Jonathan Rowlands - The Metaphysics of Historical Jesus Research

Metaphysics is prior to historiography. And there can be no value-neutral system or framework of metaphysics from which a methodological consensus about historical enquiry may proceed. It is the central thesis of this study that these two claims form intractable problems for the discipline of historical Jesus research and, moreover, that these problems ought not to be ‘solved’ (as though that were possible), but embraced, if the discipline is to advance in any meaningful sense. Only by embracing our fundamental philosophical and theological biases— and not by the impossible task of trying to overcome them—can the field truly progress.

In this study I examine the metaphysical presuppositions operative within modern academic historical Jesus research. The discipline has not sufficiently reflected upon its metaphysical foundations, and I argue it operates within a series of metaphysical frameworks one might accurately label ‘secular.’ My concern is to probe one aspect of the relationship between faith and history, not in terms of historically informed faith, but in terms of faith-informed historiography. I am concerned with the question, ‘is it reasonable to construct an academic historical method that presumes belief in God as a given, or even as axiomatic for a full account of the past?’ I argue secular metaphysical presuppositions influence historical judgement and observe this influence by employing the category of worldview in relation to historical decision-making. This observation invites us to examine the metaphysical presuppositions at work within modern academic historical Jesus research, which one may observe as adhering to a totalising secular metaphysical presupposition not to allow religious perspectives to contribute to the historical task. I conclude by claiming this observation should encourage the discipline to allow a greater plurality of metaphysical frameworks within the field, although the construction of historical-critical methods based upon alternative metaphysical frameworks is necessarily reserved for a future project rather than developed fully here.

Jonathan Rowlands - The Metaphysics of Historical Jesus Research - A Prolegomenon to a Future Quest for the Historical Jesus

London – New York: Routledge, 2023. – 272 p.

ISBN: 978-1-032-33282-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-33283-3 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-31895-8 (ebk)

Jonathan Rowlands - The Metaphysics of Historical Jesus Research – Contents

Preface

List of Abbreviations

PART I. Worldviews and Historiographical Decision-Making

• 1 Theology and History, Then and Now

• 2 Defining Metaphysics

• 3 The Concept of a Worldview

• 4 Worldviews and Historiographical Decision-Making

• 5 Characterising Secular Scholarship

PART II. Worldviews and Historical Jesus Research

• 6 Metaphysics and the First ‘Quest’

• 7 Metaphysics and the Second ‘Quest’

• 8 Metaphysics and the Third ‘Quest’

• 9 Metaphysics and N.T. Wright

• 10 Expanding the Boundaries of Historical Jesus Research

Bibliography

Author Index 252

Subject Index