Pacifism and the Historical Jesus

Interestingly, Lewis likens the search for biblical grounds for pacifism to the modern search for the "historical Jesus." He says, "I think there are people who will not find this sort of thing difficult to believe, just as there are people ready to maintain that the true meaning of Plato, or Shakespeare, oddly concealed from their contemporaries and immediate successors, has preserved its virginity for the daring embraces of one or two modern professors... Any theory which bases itself on a supposed "historical Jesus," to be dug out of the gospels and then set up in opposition to Christian teaching, is suspect."

(Timeless at Heart, 64)