I thought Schweitzer was a medical missionary (besides his PhD in Biblical studies, he was a qualified MD, as well as a Psychiatrist, but he did have a hard time finding a church to sponsor him. His reputation was as a student of the historical-critical method was not well loved by European Evangelicals (which were and are a different animal than US evangelicalism, which was even less accepting of HC criticism). He did find that sponsor, though, and working a good while in villages of Africa.Irish1975 wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 9:59 am Schweitzer is certainly critical of Christian theology and the way it distorts research into Jesus’ historicity. But not all that critical. As noted in my summary of Ch. 1, he himself is overtly writing as a theologian, not as some type of secular historian. He took his doctorate in theology, and worked as a pastor, during the years when he wrote QHJ.
From the summary above (#13):It seems far more reasonable to suppose that theologians, or any believers who practice scholarship, are blinded, not by erudition, but by a desire to construct whatever “historical” foundation they imagine to be necessary for the vindication of what they believe.It is primarily theologians whose erudition serves to obstruct insight, to blind the eyes to elementary truths.
You are right, though, when you suppose that "theologians, or any believers who practice scholarship, are blinded, not by erudition, but by a desire to construct whatever “historical” foundation they imagine to be necessary for the vindication of what they believe."
This is why I like to utilize postmodern interpretive schemas. It recognizes that in each age, "truth" re-invents itself in relationship to what the beliefs of the age are.
I am not sure why, but this idea scares the holy crap out of many moderns who wish for, even hope for, an "absolute truth."
In the past I have been dependent on Hayden V White, particularly the 40 page introduction to his Metahistory (1973/4), and J Derrida's deconstructive approach as described by Alun Munslow in Deconstructing History (2nd revised edition 2006, 1997).
DCH