Critical Historian
THE HISTORICAL JESUS QUESTS
THE HISTORICAL JESUS QUESTS
By Rook Hawkins
1.1 History and Kerygma: An Overview of the First and Second Quests
“Since David Frederick Strauss, in his “Life of Jesus,” attempted for the first time to trace back to myths and pious fictions, doubts regarding the existence of an historical Jesus have never been lulled to rest.” – Arthur Drews
Signed With Love, A Dead Civilization
Signed With Love, A Dead Civilization
By Rook Hawkins
Thomas Cahill wrote that “the Historian’s principal task should be to raise the dead to life.”[1] Cahill is certainly right. Often times in antiquity, ancient historians would take this statement too literally, raising their protagonist from the dead using all sorts of miraculous and fictional motifs to do it. Thankfully, the days where city founders and saviors would meet their righteous followers on the road before ascending off into the sky are over, particularly when it comes to literary exegesis (although there are still a few evangelical and reactionary historians who try to do this with the Gospel Jesus). Modern historians have new ways to bringing the dead back to life, and more often than not, this is accomplished with methods revolving around science instead of superstition.
