Where is History Going? [antikvár]

PREFACEJean Guitton, the eminent lay Roman Catholic theologian and member of the French Academy, has described his conversations with a certain Dr. Couchoud, who declared: "I believe everything in the Apostle's Creed, except the phrase, 'He suffered under Pontius Fílate.'' " This 20th century gnostic was not bothered by what he regarded as the true spiritual message of Christianity; only the historical particularity of it disturbed him. "And besides," he would say, "consider how beneficial to faith my view is. Unbelievers invariably endeavor to destroy faith by reducing Jesus to a mere historical being they make faith vulnerable by putting Him on the plane of history. But I, by elevating Him above that level, make faith invulnerable.""Invulnerable, perhaps," replied Guitton, "but totally evacuated of meaning. What you reject is the heart of Christianity: the mystery of a real incarnation."^Precisely; and the entire collection of essays comprising this book could be regarded as an extended commentary on and reinforcement of Guitton's answer. Here an effort is made to show, first, that Christianity offers a concrete and satisfying answer to the perennial question, "Where is history going?" on the basis of the genuine incarnation of God in history; second, that Christ's incarnation is the center of the Christian faith and can be dispensedijean Guitton, Journal, 1952-1955 (Paris: Librairie Pion, 1959), pp. 19-21.