Existentialism - not for me

I recently read an article from a collection of articles called the Asian Face of Jesus. The article was written by Byung Ahn and his argument is that we need to peel away the centuries of experience and tradition of faith to get to the historical Jesus in order for to truly understand the Christ message. His theology is resolutely existential. The true measure of the validity and reality of faith can only be understood through the basis of individual experience. I don’t know how many of you have much of an understanding of existential theology or philosophy but I find the consequence of either the philosophy or theology resolutely sad. If we were to follow the argument of Byung, we would lose the beauty and power of our history. Augustine would be gone, as would Aquinas and even the gospel of John because it focuses more on the message of Jesus than a recitation of his ministry found in the synoptic Gospels. More importantly, even the sharing we do together would be moot because all that matters is what our individual experience within the confines of our unique existence would matter. It is easy for me to say that I don’t agree with his theology, not because I don’t like it but, rather, because faith and experience shared is multiplied, nourished and sustained. If I had been forced to rely on the lessons of my own existence, I would still be lost in the wilderness.