The Life of Jesus Critically Examined
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David Friedrich Strauss's The Life of Jesus Critically Examined (1835-1836) is a controversial work that applied dialectical philosophy to biblical interpretation. Strauss denied the historical accuracy of the Gospels, viewing them as "historical myth"—unintentionally created legends embodying the hopes of early Christians. He proposed that Christianity evolved through the interplay of conflicting ideas, leading to a higher religious synthesis.12
Strauss's approach aimed to separate the historical Jesus from the mythological elements that developed around him. While he believed his criticism didn't destroy Christianity, his work led to his exclusion from academic teaching positions. His ideas influenced later liberal and eschatological biblical studies and spurred the search for the "historical Jesus". The primary sources for Jesus's life are the New Testament Gospels, though their historical value is debated.213
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JesusThe 19th century…orthodox Christology: one was the Life of Jesus, first published in 1835 by David Friedrich Strauss, and the other, bearing the same title, was first published by Ernest Renan in 1863. Strauss’s work paid more attention to the growth of Christian ideas—he called them “myths”—about Jesus as the basis for…
Read More…orthodox Christology: one was the Life of Jesus, first published in 1835 by David Friedrich Strauss, and the other, bearing the same title, was first published by Ernest Renan in 1863. Strauss’s work paid more attention to the growth of Christian ideas—he called them “myths”—about Jesus as the basis for…
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ChristologyPost-Enlightenment Christology>Life of Jesus Critically Examined (1835) rejects both the supernatural and the natural interpretations of Jesus in favor of a “mythical” interpretation, according to which the story of Jesus illustrates timeless truths (“myths”) but not historical facts. In a brilliant study, The Quest for the…
Read More>Life of Jesus Critically Examined (1835) rejects both the supernatural and the natural interpretations of Jesus in favor of a “mythical” interpretation, according to which the story of Jesus illustrates timeless truths (“myths”) but not historical facts. In a brilliant study, The Quest for the…
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rationalismFour waves of religious rationalism…work, Das Leben Jesu (The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined, 1846). Relying largely on internal inconsistencies in the Synoptic Gospels, Strauss undertook to prove these books to be unacceptable as revelation and unsatisfactory as history. He then sought to show how an imaginative people innocent of either history or…
Read More…work, Das Leben Jesu (The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined, 1846). Relying largely on internal inconsistencies in the Synoptic Gospels, Strauss undertook to prove these books to be unacceptable as revelation and unsatisfactory as history. He then sought to show how an imaginative people innocent of either history or…
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study of religionHistorical-critical studiesStrauss (1808–74), whose controversial Life of Jesus (published in German, 1835–36) was an attempt to sift out the historical Jesus from the overlay of myth created by the poetic imagination of the early church. Similarly, the German church historian Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930), influenced by Albrecht Ritschl, intended to…
Read MoreStrauss (1808–74), whose controversial Life of Jesus (published in German, 1835–36) was an attempt to sift out the historical Jesus from the overlay of myth created by the poetic imagination of the early church. Similarly, the German church historian Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930), influenced by Albrecht Ritschl, intended to…
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