Avoiding epistemological suicide

"Reading the Gospels as eyewitness testimony differs therefore from attempts at historical reconstruction behind the texts. It takes the Gospels seriously as they are; it acknowledges the uniqueness of what we can know only in this testimonial form. It honors the form of historiography they are. From a historiographic perspective, radical suspicion of testimony is a kind of epistemological suicide. It is no more practicable in history than it is in ordinary life. Gospels scholarship must free itself from the grip of the skeptical paradigm that presumes the Gospels to be unreliable unless, in every particular case of story or saying, the historian succeeds in providing independent verification. For such a suspicious approach the Gospels are not believable until and unless the historian can verify each claim that they make to recount history. But this approach is seriously faulty precisely as a historical method. It can only result in a misleadingly minimal collection of uninteresting facts about a historical figure stripped of any real significance."

Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (Eerdmans, 2006) p. 506.

Kierkegaard and Matt 11:28

"Come hither, all ye that labour and are heavy laden." A strange invitation. For commonly when men assemble for joy or for united labour they say, it is true, to the strong and the joyful, "Come hither, take part with us, unite your strength with ours." But of the afflicted person they say, "No, we will not have him with us, he only spoils the joy and retards the work." Oh, yes, the afflicted man understands this well enough without need of hearing it told to him; and so perhaps many an afflicted person goes off by himself alone, will not take part with others lest he spoil their joy or retard their labour. But then this invitation, however, to all them that labour and are heavy laden must apply to him, since it applies to all the afflicted; how could any afflicted person say in this instance, "No, this invitation does not apply to me"?

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) Christian Discourses

The God of Remembrance

I do not mean that God would have even his closest presence make us forget or cease to desire that of our friend. God forbid! The Love of God is the perfecting of every love. He is not the God of oblivion but of eternal remembrance. There is no past with Him.

George MacDonald (1824-1905)

from: Unspoken Sermons, Series 3, The Displeasures of Jesus

Christianity or Religion?

Christianity is not a religion. For whatever is human about it, all the manifestations in which it may resemble a religion, are merely the echo or reflection of a movement that does not proceed from man or have to be carried out by him, but happens to him and has to be responded to by him, a movement by a being of an entirely different kind. Alone among all the religions, Christianity is essentially a pointer, pointing backwards and forwards and in either case upwards ... a movement that differs from all religions, all human leaps and superstructures, and is indeed opposed to all religion.

If Christianity is properly understood, that is, on the basis of the historical sources, the documentation of its origins in the Old and New Testaments -- and that, incidentally, is the task of theology -- it is impossible to shut one's eyes to the realization that, in contrast to religion, its essence is not man's arising to go to God, but God's arising to go to man....

"Christian", properly understood, means being governed by the message of Jesus Christ, the liberating discovery of God's gracious move towards humanity. But such discovery is an event, not a condition or institution, and thus is not an attribute with which human creations can be endowed or by which they can be distinguished.

Karl Barth (1963)

Kärleksbudet: Vad innebär kärleken till nästa?

Herre, vår Gud och Fader, du som har befallt oss att älska varandra, förläna oss nåd att älska varje människa som kommer i vår väg. Vi anropar din barmhärtighet för alla, men särskilt för dem som din kärlek har givit oss. Vår bön är matt och svag, men giv dem, o Herre, långt mera gott än vi bedja eller tänka. Ty din kärlek överträffar all mänsklig kärlek. Gör med dem efter din vilja, så att de alltid och allestädes står under din ledning och ditt beskydd. Hjälp dem att älska dig så att de endast vill, talar och gör sådant som behagar dig. Och låt dem till sist hinna fram till det oförgängliga livet. Dig vare ära i evighet. Amen.

Anselm av Canterbury (1033-1109)