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

Early Christianity in Paris. For him, Christianity started as a mystery cult,
with a hero of a recent date, a Jewish faith-healer who came to believe he
was the Messiah, and got executed by Pilate. Paul is a confusing
patchwork of ideas and remains unexplained.
■ A.D. Howell Smith (b. 1880), Jesus Not A Myth (1942). Howell Smith, son
of a Church personality, did not follow his family example, became a
director of the Rationalist Press Association, and wrote abundantly on the
history of Christianity and the Church. He argues that the early Christian
texts never call Jesus a God. The prediction that the Kingdom of God will
happen during the lifetime of his listeners is a strong argument for the
historicity of the preacher.
■ Archibald Robertson (1886-1961), Jesus: Myth or History? (1946).
Robertson's father (same name) was Principal of King's College, London
and Bishop of Exeter. Robertson became a journalist/author. His book is a
helpful account of the public debate in the 1890-1940 period. It lists the
key spokesmen, gives a helpful analysis of their main arguments, while
ending by seeking a compromise between both sides. Robertson pits two
teams:
- 11 "historicists": Frederick C. Conybeare, Thomas K. Cheyne, Paul W.
Schmiedel, Alfred Loisy, Albert Schweitzer, Charles Guignebert, Rudolf
Bultmann, Joseph Klausner, Robert Eisler, Maurice Goguel, A.D. Howell Smith;
- against 8 "mythicists": Bruno Bauer, John M. Robertson, Thomas Whittaker,
William B. Smith, Arthur Drews, Paul-Louis Couchoud, L. Gordon Rylands,
Edouard Dujardin.
"Mythicism", an Imprecise and Confusing Journalistic Jargon
In their books, A.D. Howell Smith (1942) and Archibald Robertson (1946)
popularized the use of mythicist (L19, i.e. late 19th c., "a student, interpreter, or
creator of myths; also an adherent or student of mythicism), and mythicism
(rare, M19, "attributing an origin in myth to narratives of supernatural events";
also "the tendency to create myths"). Both were bizarrely adopted as a