Christianity As a Historical Religion
Among the modern scholars, Karl Barth was the first one to realize that theology cannot go on endlessly looking back and forth between the two separate poles of the absolute and the historical. His answer was to place theology ‘beyond the contamination of the historical virus.’ 1 He said about resurrection, the axis of the historical claims of Christianity: Were there a direct and casual connection be t ween the historical “facts” of the resurrection – the empty tomb, for example, or the appearanc e s detailed in 1 Cor. 15- and the resurrection itself; was it in any sense of the word a “fact” in history, then no profession of faith or refinement of devotion could prevent it being involved in the see-saw of Yes and No in history, life and death……Therefore, if the resurrection be brought within the context of history, it must share in its obscurity and error and essential questionableness. 2 Barth still wanted to secure the central place of Christianity in the salvation...