Arthur Drews - PDF Wikipedia Aug. 23, 2012 PAGES - Radikalkritik

of historical theology [6] which attributes the formation of Christianity to Jesus's
"great personality". He mentions the key names of historical criticism that
emerged in in the late 18th century and blossomed in the 19th century in
Germany.
■ Charles-François Dupuis (1742–1809) and Comte Constantin-François
de Volney (1757–1820), the two French critical thinkers of the
Enlightenment, who were the first to deny the historicity of Jesus on
astromythical grounds, which they saw as key factors in the formation of
religions including Christianity.
■ David Strauss (1808–1874), who, at 27, pioneered the Search for the
Historical Jesus with his Life of Jesus in 1835 (of 1,400 pages) by
rejecting all the supernatural events as mythical elaborations.
■ Bruno Bauer (1809–1882), the first academic theologian to affirm the nonhistoricity
of Jesus. He claimed that Mark was the original Gospel, and
the inventor of the historicity of Jesus. He traced the impact of major
Greco-Roman ideas on the formation of the NT, especially the influence
of Stoic philosophy (Seneca). Bruno Bauer's scholarship was buried by
German academia, and he remained a pariah, until Albert Kalthoff
rescued him from neglect and obscurity.
■ Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918), an expert scholar of the Torah/
Pentateuch, who was a leader in historical and source criticism;
■ William Wrede (1859–1906), the promoter of the Messianic Secret in
Mark, and who confirmed Bruno Bauer's claim that Mark was the real
creator of Christianity;
■ Johannes Weiss (1863-1914), the first exegete of the Gospels to attribute
an apocalyptic vision to Jesus, accepted by Schweitzer and many others.
He initiated form criticism later developed by Rudolf Bultmann. Weiss
gave the name of "Q to the "sayings of the Lord" common to Matthew and
Luke. He was considered the highest authority in his time.
■ G.J.P.J. Bolland (1854–1922), a Dutch autodidact radical, interested in
Hegel and von Hartmann (letters from Drews to Bolland were published in