Emmaus Pilgrims, by Rembrandt
“Third, faith in Jesus may be mere superstition and hence useless or dangerous. The only way to avoid this is by the proper use of reason, discrimination, experience and common sense. There is an indispensable intellectual element in faith; it is not the opposite of reason, although it is not the same as reason. In my view, if we are assessing Jesus, it is relevant to have a sense of history, an awareness of the Old Testament teaching about the kingdom of God, an experience of human nature and a feeling for what makes morality. To lack these things is equivalent to assessing the works of Rembrandt without any thought or knowledge about art or history. You lack the requisite tools to respond appropriately, and you would benefit from having someone with you who would help you see what you are in fact observing.”
P.F.Jensen, The Future of Jesus (ABC Books, 2005)
In Anticipation 