In this session, we are joined by historical theologian, Dr. Paul Capetz. Dr. Capetz, a minister in the United Methodist Church and former theology professor at various Protestant seminaries, discusses liberal Christology and its limitations. While identifying as a liberal theologian who seeks to reconcile Protestant heritage with Enlightenment thinking, Capetz argues that traditional liberal Christology is fundamentally flawed. He explains that liberal theologians like Friedrich Schleiermacher attempted to reconstruct the historical Jesus using modern historical analysis, but this approach faces insurmountable challenges. Following Rudolf Bultmann, whom Capetz considers the greatest New Testament scholar of the 20th century, he contends that a biography of Jesus cannot be written due to limited reliable historical sources. More importantly, Capetz argues that Christology shouldn't be based on speculations about Jesus's relationship with God, but rather on the apostles' witness to Jesus as the decisive revelation of God's love. Despite his fascination with the historical Jesus question, Capetz believes that the liberal approach of grounding Christology in historical reconstruction is both historically impossible and theologically misguided.

You can WATCH the conversation on YouTube

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Paul E. Capetz is professor of historical theology emeritus at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and is currently minister at Christ Church by the Sea in Newport Beach, California. He is the author of God: A Brief History and co-editor of James Gustafson’s Moral Discernment in the Christian Life. This episode centers on his recent book, Recovering Protestantism’s Original Insight.

Previous Episodes w/ Paul Capetz

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James Gustafson’s Moral Discernment in the Christian Life

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