4. The objective vision or telegram hypothesis.
— Iveim, realizing the difficulties of the last theory, advanced the hypothesis that the appearances, while essentially of the nature of visions, were not purely subjective — the result of the enthusiasm and mental excitement of the disciples — but real, objectively caused manifestations of the Risen Christ. His theory is that, while the body of the
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Crucified Jesus remained in the tomb, His living spirit sent telegrams to the (lisriples to assure them that He still lived, telegrams or suiiernatural mani- festations which the iTisfijiles look for bona fide bodily appearances of their Risen Master (Jesus of Nazara, vi. 364). Keim thinks that in this way he saves the truth of the Resurrection. 'Though much has fallen away, the secure faith-fortress of the resurrection of Jesus remains' (p. 305). The aim of the theorj' is, while acknowledging a kind of resurrection, to relieve the mind from the diffi- culty of believing in an actual resurrection of the body from the gravis The root of the theory is thus aversion to the recognition of the siipernatural in the physical realm. In such a theory, Keim himself acknowledges, the supernatural is not altogether eliminated. 'Christian faith . . . oversteps these boundaries [of the natural order], not merely in the certain assurance that Jesus . . . took his course to the higher world of God and of .spirits . . . but also in the conviction that it was he and no other who, as dead yet risen again, as celestially glorified even if not risen, vouchsafed visions to his di.sciiiles' (p. 360). The intervention of the supernatural in the normal, mental, or psychological order of the disciples' experience is thus presumed. Once we admit such an inter- vention, however, there is no reason why we should not proceed further to the full apostolic attirmation — for which this is a poor substitute — that Jesus burst the bands of death and came forth bodily from the tomb on the morning of the third day.
Of this theory Rruce remo.rks with truth that it is ' a bastard supernaturalism as objectionable to unbelievers as the true supernaturalism of the Catholic creed, and having the additional drawback that it ofiers to faith asking for bread a stone ' [Apologetics, p. 393). Besides, there is the further difiiculty urged by Bruce that Keim's hypothesis requires us to believe that the faith of the Chris- tian Church is based upon a revelation from heaven which was in fact misleading. ' Christ sends a series of telegrams from heaven to let His disciples know that all is well. But what does the telegram say in every case ? Not merely. My Spirit lives with God and cares for you ; but, my body is risen from the grave. ... If the resurrection be an unreality, if the body that was nailed to the tree never came forth from the tomb, why send messages that were certain to produce an opposite impres- sion ? ' (ib. ). The hypothesis really means that Christ deceives His disciples by inducing them, and through them the whole Cnristian Church, to believe a lie. The new turn given to the theory by psychical research will be considered below (ii. 1).
Literature. — For criticism of older theories see T. Keim, Jesus of Nazara, Eng. tr., 6 vols., London, 1873-88, vi. ; A. B. Bruce, Apologetics, Edinburgh, 1892, pp. 383-398 ; W. Milligan, Res^trrertion of our Lord, London, 1881, lect. iii. ; J. Orr, Resurrection of Jesus, do., 19U8, ch. viii. ; A. M. Fairbairn, Studies in the Life of Christ, do., 1881, ch. xviii.
ii. More recent explanations.— The charac- ter of the attack on the Resurrection in recent times has changed in some important respects. New knowledge and new critical methods have given rise to new ways of attempting to explain the belief in the Resurrection without accepting the full facts presented in the apostolic narratives. A close relation exists between these different theories — they are but different aspects of the same attempt to remove or minimize the supernatural in Christianity — but difi'erent forms can be distin- guished according to the difference of emphasis.
1. The psychological op psychical research theory. — A new turn, and with it a new vogue, has been given to the objective vision theory in recent times by bringing the appearances of the
Risen Christ recorded in the narratives into line with the phenomena of psychical research. The late V. VV. H. Myers, the leader in this movement, held that psychical research had definitely estab- lished the reality of telepathic intercommunicatiim between this world and another. ' Ohservation, experiment, inference, have led many imiuircrs, of whom I am one, to a belief in direct or telei)alliic intercommunication, not only between the minds of men still on earth, but between minds or spirits still on earth ami spirits departed' [Hut/tan Pcrsonalitij and its Siirpiral of Bodily Death, p. 350). And so higlily did Myers estimate the worth of the evidence supplied by these psychical investigations that he predicted that ' in conse- quence of the new evidence, all reasonable men, a century hence, will believe the Resurrection of Christ, whereas, in default of the new evidence, no reasonable men, a century hence, would have believed it' (i6. p. 351). The ground of this pre- diction he proceeds to state : ' Our evi'r-growing recognition of the continuity, the uniformity of cosmic law has gradually made of the alleged uniqueness of any incident its almost inevitalde refutation . . . and especially as to that central claim, of the soul's life manifested after the body's death, it is plain that this can less and less be supported by remote tradition alone ; that it must more and more be tested by modem experience and inquiry' (ib.).