i8 7 o] CHRISTIANITY AND SUPERNATURAL 121 



that the work of redemption is itself supernatural. The 

 saving truth by believing which men are to become 

 Christians has the form of history. I am not to be saved 

 by believing some eternal truths about God. I must 

 believe that my salvation is rendered possible only by 

 the work of Christ which took place historically and 

 among men. The old dogmatic does lay stress on this 

 point, maintaining in the doctrine of the atonement that 

 our salvation is rendered possible only by a divine trans 

 action. But the neglected point is that we have not 

 here a divine transaction supernaturally made known 

 to man, but a transaction that is at once human and 

 divine a transaction supernaturally worked out in 

 human history in the person of the Godman. And here 

 we return to the conception of the supernatural developed 

 in the first part of this essay, viz. the conception of a 

 personal intercourse between God and man, and see that 

 thus viewed the supernatural is the very centre of 

 Christianity. But from this point of view we can no 

 longer hold that Christian piety is primarily a belief in 

 Christian doctrine. For then our Christianity would be 

 quite different from the Christianity of the apostles. To 

 the companions of Christ the history of redemption was 

 not presented as something external to be believed : it 

 was a matter of fact in which they were personally 

 engaged. ;&amp;lt; That which we have heard, which we have 

 seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our 

 hands have handled of the word of life.&quot; This it is 

 that the apostles testify to. The essence of their 

 Christianity was their actual fellowship with their Master, 

 and the new life of which in this fellowship they were 

 conscious. And so must it be still. For the fellowship 

 of men with God in Christ, which was realised in the life 

 of our Lord on earth, can be no passing gleam in the 

 world s history. &quot; The history of Jesus,&quot; says Hofmann, 

 &quot; which issues in resurrection and glorification, in His 

 state of exaltation, cannot remain without an activity 



