stands on the scaffolding of his earlier work, in which he has devoted patient and independent study to the examination of the Gospel sources. Here we have, not a process of destructive criticism, but a process of positive reconstruction on the basis of criticism. Many are inclined to ask, in regard to a criticism which seems only to achieve greater confusion and unsettlement of the grounds of Christian faith, "What, then, shall we have left after this devastating flood has passed?" In the present work we have Dr. Wendt's answer to that question, so far as the teaching of Jesus is concerned. Here, he might say, is so much terra firma, more or less perfectly reclaimed by historical research from the chaos into which the Zeitgeist of modern criticism had thrown the whole territory. Briefly, it may be said that, so far as criticism, apart from exegesis, is concerned, all fundamental Christian doctrine remains; for though some will take exception to the author's soteriology as being too subjective, in accordance with the theology of Ritschl, this too arises, not from the critical elimination of essential elements of the Gospel reports, but mainly from the fact that it is the teaching of Jesus, not also that of Paul, that is under discussion. In connection with this, the reader will not fail to bestow attention upon the highly-suggestive preface which the author has written for this translation.

It is almost inevitable, in applying the method of historical criticism to this great subject, that many readers should at first be unpleasantly impressed with a certain naturalistic tone and tendency. The Christian scientific historian proceeds on the presupposition that there is a higher and supernatural explanation of the facts; but his task would be impossible and unwarranted, if God, in bringing His supernatural ends to pass, had not largely carried them onwards through the centuries by long processes of natural sequence. Instead of usually revealing Himself in historically isolated ways which admit of no intelligible explanation, He has generally worked in ways which have a psychological and historical intelligibility. We may instance the growth of the Messianic idea in rela

tion to the national experiences of Israel. When, however, we come into the domain of Gospel history, however frankly we admit the idea of the kenosis, we are yet face to face with a Divine mystery which appeared phenomenally in the sphere of humanity, and is, no doubt, to a large extent humanly intelligible and conformable to the laws of nature and human life. Yet it is an important question, how far we can take as a safe guide the scientific maxim that, in the investigation of what belongs to a different age and order of things, only those causes must be taken into account of which we have present experience. The scientific investigator, in the sphere alike of geology and history, must sometimes question if certain phenomena are not unique and unaccountable on the ground of modern experience. Jesus Christ was such a historical phenomenon-unique as to His blissful unbroken fellowship with His Father, in the character of His consciousness of Sonship, in the clearness of His intuition and firmness of tread in a high region where others only grope. In regard to those suggestive portions of his work which treat of the development of religious ideas. in the mind of Jesus, Dr. Wendt will be the first to admit their necessary incompleteness. He must carry the torch of historical inquiry as far as the historical method will permit him to go; but there is a region beyond, into which historical science cannot pass, and where historical processes fail.

The author has not treated the branches of the teaching of Jesus merely in separate detail, but in their organic connection; and his full, sympathetic treatment of the ethical side of his subject-take, for example, the great theme of universal love as taught by Christ-proves that the historical method, though it may not expressly, can yet really and powerfully, conduce to the setting forth of the practical value of the subject. Not the least important and interesting department of the work will be found to be, the continuous comparative examination of the teaching of the fourth Gospel along with that of the synoptical Gospels, from which the conclusion is drawn that the substance of the former was given by "a disciple of Jesus who was more deeply penetrated than the rest with the original spirit and the inward form of the teaching of his Master."

Something may yet remain for discussion in regard to the amount of significance to be accorded to other departments of the work of Christ as distinguished from the teaching; but the translator gladly concurs with the author in the hope that, also among British readers, the publication of the work may contribute towards a better knowledge of this great theme, and the furtherance of New Testament scholarship generally.

The present translation has had the benefit of Professor Wendt's careful revision.

The numerous references in the footnotes to Lehre Jesu, vol. i., will be understood as applying to the first and as yet untranslated part of the work.

J. W.

MONTREUX, 1892.

« 上一頁繼續 »