The Jesus of History
By Terrot Reaveley Glover (1869-1943)
Summary
In this 10 chaper work by Glover, he looks at the Jesus in the gospels, his childhood and youth, later Jesus as a man and then his mind. Jesus as a teacher, and his own teaching of God, on sin, and his choice to go to the cross.
Chapter Content
CHAPTER I THE STUDY OF THE GOSPELS
A modern study of religion Historicity of Jesus The gospels as historical sources Canons for the study of a historical figure A caution against antiquarianism here
CHAPTER II CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
References in Gospels Utilisation of the parables to reconstruct the domestic life Nature. The city. The talk of the market
CHAPTER III THE MAN AND HIS MIND
Words and looks, as recorded in the gospels Playfulness of speech Movements of feeling Habits of thought: e.g. Quickness. Feeling for fact. Sympathy. Imagination His use of the Old Testament
CHAPTER IV THE TEACHER AND THE DISCIPLES THE BACKGROUND
Hardness of the human life in those times Uncertainness as to God’s plans for the nation—specially as to His purposes for the Messiah Uncertainty as to the immortality of the soul, and its destinies Re-action of all this upon life
THE PROBLEM BEFORE THE TEACHER
To induce people to try to re-think God To secure the re-thinking of life from its foundations in view of the new knowledge
THE TEACHER AND THE DISCIPLES
His personality, and his genius for friendship The disciples—the type he prefers Intimacy, the real secret of his method His ways of speech His seriousness The transformation of the disciples
CHAPTER V THE TEACHING OF JESUS UPON GOD JESUS’ OWN GOD-CONSCIOUSNESS
The Nearness of God God’s knowledge and power God’s throne Jesus emphasizes mostly God’s interest in the individual—the love of God
THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
The discovery of God Parables of the treasure finder and the pearl merchant Faith in God Prayer Life on the basis of God
CHAPTER VI JESUS AND MAN
Jesus’ sympathy with men and their troubles His feelings for the suffering and distressed His feeling for women and children His emphasis on tenderness and forgiveness The characteristics which he values in men The value of the individual soul Jesus and the wasted life Zacchaeus. The woman with the alabaster box. The penitent thief
CHAPTER VII JESUS’ TEACHING UPON SIN
The problem of sin John the Baptist on sin Jesus’ psychology of sin more serious The outstanding types of sin which, according to Jesus, involve for a man the utmost risk: (a) Want of tenderness (b) The impure imagination (c) Indifference to truth (d) Indecision Jesus’ view of sin as deduced from this teaching Implication of a serious view of redemption
CHAPTER VIII THE CHOICE OF THE CROSS
What the cross meant to him
HIS REFERENCES TO THE GOSPEL AND ITS RESULTS
The kingdom of heaven The call for followers His announcement of purpose in his life and death What he means by redemption
FACTORS IN HIS CHOICE OF THE CROSS
His sense of human need His realization of God His recognition of his own relation to God His prayer life
VERIFICATION FROM THE EVENT
The Resurrection The new life of the disciples The taking away of the sin of the world
RE-EXAMINATION OF HIS CHOICE OF THE CROSS
As it bears on the problem of pain and of sin and on God How a man is to understand Jesus Christ
CHAPTER IX THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE THE ROMAN EMPIRE
One rule of many races General peace and free intercourse the world over Fusion of cultures, traditions, religions “The marriage of East and West”
THE OLD RELIGION
(1) Its strength: in its ancient tradition in its splendour of art, architecture and ceremony in its oracles, healings and theophanies in its adaptability in absorbing all cults and creeds (2) Its weakness: No deep sense of truth No association with morality Polytheism The fear of the grave (3) Its defence: Plutarch—the Stoics—Neo-Platonism—the Eclectics
THE VICTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
(1) Its characteristics (2) Persecuted because it refused to compromise (3) The Christian “out-lived” the pagan “out died” him “out-thought him”
CHAPTER X JESUS IN CHRISTIAN THOUGHT
The impulse to determine who he is, and his relation to God The records of Christian experience The Study of the personality of Jesus Christ (a) The Gospels (b) Christological theory a guide to experience (c) The new experience of the Reformation period Knowledge gained by the experiment comes before explanation
JESUS TO BE KNOWN BY WHAT HE DOES
The forgiveness of sin, and the theories to explain it Is a Theology of Redemption possible which shall not be mainly metaphor or simile?
THE PROBLEM OF THE INCARNATION
The approach is to be “a posterioria” In fact, God and man are only known to us in and by Jesus Only in Christ is the love of God as taught in N.T. tenable To know Jesus in what he can do, is antecedent to theory about him
APPENDIX
Suggestions for study circle discussions
More on the Gospels
- Talmage, J.E. – Jesus the Christ (Mormon views)
- Stalker, J. – The Preacher and His Models
- Stalker, J. – The Four Men
- Slattery Following Christ
- Murray, A. – With Christ in the School of Prayer
- Morgan, G.C. – The Teaching of Christ
- Morgan, G.C. – The Purposes of the Incarnation
- Morgan, G.C. – Discipleship
- McGarvey, J.W. – The Four-Fold Gospel/Acts
- Marshall, E.A. – Jesus Christ, the Missionary