Beginning a Reading Journey: A Reformed Introduction to the Historical Jesus
Even though I have been hearing a lot about the quest for the historical Jesus for quite some time in the past, my personal stance on any new topic is to first understand the position of classical Protestantism, that is, of the historic reformed view. It is not that I am closed to new ideas; it is more of knowing where I stand, and so if ever there is either a change in my original stance or a critique of the new proposed school of thought, I want my decision to be informed.
In this 1st semester of the academic year 2026-2027 in our school, I was assigned the combined classes of theology 2 and systematic theology 2. Combining these two classes poses a challenge to me, not only because of the level of the students (undergraduate and graduate programs) but also the scope of the subject. Based on the catalog’s course description, systematic theology 2 covers biblical anthropology and Christology, whereas theology 2 adds soteriology (the doctrine of salvation).
Since Christology is part of these two programs, and since I want to upgrade my reading and my lectures, I searched for a book that would give me an overview of what the quest for historical Jesus is all about. Naturally, I started my reading with Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield’s (an American reformed theologian who served as principal of Princeton Theological Seminary between 1886 and 1902) Christological Studies and Herman Bavinck’s (a Dutch neo-Calvinist philosopher and theologian) Reformed Dogmatics. So far, I found two relevant studies in Warfield’s book, Chapters 1 and 7, The Historical Christ and The “Two Natures” and Recent Christological Speculation. In Bavinck’s case, I found four relevant sections in Part 2, Chapter 6. These sections include Christological Conflicts, The Two Natures of Christ, Modern Christology, and Return to the Historical Jesus. It is interesting to observe that at the outset, a distinction has been made between Christ and Jesus. I want to explore the difference in methodology and interpretation between classical Protestantism and the critical school about Christ and Jesus.
However, I want to postpone my study of the above two books. Instead, I want to have an overview first of the current status and discussion in the study of the historical Jesus. I think the book published by InterVarsity Press in 2009 will assist me in achieving this goal. The title of the book is The Historical Jesus: Five Views. Again, by just reading the title of the book, another interesting observation at this point is that the study of historical Jesus is not homogeneous but diverse.
As part of my preparation for our 9th meeting, I want to start with the introduction written by Paul Rhodes Eddy and James K. Beilby. At the outset, I am glad to read these two editors describing the current status of the quest for historical Jesus as characterized by “pseudo-scholarly publications” and “provocative and/or conspiratorial theories” (p. 9). They also add that this interest in the study of the historical Jesus is a product “of the 18th century and the European Enlightenment” (p. 10). With this identification, it is now clear to me that the quest for the historical Jesus is closely associated with what Herman Bavinck describes as the empirico-scientific worldview, where the supernatural has no place. How I wish the editors still shared with me the classical stance in the study of Christ. However, I can only find this out once I am done reading the book.