The aim of the quest of the historic Jesus is to set Jesus free, to liberate him from the prevailing captivities... When Jesus manages to escape from our creedal and experiential dungeons, he asserts his preemptive right to the use of his name and may want to object to the title we have assigned him... There are some, to be sure, for whom the liberation of Jesus spells the liberation of the spirit. For them an encounter with Joseph's son is relief, release, and reclamation. The historical truth about Jesus is no more a threat to their faith than a dentist is a threat to teeth, as one pastor put it.
Count me among the liberated. I want to know what it is that Jesus said and did that made some people happy to be in his presence and others want to kill him. I don't want to be captive to the theological formulations and creeds that focused on who he was and defined Christianity as having right belief.
No comments:
Post a Comment