CHRISTIAN BELIEF
THE BIRTH OF CHRISTIANITY, by Maurice Goguel, translated from the French by H. C. Snape; Allen and Unwin, English price 42/-, ‘THIS learned and sympathetic analysis ‘of the origins of Christianity is a pointer to how far Biblical criticism has travelled from the confidently destructive approach of many writers of the last century. Dr.. Goguel sets the tone of his argument in the introductionSocial religion emerges from personal religion: the converse is also true. All personal religion comes to birth in the setting of a social religion, even when it assumes a new form. It is purely a question of theory and impossible to verify by observation whether personal or social religion appears first. . . Inevitably, since he is not a believing Christian, Dr. Goguel is obliged (though not in so many words) to reject the hypothesis of an actual Resurrection; for this assumption is meaningful and possible only if one accepts also the actual divinity of Christ. Instead, he presents the events of Easter Monday as the projection in mythical form of certain profound and convulsive changes in the unconscious minds of the first Christians. He drives a decisive wedge between Judaic and Hellenist Christianity, suggesting a crucial antagonism between the theology of St. Paul and St. Peter, also between that of St. Paul and St. John. These are matters which can only be fairly discussed with meticulous examination of detail, and then* by scholars as fully acquainted with the sources of the Gospels and Epistles as Dr. Goguel himself. Dr. Goguel’s. method, however, can be appraised by the unlearned reader. It is ultimately the method of behaviourist psychology, illuminated by considerable wisdom and reverence for religious concepts. After reading this voluminous and careful account of the early development of Christian belief, one is left with a question mark. Has one really learnt any more about the birth of Christianity? Did it occur in the minds of men or in a manger? Were the "appearances" real, as you and your wife are real, or old and desolate fantasies renewed? Why is gnostic mythical literature so unconvincing alongside the unpretentious reporting of the Gospels? Not How-but Why? Not What-but Who? These are the questions which shake the world, and wisely Dr. Goguel does not try to answer them.
James K.
Baxter
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 791, 17 September 1954, Page 14
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382CHRISTIAN BELIEF New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 791, 17 September 1954, Page 14
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