would
be gathered the elect of God. Johannes Weiss, the most pronounced
advocate of this view, maintains that Jesus' teaching is entirely
eschatological. The kingdom is supramundane and still to come. Jesus
did not inaugurate it; He only predicted its advent. Consequently there
is no Ethics, strictly so called, in His {134} preaching; there is only
an Ethic of renunciation and watchfulness[22]--an _Interimsethik_.

The whole problem resolves itself into two crucial questions: (1) Did
Jesus expect a gradual coming of the kingdom, or did He conceive of it as
breaking in suddenly by the immediate act of God? and (2) Did Jesus
regard the kingdom as purely future, or as already begun?

In answer to the first question, while there are undoubtedly numerous and
explicit sayings, too much neglected in the past and not to be wholly
explained by mere orientalism, suggesting a sudden and miraculous coming,
these must be taken in connection with the many other passages implying a
gradual process--passages of deep ethical import which seem to colour our
Lord's entire view of life and its purposes. And in answer to the second
question, while there are not a few utterances which certainly point to a
future consummation, these are not inconsistent with the immediate
inauguration and gradual development of the kingdom.

A full discussion of this subject is beyond the scope of this volume.[23]
There are, however, two objections which may be taken to the apocalyptic
interpretation of Christ's teaching as a whole. (1) As presented by its
most pronounced champions, this view seems to empty the person and
teaching of Jesus of their originality and universality. It tends to
reduce the Son of Man to the level of a Jewish rhapsodist, whose whole
function was to encourage His countrymen to look away from the present
scene of duty to some future state of felicity, which had no connection
with the world of reality, and no bearing upon their present character.
It would be surely a caricature to interpret the religion of the New
Testament from this standpoint alone to the exclusion of those directly
ethical and spiritual {135} principles in which its originality chiefly
appeared, and on which its permanence depends.[24] As Bousset[25] points
out, not renunciation but joy in life is the characteristic thing in
Jesus' outlook. He does not preach a gloomy asceticism, but proclaims a
new righteousness and a new type of duty. He recognises the