The Christ of History.-1.Vhile the Christ of psychology has appeared in many a Jesus form, the school of historical criticism in Christology has been at work. This school starts with the elimination of all elements of supernaturalism—miracles,prophecies, etc. The Virgin Birth and physical resurrection of Jesus are assumed to be impossible and un historical. A Christ of History is sought, who is not God, and yet satisfies, to explain the fact of Christianity. Strauss (1808-74) was the first to break up the Gospels into historical and mythical elements. The birth of the Bap tist and of Jesus; the baptism, temptation and miracles of the Christ; the Last Supper and Resurrection — all these facts are relegated to the realm of mythology. They are myths in vented to give- a supernatural air to Christian ity. Bauer (1792-1860) taught that Christian ity was built upon faith in the Christ rather than upon the Person of Christ. Saint Paul, not Jesus, was the real founder of the Church. At first there were two parties, the Pauline and the Petrine. The Petrine party believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but clung to Juda ism; from this party came the elements of the New Testament that give us a Christ of His tory. The Pauline party divorcedJudaism, aimed at a universal faith, superadded the su pernatural elements, was victorious over its Petrine rivals and founded Christianity with all the supernaturalism contained in Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians and Galatians. Renan (1823-92) was free from the dogmatic vio lence of Strauss against supernatural religion, made no attempt to explain Christianity as the work of Paul, and presented to his readers a simple, loving, lovable, God-fearing, deluded saint and fanatic, as the Christ of History. Drawing upon the ideas of Daniel and other Messianic writers of the Old Testament, Jesus became fascinated and inspired with the delu sion that he was the Messiah. On this account he practised pious frauds to sate the desire folk had of the miraculous; and was so misled by fanaticism as even to desire death. Among re cent writers, Dr. Adolf Harnack, of Berlin University, while taking great pains to prove the genuineness of the Apostolic writings, deems them to be records of the evolution of the Christian conscience from the death of Christ to the close of the New Testament canon. His Christ of History is so stripped, not only of supernatural power, but even of natural ability, as not to measure up to the stat ure of Socrates and Aristotle. Wellhausen, of Gottingen, strips the Christ of History of even the noble sentiment which inculcates forgive ness of injuries. This fundamental element of Christianity, together with the parables where in it is taught, are all said to belong to a time later than that of the Wellhausen Christ of History. Schmiedel, of Ziirich, sifts the Gos
pel narrative down to nine passages, the fa mous pillar-passages, upon which he builds up his Christ of History. The historical worth of these nine passages is admitted as a start, because Schmiedel thinks that they rather de grade than exalt Jesus.
The Eschatological The eschato logical sayings of Jesus — i.e., the prophecies that have to do with the end of the world have led some to look upon the Christ of His tory as a fanatic, a dupe to his expectation that, before his death, the world would end in a cataclysmic upheaval and the establishment of the Messianic kingdom. He died a failure. The expectation was not fulfilled. His follow ers were up against the alternative of admit ting that failure or of making him out to have been God. Either duped or duping, they pre ferred the latter alternative. Thus began the evolution of the Christian conscience which gave us Christianity in its present form. Such is the Christology of Johann Weiss, Schweit zer, Loisy, Tyrrell, Burkitt and Lake.
The Mythic Christ.— The radical and de structive reconstruction of the life of Jesus— inaugurated by Strauss, and maintained by Bossuet, Neumann and the above-mentioned critics—has left so little of fact to the critical Christ of History, that it is not surprising to find radicals throwing over the very existence of an historical Jesus. Jensen, of Marburg, sees in the Gospels a mere carrying on of Babylonian mythology. Other members of the Pan-Babylonian school, who class the Christ as a Babylonian Jesus-myth, are Jeremias, Drews, Gunkel and Kalthof. W. B. Smith, of Tulane University, New Orleans, holds that the Jesus-cult took its rise from a Judmo-pagan source that is indicated by the two titles Jesus Christ. "Neither of these titles originally meant an earthly man: both certainly desig nated a deity. The latter seems to be chiefly Jewish; whereas the former is at least half foreign." Cf. Der vorchristliche Jesus. (1911) p. xv.
Lichtenberger, 'History of German Theology in the Nineteenth (1889); Brown, 'Essence of Christianity' (1908), 'Christian Theology in Outline' (1914); Pfleiderer, (1877), 'De velopment of Theology) (1890), Evolution and Theology' (1900), 'Religion and Historic Faiths' (1907); Sanday, 'Life of Christ in Re cent Research' (1908), 'Christologies Ancient and Modern) (1910), Outlines of the Life of Christ' (1911); Haering, 'The Christian Faith) (1913); Schweitzer, For schung' (1913); Loofs, 'What is the Truth about Jesus Christ?' (1913) ; Weinel, 'Jesus in the Nineteenth Century and After' (1914); Briggs, 'History of the Study of Theology" (1916); Drum, in American Ecclesiastical Re view (December 1914 to January 1918, a series of 27 articles on Christological theories).