The study of the person of Jesus has always caused and continues to cause controversy, including among faithful Christians. Some of them wonder if there is anything in our day that has not yet been said about Jesus, and whether the search will not be a new attempt to refute the traditional teaching of the Church or to question the inerrancy of Scripture. I would like to explain, without delay, why I think it is not only permissible but extremely important to re-examine the question of who Jesus was and therefore who he is today. In doing so, I do not wish in any way to deny or belittle the significance of the knowledge of Jesus of which the Kenyan student spoke, and which has spread throughout the Church for centuries across social and cultural boundaries. I consider historical research as an integral part of cognition: in the process of research, we learn to know and love the one we have followed even better. Even in relationships between people who seek to know and love each other, there may be misunderstandings, misconceptions and concepts that need to be identified and corrected. How much more important does this take place in the relationship with Jesus?

It is my deep conviction that the historical study of the person of Jesus is a necessary and indispensable component of the spiritual growth of every Christian, capable of producing a renewal of our spiritual life and ministry, and I would like to explain and justify my point of view from the very beginning. However, such an inquiry is invariably fraught with serious difficulties and even certain dangers that accompany everything that is aimed at serving the kingdom of God. Therefore, I should briefly dwell on these problems.

Difficulties arise when addressing this topic, and they should not be kept silent. Surrounded by like-minded people, it is surprisingly easy to slide into arrogant complacency. New, more and more ridiculous theories about Jesus are constantly being born in the world. Almost every month, one or another publishing house publishes a bestseller, where he is called another fashionable guru, a member of the Egyptian Masonic lodge or a revolutionary-minded hippie. Almost every year, a scholar or group of scholars publishes a new book, with impressive notes, trying to convince the reader that Jesus was a Cynic peasant, an itinerant orator, or a preacher of progressive values who was in keeping with the spirit of the times. As I was working on the final version of this chapter, an article appeared in one of the newspapers about a recent controversy. It was initiated by animal rights activists who insist that Jesus was a vegetarian.

of course, we can simply say that all this is a waste of time, that we know everything we need to know about Jesus, and that there is nothing more to say. Many believers, reasoning in this way, comfort themselves with a sense of their own superiority: "Unlike these foolish liberals, we have learned the truths, and we have nothing more to learn." Theologians are turned to when another statement in defense of "traditional" Christian truth is required, in the hope that after that they can stop asking "uncomfortable" historical questions and turn to something more productive.

Some, on the contrary, choose alternative, but equally deceptive stereotypes. Statements in defense of the "supernatural" Jesus can easily grow into a caricature, into the image of some ancient Superman. However, it should be remembered that the myth of the Superman itself is a dualistic distortion of Christianity. The modern world offers us a number of images of Jesus, each of which may seem very "religious," even though they have nothing to do with the biblical description of a Nazarene named Jesus and go against the meaning of the words of Scripture in their original context.

As I have said, I consider the continuous study of the historical figure of Jesus to be an integral part of the process of spiritual development of the Christian. But since traditional Christianity has consistently taught that it is only by looking at Jesus that one can know the character of God, I think it would be quite wrong to dispute the need for a constant historical quest to explore the person of Jesus as perhaps a fundamental part of our knowledge of God.

From this statement, of course, quite definite conclusions follow. If Christian faith is impossible without knowing the historical figure of Jesus, it is also true that historical research cannot be conducted in a vacuum. In the Age of Enlightenment, people were told that faith was incompatible with history and that to turn to the former was to reject the latter, and as a result, believers tend to be suspicious of historians, while secular historiography does not pay much attention to believers. True Christianity, however, completely rejects this opposition, a belief that is very difficult to follow for those of us who try to live and teach in both circles at the same time. Moreover, I think that this very difficulty is one of the aspects of the calling of a modern Christian; not to stand aside from the world, but to share the pain of modernity, which at the moment is experiencing the agony of the Enlightenment. I will dwell on this in more detail in the final chapter of my book. I am not a secular historian who believes in Christ, or a Christian who is fascinated by history. It is my conviction that every Christian believer should turn to historical science, which can adequately challenge false ideas about Christianity (including those that their proponents try to pass off as traditional), while at the same time contributing to the revival of genuine orthodoxy. Such a process never ceases to amaze us.

So, let me move on to the positive side. Why is it so necessary for a believer to study the person of Jesus?

В поисках истины

Главная причина, по которой нам следует обратиться к изучению исторической личности Иисуса, состоит в том, что мы были сотворены для Бога и во славу Божью, чтобы поклоняться ему, неся в себе его образ. Это самое сокровенное желание нашего сердца, источник нашего истинного призвания. Вслед за Иоанном (Ин. 1, 18) христиане всегда утверждали, что никто не видел Бога, но что Иисус явил его людям. Мы откроем для себя живого и истинного Бога, только если осмелимся взглянуть на самого Иисуса. Вот почему современные споры о его личности имеют особое значение. Ведь, в конечном итоге, они ведутся о личности самого Бога.

Кроме того, к серьезному изучению исторических вопросов меня побуждает верность Писанию. Эти слова могут показаться иронией обеим сторонам старинного конфликта между либералами и консерваторами. За последние два столетия многие ученые, отказавшись от изучения Писания, создали образ Иисуса, не имеющий ничего общего с новозаветным. Однако в опровержение подобного подхода недостаточно еще раз заявить, что вера в библейские истины избавляет от необходимости вновь и вновь ставить вопросы, касающиеся личности Иисуса. О Библии можно сказать то же, что и о Боге: тот факт, что традиционное учение толкует каждый библейский отрывок, не освобождает нас от необходимости продолжать его изучение в свете имеющихся сведений о его историческом и литературном контексте с целью убедиться, что традиционное толкование оправданно. По–моему, свидетельством приверженности Писанию не может быть позиция, провозглашающая; мы верим Библии, так что нам больше нечему учиться». Напротив, следует сказать: «Мы верим Библии и потому стремимся открыть в ней для себя все, что нам мешают разглядеть наши традиции, в том числе «протестантские» и «евангелические», которые хоть и претендуют на звание библейских, зачастую таковыми не являются». Подобный процесс переосмысления, скорее всего, заставит нас задуматься о том, не следует ли трактовать «образно» то, что мы привыкли воспринимать «буквально» или наоборот. А если да, то что именно.

Перейдем теперь к третьей причине, состоящей в непременном стремлении каждого христианина к истине. Христиане не должны бояться истины. Конечно, то же самое заявляли и многие редукционисты, бесцеремонно низводя евангельское учение до нескольких пресных и избитых истин и оставляя в стороне порой резкие и бескомпромиссные слова Иисуса. Но я стремлюсь совсем не к этому. Моя цель – еще глубже постичь квинтэссенцию изучения, чтобы заново переосмыслить суть Евангелия, основанного на понимании личности Иисуса Христа, его смертью на кресте, воскресения и воплощения в рамках первоначального исторического контекста. День за днем на богослужении совершенно искренне повторяю слова великих символов христианской веры. Однако я замечаю, что после двадцати лет исторических изысканий вкладываю в них гораздо более глубокий смысл, недели в самом начале. Я не могу заставить своих читателей повторить мой путь, однако хочу пригласить всех взглянуть на Иисуса и Евангелия, на себя и, прежде всего, на Бога в новом, возможно даже пугающем свете.