As the full meaning of this sacrifice or self - negation dawns in consciousness, the
factuality and historicity of Jesus»
particular «self - existence» is negated as that existence now becomes universal self - consciousness: «The death of the mediator is death not merely of his natural aspect, of his
particular self - existence: what dies is not merely the outer casement, which, being stripped of essential being, is eo ipso dead, but also the abstraction of the divine Being.»
In the modern period with its emphasis on
factuality, critical thinking is deeply corrosive of religion in general, Christianity and the Bible in
particular.