christian theology assignment- lost!?

Question

hello my assignment is: To what extent do enlightnment understandings of the resurrection of jesus challenge patristic thinking? im having great difficulty. i cant find anything on the enlightnment period which links to the resurection. n i cant find ne theologians of that time who speak of the ressurection. please help me
thanks

Answer 1

Your assignment is a two-part comparison task. First, you describe "patristic" thinking, and then compare it to Enlightenment thinking. You indicate in your question that you have a handle on Patristic thought (that the resurrection was an actual physical death (not a loss of consciousness) of an actual person (Jesus didn't just look like a person, he really was a person and suffered accordingly, cf. Letters of Ignatius) and his body was actually returned to life (his soul wasn't taken up, leaving the body behind.))

The two Enlightenment thinkers that I would check out are Kant and Schleiermacher. Kant thought that since the essence of Christianity was moral, and not historical, the Church could dispense with any historical claims, including that of the resurrection. He didn't seem to think that Christ was raised in the body, although he approved of the idea of the immortality of the soul (against the patristics).

Schleiermacher lived a little later, and tried to cope with some of the same issues that Kant did. Schleiermacher built his whole system around a "feeling of dependence" that a person feels towards God. Again, historical claims were not important, because they had nothing to do with the feeling of dependence that he sought to make the subject of theology. As for the resurrection, Schleiermacher thought that Jesus just passed out on the cross, and then walked out of the tomb when he came to. (Against the patristics, Jesus didn't really die.)

Internet sources are below. Drop me a line if you would like to discuss this further

Answer 2

LOL You are barking up the wrong tree. This forum is for beating up on people who don't think like you.

If you can't state you question without offending someone you probably are going to hell.