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For Harnack, the historical-critical method was more than an end in itself.  In spite of what their detractors might have thought, most of the German liberals understood themselves to be working in the service of faith.  The rigorous application of critical reason was essentially a way of serving truth and being honest before God.  For Harnack in particular, the historical-critical method was ultimately a tool that could be used to recover the simple core teaching of Jesus.  Harnack spoke of the Christian religion in terms of "the kernel and the husk," a metaphor for the lost essence of Christianity in which the "kernel" had come to be buried beneath the "husk" of church tradition and the Greek philosophy that became the language of doctrine.  In his most poular and influential book, "What is Christianity" Harnack revealed that the essence of Christianity was to be found in the fact that the human heart more than anything else longs for the presence of the eternal within time, and that the Gospel validates its own truth by satisfying this longing for all that come to Jesus the Christ.

For Harnack, the historical-critical method was more than an end in itself.  In spite of what their detractors might have thought, most of the German liberals understood themselves to be working in the service of faith.  The rigorous application of critical reason was essentially a way of serving truth and being honest before God.  For Harnack in particular, the historical-critical method was ultimately a tool that could be used to recover the simple core teaching of Jesus.  Harnack spoke of the Christian religion in terms of "the kernel and the husk," a metaphor for the lost essence of Christianity in which the "kernel" had come to be buried beneath the "husk" of church tradition and the Greek philosophy that became the language of doctrine.  In his most poular and influential book, "What is Christianity" Harnack revealed that the essence of Christianity was to be found in the fact that the human heart more than anything else longs for the presence of the eternal within time, and that the Gospel validates its own truth by satisfying this longing for all that come to Jesus Christ and follow his simple teachings about the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the infinite worth of the soul.

[[Category: Biography]]

[[Category: Biography]]

[[Category: Religion]]

[[Category: Religion]]