Historical Justification & Witness

Journey of faith

Think about various aspects of the Christian faith. I see atleast two broad categories in terms of historical justification. Again both these categories are very broad approximations and can be divided further more.

1. Historical justification is Possible: When we look at the earthly life of Jesus, atleast till his death; the transformation of a fearful disciples into fearless preachers; lives of saints etc; these are aspects related to faith where there are certain supports from history. Again it depends on time period, where they lived etc. Just to give a few examples, there is greater proof for the life of Jesus than certain words or phrases of Jesus; there is definitely greater proof for certain disciples than others; there is a greater proof for St Thomas of Aquinas (13th century) than St Philip (disciple). So in faith, there are certain expressions which can be justified to a certain degree based on historical research, writings and so on.
2. A realm outside the historical justification: Think about the aspect of divine-human nature of Jesus; think about his resurrection; think about God as creator of the universe; think about the life after death. Whether the transformation of disciples (which is a fact) can be considered as a proof of resurrection — difficult to say if it is from the point of view of history, but could be said when looked from a faith perspective. Whether the miracles of Jesus explain the divine-human nature of Jesus — difficult. Whether the visions of a saint regarding heaven and hell be considered as conclusive historical proofs for them — No.

I don’t think that anything outside the realm of historical justification doesn’t have value. Again, its value can be varied. The resurrection of Jesus was much more valuable for the disciples than all facts that can be historically justified and it transformed the life of disciples. The mythical account of creation in the book of Genesis will have value when Christians and Jews live as if God is their creator (or what are the consequences of that? ) The similar arguments can be made for many of the faith expressions in this category.

This doesn’t mean that those faith expressions in the second category depend on me (kind of relativism). No, God can reveal them in a special way to some people (remember the conversion of Saul to Paul). Our lives are not scientific or historical proofs for those faith expressions, but our lives can be responses to the invitations of each of these events. And some of these responses can be the best “proofs” or “evidences.

This is how all will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.” (Jn 13, 35)