| Part 1 The Theory of Faith | Hirohumi Hoshika |
What is the greatest difficulty in having a Christian faith? Does the fact that Jesus was a figure of the past make faith difficult?
Indeed, H. Zahrnt, who appeared in the previous chapter, ――perhaps borrowing the words of K. Barth
"(Theology is) the question of how we should repeat the kerygma (mission) of early Christianity, that is, how can what happened in the past happen again to us, and in other words, the question of encountering the reality of God in the reality of our world."
When we define the task of theology as "to establish in the modern age the faith that was established among the apostles," then the steps that must be taken to accomplish this seem to be self-evident.
To achieve this, first, understanding how faith was established among the apostles, then examining the differences in the conditions for the establishment of faith between the apostles and the post-apostolic era, and finally considering strategies for overcoming those differences――in this way, it is to overcome the "the property of being in the past (pastness)" of the faith that was established among the apostles.
However, when we begin by asking the initial question, "How did the original faith come about?", we are confronted with an unlooked-for fact. The Gospel accounts tell us that, for the apostles, coming to faith was not necessarily an easy process.
They spent over three years with Jesus, literally experiencing him as a present-day being, but they were dispersed at the time of the crucifixion without ever attaining firm faith.
How did they view Jesus? The Gospel of Mark repeatedly features the disciples' theme of "Who is this man?" This questioning reaches a peak in Peter's confession of faith in the middle of the Gospel (8:29), but afterward, misunderstanding and fear of Jesus, along with self-serving interpretations, are repeated.
Shortly after this confession of faith, the Gospels tell us that Peter and others who followed Jesus up the mountain were "did not know what to say" and "greatly afraid" at the sight of the transfigured Jesus.
Earlier, in Chapter 2 - Easy Study 3, we summarized the issues concerning "Historical fact and Faith" into the following two points.
１．The accurate historical facts about Jesus, which are necessary for faith, are not provided.
２．On the other hand, if we leave the question of Jesus’s historical existence to historical research, the very nature of faith is compromised.
However, there is actually a third, even more serious problem. As can be seen in the disciples of the Gospels here, the issue is that -
３．Even if Jesus were standing right in front of us, it is difficult to believe in Him.
In the issue of "historical fact and faith," the separation of "historical fact" and "faith" has always been a point of contention. This has been attributed to the fact that, for our faith, the historical events of Jesus are from the distant past. However, for the disciples, there was already a separation between the reality of Jesus and their faith, that is, between "historical fact" and "faith". They were faced with the reality of Jesus, yet they were unable to properly accept it. Here, there is the original landscape of the "Historical fact and Faith issue".
In other words, the "Historical fact and Faith" issue involves not only the difficulty of the "pastness" of Jesus' events, but also difficulties that still exist even if Jesus were alive today, and these must be considered to be equally relevant to us in the modern age.
This difficulty must not be obscured or confused with the difficulties of "pastness". Even if we were to travel back in time to the first century in a time machine to gain a firm understanding of Jesus, we too would likely find faith in him difficult, just as his disciples did.
It's difficult to give this difficulty a proper name, but let's call it Jesus' "isolation (otherness)". What exactly is this "isolation"?