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For most of these German liberals, the historical critical method was more than an end in itself.  In spite of what some detractors might have been saying, they 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, which had long since been plastered over by layers of oral tradition and Greek philosophy.  Harnack spoke of the Christian religion in terms of the "kernel" and the "husk," a metaphor for the lost teaching of Jesus (the "kernel) which had been buried not only by church tradition and syncretistic thought (the "husk"), but even by the Gospel writers themselves to a degree.  Harnack eventually concluded that the "kernel," or timeless 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 proves its own truth by satisfying this longing for all that come to Jesus the Christ.

For most of these German liberals, the historical-critical method was more than an end in itself.  In spite of what some detractors might have been saying, they 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, which had long since been plastered over by layers of oral tradition and Greek philosophy.  Harnack spoke of the Christian religion in terms of the "kernel" and the "husk," a metaphor for the lost teaching of Jesus (the "kernel) which had been buried not only by church tradition and syncretistic thought (the "husk"), but even by the Gospel writers themselves to a degree.  Harnack eventually concluded that the "kernel," or timeless 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 proves its own truth by satisfying this longing for all that come to Jesus the Christ.

[[Category: Biography]]

[[Category: Biography]]

[[Category: Religion]]

[[Category: Religion]]