Christianity and History

Abstract

The history, for Christianity, is meaningless without its theological content. It is the eternal Son of God who becomes incarnate in time, who was born of a virgin, lived, was crucified, rose again. It is an immensely serious question for Christianity because the Resurrection is so intrinsic a part of Christian belief. Theologians say that resurrection does not mean resuscitation. From the grave, and that the grave was left empty because Christ had come to life in the body again, and had left it empty. Symbol, myth, archetype, metaphysical concept, ordinary history are, on this theological view, gathered up and transmuted religiously in the supreme language of the holy life of a Person, in the Incarnation. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity cannot in itself be called a myth, certainly not a primitive myth, though it has its parallels in other, primitive, mythologies. Christian history is supernatural history, a strange blend of time and the timeless.

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