The Jesus of History Part 10

as some Indians and others suggest?

2. What would our evidence be for" spiritual religion" if we had not the record of actual history to check fancy and support the ventures of faith?

3. Does the writer underestimate the actual impress made on his age by Jesus? Was he not probably more widely known?

4. How can ordinary people" make sure of the experience behind the thought of Jesus?" Does this belittle him?

5. What becomes of ordinary simple people untrained in historical research, who are not experts and merely want help in living and dying? Could not the whole presentation of Christ be much simpler?

Where does "revelation to babes" come in?

CHAPTER II

1. Look up and verify at the circle meeting the references to the Gospels in the chapter and see if they bear the interpretations put upon them.

2. Was Jesus fond of life and Nature? Give instances.

3. Does intercourse with Nature make communion with G.o.d more real?

4. "Jesus showed and taught men the beauty of humility, tenderness and charity, but not of manliness and courage." Is there any truth in this charge as regards (a) the portrait in the Gospels, or (b) the presentation of Jesus in the teaching of the Church?

CHAPTER III

1. "One of Jesus' great lessons is to get men to look for G.o.d in the common-place things of which G.o.d makes so many." Discuss this.

2. Had Jesus a sense of humour? Give instances.

3. "The Son of Fact,"--do you think this a true epithet?

4. What characteristics of the mind of Jesus does this chapter emphasize as princ.i.p.al? Do you agree that they are the princ.i.p.al ones?

(5. What do you imagine Jesus looked like? What do you think of the conventional figure of modern Art?)

CHAPTER IV

I. To what extent was the hardness of the world during the early Roman Empire due to current conceptions of G.o.d?

2. What was the secret of Jesus' attractiveness, and what kinds of men and women did he attract?

3. How do you picture the life he lived with his disciples? E.g. Can you reconstruct a typical day in the life of Jesus (cf. pp. 81, 82).

4. Had he a method of teaching: if so, what was it? Give ill.u.s.trations.

CHAPTER V

1. How would you state to a non-Christian the three princ.i.p.al elements in Jesus' teaching about the character of G.o.d? Ill.u.s.trate fully from the three Gospels.

2. What elements in the teaching of Jesus and the relation of G.o.d to the individual would be new to a Jew who knew his Old Testament?

3. What did Jesus teach his disciples concerning prayer?

4. "If the friend in the house to your knowledge has the loaves, you will knock until you get them; and has not G.o.d the gifts for you that you need? Is he short of the power to help, or is it the will to help that is wanting in G.o.d?" Do we pray in order to change the will of G.o.d? Why did Jesus pray?

CHAPTER VI

1. "There is little suggestion in the Gospels that Art meant anything to him." Would you admit this? Or has the writer too narrow a conception of the nature of Art?

2. "The appeal that lay in the sheer misery and helplessness of ma.s.ses of men was one of the foundations of the Christian Church."

Discuss this and ill.u.s.trate from the ministry of our Lord.

3. "I have not been thinking about the community: I have been thinking about Christ," said a Bengali. Do you find this sort of ant.i.thesis in the Gospels?

4. "Jesus' new att.i.tude to women." What is it? Was it continued in the Apostolic Church? Did it differ from St Paul's? Cf. St John 4:27.

5. What type of character does Jesus admire? Does your reading of the Gospels incline you to agree with the writer? Is it the same type of character which is exalted by Christian piety, stained-gla.s.s windows, and the calendars of Saints?

CHAPTER VII

1. "There is no escaping the issue of moral choice." "One opinion is as good as another." Discuss these two contradictory statements.

2. "Jesus says there is all the difference in the world between his own Gospel and the teaching of the Baptist." What is John's teaching on sin and righteousness (in the Synoptic Gospels), and in what ways does it differ (a) from the Pharisaic, and (b) from our Lord's teaching?

3. What are the modern parallels to "the four outstanding cla.s.ses whom Jesus warns of the danger of h.e.l.l?"

4. Wherein does Jesus' standard of sin differ from the standard of sin current to-day?

5. "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost"

(Luke 19:10). What does "lost" mean?

CHAPTER VIII

1. What is the connection between the Kingdom of Heaven and the Cross in the teaching of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels?

2. How does Jesus conceive of salvation? Ill.u.s.trate from the Gospels. Do you agree with the writer's exposition?

3. Why should the salvation of the lost (i.e. redemption) mean the Cross for Jesus?

4. "In choosing the Cross, Christians have always felt, Jesus revealed G.o.d: and that is the centre of the great act of Redemption." In what way?

5. Do you think the paragraph on p. 179 beginning: "In the third place ..." does justice to the apocalyptic pa.s.sages in the Gospels (Mark 13ff, Matt. 24, etc.), or to the interpretation of this teaching by scholars of the apocalyptic school? (It is no use discussing this question unless members of the circle have made some study of apocalyptic thought.)

CHAPTER IX