The Christian faith is a rather peculiar faith. We believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. And although there are some who think even this is strange, it is pretty common the world over to find belief in some type of supernatural being, even one who created the world. But Christianity makes some further claims, about God actually being involved in the world, even humbling Himself and taking on the very nature of a creature, in Jesus Christ. God and creature united in one person. And this isn't just a myth we tell to communicate a belief about what kind of God we claim to serve, it happened "under Pontius Pilate." It is historical! This means that for Christians, history is infused with another meaning altogether, because it is where God acts. Thus, at one level, the study of history is always bound up with the study of God. One area we shall then discuss is what it means to investigate Christianity historically, what it means to look at Jesus Christ historically. It has been done often enough in the past centuries. What should we say about all of these "lives of Jesus"?
A second way we will look at history is by looking at the history of faith. We can look back and see how other people have encountered and understood God. Different traditions of the Christian faith have slightly different ways of treating this history: some revere it, some ignore it almost comletely. Thus, we must look at the issue of history and authority. It would seem, we should go forward not in ignorance of those who have gone before, and neither should we be bound by their conclusions. Instead, they provide lively dialogue partners and teachers on our way.
Finally, we shall seek to enter into dialogue with history, by looking at some who have gone before us in the faith, and look at their insights and experiences, as we try to learn from them and understand who we are and where we are going. |
