0.3. Preface to the New Edition

Preface to the New Edition ________________

Since the publication of this work several books bearing upon its subject have been published, but only one seems to call for particular notice here; and this rather from the sensation it has made in the sceptical world than from any light it casts upon the earthly life of our Lord: I mean M. Renan’s “Life of Jesus.” Assuming that the Gospels are not wholly veritable records but contain a mixture of truth and error, he attempts to distinguish between these elements, and to separate the wheat from the chaff. The principle upon which he proceeds we give in his own words. [Note: See his Essay on the “The Critical Historians of Jesus.” Froth ingham’s translation.] “Criticism has two modes of attacking a marvellous narration; for as to accepting it as it stands, it cannot think of it, since its essence is denial of the supernatural.” Of course he cannot accept the facts of our Lord’s life as given by the Evangelists, but aims to clear them of the distortions and perversions that destroy their historical character, and thus to give us a true, genuine biography of the Founder of Christianity. To those, therefore, who are curious to see what conception a learned Frenchman of the nineteenth century, who disbelieves in a personal God [Note: I would not attribute to M. Renan any opinion he does not hold, but that he is a pantheist seems fairly inferrible from the letter, as well as from the general spirit, of his writings. I quote but one passage, as given by Frothingham: “The whole question is to know whether God emits particular acts. For myself, I believe that the true Providence is not distinct from the order, so constant, divine, perfectly wise, just and good, which reigns in the laws of the universe.”] and in all miracles, has of our Saviour’s person and labors, this book has a certain sad interest; but so far as the evangelic narratives and any true historical criticism upon them are concerned, it has no value. I do not recall any particular in which it adds anything to our knowledge of the Gospel history even in its external features; much less does it render us any aid in the understanding of its higher meaning. The importance of M. Renan’s “Life of Jesus” is chiefly as a sign of the progress in the sceptical world. Strauss’ work was destructive. He left to his readers only the name of Jesus, a dim shadow, a cloudy phantasm. M. Renan undertakes the task of reconstruction. He will give to the world the real image in flesh and blood of Him whom so many generations have ignorantly and superstitiously adored as the Son of God. He will reproduce Him before us, and show that He was a natural product of His age, a mere Jewish peasant, with nothing supernatural about Him. Now for the first time in the mirror of scientific criticism we can see Him as He was. And what kind of an image does he present to us? We see a man, not simply unlearned, uncultured, but a man weak, deluded, the dupe of others, and of his own fancies; and more than this, a deceiver, a man conniving at imposture and falsehood. [Note: See Life of Jesus, ch. xxii.] This is all that M. Renan can get from the Gospels. After rejecting the supernatural features of the narration, this is the highest reality that he can possibly frame from the residuum. And the world is called upon to believe that in such a man Christianity had its source. Will this satisfy the unbeliever? The Christian spurns it from him with abhorrence. From the poor, tawdry, wax figure, the sentimental enthusiast, the “beautiful” youth, whom M. Renan presents to him, he turns away to Him whom the apostles and martyrs worshipped, in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, the Image of God; to Him who was dead and is alive again for evermore, and who has the keys of death and hell. The time has now fully come when those who will not have the Jesus of the Gospels and of the Church, must construct a Jesus for themselves. They deny the veracity of the Evangelists; let them, then, explain the origin of Christianity, and tell us from what fountain this mighty river has flowed. All experience and philosophy, to say nothing of Christian consciousness, reject the thought that it could originate in such a man as M. Renan describes. Here is the problem for the unbeliever. Given Christianity, its creeds, its history for eighteen centuries, and tell us who was its founder, what his life, what his character. That M. Renan has miserably failed in his attempt at its solution, even now few will deny. All instinctively feel that no such feeble nature as he portrays could have received the homage of Peter and John and Paul, or become an object of worship to any noble mind. The cause is not adequate to the effect; the man is not equal to the work. The problem is yet unsolved for the unbeliever, and we may safely say that for him it will ever remain un solved.

Renan, like Strauss, seeks to substitute an ideal for the actual Christ. He says: “What matters it to us what passed in Palestine eighteen hundred years ago? How does it concern us that Jesus was born in such or such a village, that he had such or such ancestors, that he suffered on such or such a day of the holy week?” It is not true that these particulars are unimportant in the life of Jesus, for they prove the reality of His earthly history. Time and place are essential parts of the great Fact of the Incarnation. The Son of God, in becoming man, must be born at a certain period of the world’s history, in a certain portion of its territory, and stand in well-defined relations to certain of its inhabitants. Such limitations belong to the very essence of His humanity. These outward facts the Evangelists do not overlook. It is true that they do not enter into any great minuteness of detail. Of the external events of the Lord’s life for many years we know very little. Yet they do not neglect those relations of time and place which are necessary to convince us of the reality of His earthly existence, and to give us a distinct picture of His labours. But it is not facts of this class merely that M. Renan regards as unimportant. To him the Gospels are as a fine poem of which Jesus is the hero; and as we do not care whether the heroes of Homer had any actual existence, so is it here. The world may be as much blessed through the ideal Jesus as through the real. But let not such language deceive us. Christianity is a religion of facts, not of ideas. It rests upon the being of a personal God. It stands or falls with the reality of the statements in the Apostle’s creed. Its doctrines are only the explanations of its facts. The Epistles of the New Testament have no meaning if the Gospels are not historically true. We cannot too steadily keep in mind that Christianity is Christ. Jesus did not merely originate a spiritual movement. He is Himself the living, abiding power of the movement. We look back to no sepulchre; we look up to the Living One in the Heavens, Jesus Christ risen from the dead, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. Christianity lives because He lives.

Let then the issue between the sceptic and the believer be kept clearly before us. If Jesus is now at God’s right hand, Head over all things unto the Church, Christianity lives in Him, and must live so long as He lives. It is because He is. If, as Strauss and Renan say, He has no longer any personal existence; if He lives only in history, and as an idea, then Christianity, like other systems, will yield to time, will suffer the transmutations of all things earthly. A new teacher will arise and men will follow him. Already, indeed, we hear many demanding a new Christ, as an embodiment of a higher ideal. The Christian Church takes her stand upon the fact of the present personal existence of her Head, the man Christ Jesus, who has now all power in Heaven and earth, and who shall come again to judge the quick and the dead. He will in due time vindicate Himself, be His own witness and avenger. We may wait with patience the appointed hour. The Life of Jesus by Strauss [Note: Das Leben Jesu für das deutsche Volk bearbeitet. 1564.] recently published presents nothing new, and calls for no particular notice here.

Hartford, Conn., Oct., 1864.