What is the history of the concept of a "personal relationship with Jesus"? It is common these days to hear questions like:


  Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?


Or...


  The most important thing is your personal relationship with Jesus.


The Bible never uses this phrase.  Jesus certainly had personal relationships with his disciples, but after his death, Paul never tells the churches in Corinth or Rome that they need better "personal relationships with Jesus."  The other epistles don't talk about ways to "strengthen" that "personal relationship," etc.

How long has a "personal relationship" with Jesus been talked about in Christian culture?  Where did this term and related language originate, and what is its history?

EDIT Please note I'm not specifically looking for Biblical references to support this concept (although that could certainly be part of a good answer!)  I'm asking about the cultural history of this concept.  And while I can appreciate that even Jesus made statements that can be easily interpreted as supporting a personal relationship, he definitely did not emphasize this aspect of Christian culture.  When, where, how did the concept of a "personal relationship with Jesus" enter Christian culture as a prominent theme?
Summary:  As you noted, the concept of a "personal relationship with Jesus" could be argued from Scripture, but it is certainly not emphasized in any way.  Relationship with God is almost exclusively described in Scripture as a communal experience.  The emphasis on "personal relationship" is a modern emphasis, and is rooted more in Enlightenment thinking than in Scripture.

The Biblical Emphasis

An Individual Death

Every last person matters to God; He wants everyone to be saved, no matter how "bad" they are.  So there is certainly an open invitation to every person - and this has always been emphasized.

However, what many people do not understand is what God is inviting us into.  He is inviting us to die to our self, and live for Him.  This is the "cost" of following Jesus.  This is not "the real you", or "a better you"... this is "a dead you"!  In other words, we are called to shift our focus from ourselves to others.

Most of the individualistic language in Scripture is either used to describe the entry of sinners into the Kingdom, or the rebellion of heretics against the Kingdom, but not life in the kingdom.  (example)

A Communal Life

When we join the Kingdom of God, we become a part of something special.  There are many ways this "something" is described in Scripture.  Here are a few:


A body of interdependent members, with Christ as the head.
A spiritual house made up of many living stones, with Christ as the cornerstone.
A vine with many branches
A fellowship - with one another and with God.


The Biblical picture of life in the Kingdom is far from individualistic; it is one of interdependency - we grow in our relationship with God through one another and with one another.  (example)

The Enlightenment Emphasis

The Rise of Individualism

The Enlightenment drastically changed the way people viewed the world.  One of the most significant shifts in thinking was from a communal focus to an individualistic focus.


  three fundamental ideas ... encompassed everything the Enlightenment would stand for. First among these was individualism, which emphasized the importance of the individual -source


In the secular realm, this shift in focus led to a new emphasis on "individual rights".

"My Personal Relationship"

This global shift in thinking from communal to individualistic also led to a new emphasis in the teaching and evangelism in the churches.  No longer was the believer merely a part of something bigger, suddenly the believer was the central focus.  This minister summarizes it well:


  The spirit of the Enlightenment has blossomed in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries... In the church this individualism translates to: "All I need is my Bible and my God. Anything and anyone else is a threat to my freedom." -source


Nowadays, all that matter is "my personal relationship with Jesus."  As long as I have that, I'm OK.

Clarifications

I am not claiming that believers are disconnected from God in any way, or that God is not a "Person" who loves His people intimately.  God is "personal" in many senses of the word, and we are each "individually" invited to come to Him.  However, the individualistic emphasis on "personal relationship" is not rooted in Scripture; The emphasis in Scripture is on an integral, interdependent, communal fellowship with God and all His people.  We grow in Christ together.

I am also not claiming that there never lived a person prior to the Enlightenment who emphasized individualism in the Church... I am simply saying that we can thank the Enlightenment for the prominence of this theme in churches today.