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"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, con
cerning the word of life -- the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it ...." I John 1:1-2 (RSV)

"After his resurrection the disciples saw the living Christ, whom they knew to have died, with the eyes of faith (oculata fide)." Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, III, 55, 2 ad 1, as quoted in D. M. Stanley, Jesus in Gethsemane (New York, Paulist Press 1980).

Friday, July 11, 2014

James Dunn Part 4 - Gospel Faith from First Encounter with Jesus

I'm coming back to James Dunn and his book, Jesus, Paul and the Gospels where Dunn says this: 

According to the Gospels, these first disciples dedicated themselves to following Jesus. They left their homes and their means of livelihood for his sake. They trusted this Jesus with their lives. He was the focus of their hopes. This can quite appropriately be described as ‘faith’. And given that there is a high degree of continuity between Jesus’ own leading followers and the leadership of the first churches — Peter and John in particular — there is bound also to be a similarly high degree of continuity between the early trust of Jesus’ first disciples and the faith they went on to express regarding this Jesus. Indeed, they would presumably regard their subsequent faith in Jesus as a vindication of their initial trust in him, their subsequent faith in Jesus as in at least some degree rooted in and springing from the encounter with Jesus in Galilee which so transformed their lives.

James D.G. Dunn, Jesus, Paul and the Gospels (Wm. B. Eerdmanns Pub. Co.  2011).  People make pilgrimages to Israel because they want to walk these same roads in Galilee.  A faith rooted in history is a great treasure.