The God of Faith and Reason; Foundations of Christian Theology - Robert Sokolowski

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"To someone trained as a historian it might appear that the most urgent scholarly task in New Testament studies would be to determine the very words and actions of Christ and to distinguish them from additions and interpretations that others made later. This might permit us to reconstruct an original core for the Gospels and to measure the later modifications, as well as the later forms of Christian life, against what proceeded them. It would permit a criticism within the New Testament itself. Such a task is, of course, extremely difficult to carry out, but we may also ask whether it is desirable in principle. Christ did not speak and act by himself; he spoke and acted with and toward others. And no one speaks until he is understood; the understanding of Christ's words achieved by those who heard him and by those who thought about him after he left is the completion of the speaking of Christ. The disciples complete the words of Jesus by responding to them." (120)