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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
Jesus' teaching is not merely something historical … it also contains eternal, unchangeable, divine truths which one can fully explain to himself and make comprehensible to others, never on the ground of history and grammar alone, but rather by one's own spirit …
(C. F. Staudlin)The concern for historical experience which was a by-product of the Age of Enlightenment created the demand for an understanding of the Christian faith in which the historical and moral dimensions enshrined eternal truth. Theologians and biblical interpreters looked to the historical Jesus to supply the focus which the times demanded. Was it possible that enlightened critical studies could now provide the kind of access to the ministry of Jesus which would highlight its moral and spiritual dimension, express its moral teaching in universal principles and set Jesus' message free from its bondage to dogmatic systems?
England provided several striking examples of a type of sociopolitical idealism which illustrated the temper of the times. Here we shall look briefly at the work of J. R. Seeley.
THE APPROACH OF ETHICO-POLITICAL IDEALISM: J. R. SEELEY
Seeley's little book, Ecce Homo, was published in 1865 to a chorus of protest, although a few voices were raised in commendation, including that of W. E. Gladstone. It represented a cultural phenomenon of some significance, embodying as it did many of the features of the contemporary cultural process.
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