Blackwell Reference Online

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German biblical critic and political theorist. He studied theology at Tübingen and Berlin, and was influenced by the thought of F.C. Baur, F.D.E. Schleiermacher and G.W.F. Hegel. He was removed from his teaching post at Tübingen following the controversy provoked by his best-known book, Das Leben Jesu (1835–6, trans. The Life of Jesus by George Eliot, 1846). In it he subjected the Gospel accounts to a historical-critical re-examination, concluding that the narratives are mythological rather than historical in character: they represent a projection of the messianic expectation of early Christians, focused on the man Jesus, in the period between his death and the writing of the Gospels. He applied Hegelian dialectic to the growth of the early church, and argued for the impossibility of attributing divinity to one human being only; rather, the incarnation takes place in humanity as a whole. The book is a watershed in the history of New Testament criticism, and prefigures the later German liberal Protestant ‘quest for the historical Jesus’. Later works developed his political theory, whilst in works such as Die christliche Glaubenslehre (1840–1) and Der alte und der neue Glaube (1872, trans. 1873), he moved increasingly away from religious orthodoxy, espousing scientific materialism as well as presenting his increasingly strong nationalism. See also B iblical criticism ... log in or subscribe to read full text