Contributed by Jonathon Love
THE JESUS OF HISTORY
FOREWORD
I regard it as a high privilege to be associated with this volume.Many who know and value Mr Glover's work on The Conflict ofReligions in the Early Roman Empire must have wistfully desired tosecure from his graphic pen just such a book as is here given to theworld. He possesses the rare power of reverently handling familiartruths or facts in such manner as to make them seem to be almostnew. There are few gifts more precious than this at a time when ourfamiliarity with the greatest and most sacred of all narratives is achief hindrance to our ready appreciation of its living power. Ibelieve that no one will read Mr Glover's chapters, and especiallyhis description of the parable-teaching given by our Lord, without asense of having been introduced to a whole series of fresh andfruitful thoughts. He has expanded for us, with the force, theclearness, and the power of vivid illustration which we have learnedto expect from him, the meaning of a sentence in the earlier volumeI have alluded to, where he insists that, "Jesus of Nazareth doesstand in the centre of human history, that He has brought God andman into a new relation, that He is the present concern of every oneof us and that there is more in Him than we have yet accountedfor."[1]
In accordance with its title, the single theme of the book is "TheJesus of History," but the student or exponent of dogmatic theologywill find abundant material in its pages.
I commend it confidently, both to single students and to those whonowadays, in happily increasing numbers, meet together for commonstudy; and I congratulate those who belong to the Student ChristianMovement upon this notable addition to the books published inconnection with their far-reaching work.
RANDALL CANTUAR
LAMBETH
Advent Sunday, 1916
PREFACE
This book has grown out of lectures upon the historical Jesus givenin a good many cities of India during the winter 1915-16. Recast anddeveloped, the lectures were taken down in shorthand in Calcutta;they were revised in Madras; and most of them were whollyre-written, where and when in six following months leisure wasavailable, in places so far apart as Colombo, Maymyo, Rangoon,Kodaikanal, Simla, and Poona. The reader will not expect a heavyapparatus of references to books which were generally out of reach.
Here and there are incorporated passages (rehandled) from articlesthat have appeared in The Constructive Quarterly, The Nation, TheExpositor, and elsewhere.
Those who themselves have tried to draw the likeness attempted inthis book will best understand, and perhaps most readily forgive,failures and mistakes, or even worse, in my drawing. The aim of thebook, as of the lectures, is, after all, not to achieve a finalpresentment of the historical Jesus, but to suggest lines of studythat will deepen our interest in him and our love of him.
T. R. G.
POONA, August 1916