Straussâ•Žs Life of Jesus



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THEODORE

 

PARKER



302

STRAUSS


S

 



LIFE

 

OF



 

JESUS


303

so fi ne, that it will be as ridiculous to believe in a God, as now 

it is to believe in ghosts; and then again the world will become 

still fi ner, and it will rush hastily up to the very tip-top of re-

fi nement. Having reached the summit, the judgment of our 

sages will once more turn about; knowledge will undergo its 

last metamorphosis. Then — this will be the end — we shall be-

lieve in nothing but ghosts; we shall be as God; we shall know 

that Being and Essence is, and can be only, — Ghost. At that 

time the salt sweat of seriousness will be wiped dry from every 

brow; the tears of anxiety will be washed from every eye; loud 

laughter will peal out among men, for Reason will then have 

completed her work; humanity will have reached its goal, and 

a crown will adorn the head of each transfi gured man.”* 

The work of Strauss has produced a great sensation in Ger-

many, and especially in Berlin. It has called forth replies from 

all quarters, and of all characters, from the scurrilous invec-

tive to the heavy theological treatise. It has been met by learn-

ing and sagacity, perhaps greater than his own, and he has 

yielded on some points. He has retorted upon some of his an-

tagonists, using the same weapons with which they assailed 

him.† He has even turned upon them, and carried the war into 

their borders, and laid waste their country, with the old Teu-

tonic war-spirit. We have never read a controversy more awful 

than his reply to Eschenmeyer and Menzel. Porson’s criticism 

of poor Mr. Travis was a lullaby in comparison. But he has re-

plied to Ullman, — a Christian in heart, apparently, as well 

as in theology, — as a child to a father. His letters to this gen

* This quotation seems to be a classic common-place against all new 

schools. Jacobi applied to it Idealism and Nature-Philosophy, and both 

Tholuck and Hengstenberg cast it upon Strauss. A writer in the Princeton 

Repertory “sips the thrice-drawn infusion,” and gives the passage a new 

application.

† Streitschriften zur Vertheidigung meiner Kritik, 1837–8; 3 Hefte, 

8vo.

tleman are models for theological controversy. He has modi-



fi ed many of his opinions, as his enemies or his friends have 

pointed out his errors, and seems most indebted to Neander, 

Tholuck, Weisse, Ullman, and De Wette, not to mention nu-

merous humbler and more hostile names.

His work is not to be ranked with any previous attacks 

upon Christianity. It not only surpasses all its predecessors 

in learning, acuteness, and thorough investigation, but it is 

marked by a serious and earnest spirit. He denounces with 

vehemence the opinion that the Gospels were written to de-

ceive. There is none of the persifl age of the English deists; 

none of the haughty scorn and bitter mockery of the far-famed 

Wolfenbüttel Fragmentist. He is much more Christian in ex-

pressing his unbelief than Hengstenberg and many others in 

their faith. We could wish the language a little more studied in 

some places. Two or three times he is frivolous; but in general, 

the style is elevated, and manly, and always pretty clear. We 

do not remember to have met with a sneer in the whole book. 

In this respect it deserves a great praise, which can rarely be 

bestowed on the defenders of Christianity, to their shame be 

it spoken.

The work derives its importance not more from the novelty 

of its views, than from the fact that it is a concentration of ob-

jections to historical Christianity. Viewed in this light, its im-

portance has by no means been exaggerated. It is sometimes 

said, had the work been published in England, it would have 

been forgotten in two months; but no man who has read the 

book, and is familiar with the history of theology, ever believes 

such a statement. We should be glad to see the English schol-

ars, who are to measure swords with a Strauss, as the Cud-

worths, Warburtons, Sherlocks, Lardners, and Clarkes en-

countered their antagonists in other days, when there were 

giants among the English clergy.




THEODORE

 

PARKER



304

STRAUSS


S

 



LIFE

 

OF



 

JESUS


305

“ ’T is no war as everybody knows,

Where only one side deals the blows,

And t’ other bears ’em.”

We have no doubt which side would “bear the blows” for the 

next  fi ve-and-twenty years, should any one be provoked to 

translate Strauss to a London public.*

We cannot regard this book as the work of a single man; it 

is rather the production of the age. An individual raised up by 

God discovers a great truth, which makes an epoch, and by its 

seminal character marks the coming ages. But a book like this, 

which denotes merely a crisis, a revolution, is the aggregate of 

many works. Like Kant’s Kritik, it is the necessary result of the 

great German movement, as much so as Spinoza’s theological 

treatises were of the Cartesian principles; and, indeed, the po-

sition of Strauss is in many respects not unlike that of Spinoza: 

Both mark a crisis; both struck at the most deeply cherished 

theological doctrines of their times. Before mankind could 

pass over the great chasm between the frozen realm of stiff su-

pernaturalism, and lifeless rationalism, on the one side, and 

the fair  domain of free religious thought, where the only es-

sential creed is the Christian motto, “Be perfect, as your Father 

in Heaven is perfect,” and the only essential form of Religion 

is Love to your neighbor as to yourself, and to God with the 

whole heart, mind, and soul, on the other, — some one must 

plunge in, devoting himself unconsciously, or even against his 

will, for the welfare of the race. This hard lot Strauss has cho-

sen for himself, and done what many wished to have done, but 

none dared to do. His book, therefore, must needs be negative, 

destructive, and unsatisfactory. Mr. Strauss must not be taken

* See Observations on the Attempted Application of Pantheistic Prin-

ciples to the Theory and Historic Criticism of the Gospel, &c., by W. H. 

Mill, D. D. F. R. A. S., and Chaplain to his Grace the Archbishop of Canter-

bury. Part I. London, 1840.

as the representative of the German theologians. Men of all 

parties condemn his work; and men of all parties accept it. 

You see its infl uence in the writings of Tholuck, De Wette, and 

Neander; men that have grown old in being taught and teach-

ing. The liberal party has fallen back, afraid of its principles; 

the stationary party has come forward, though reluctantly. The 

wonderful ability with which it is written, the learning, so vari-

ous and exact, wherewith it is stored, are surprising in any one, 

but truly extraordinary in so juvenile an author; born 1808. 

For our own part, we rejoice that the book has been written, 

though it contains much that we cannot accept. May the evil 

it produces soon end! But the good it does must last forever. 

To estimate it aright, we must see more than a negative work 

in its negations. Mr. Strauss has plainly asked the question, 

“What are the historical facts that lie at the basis of the Chris-

tian movement?” Had he written with half this ability, and 

with no manner of fairness, in defence of some popular dogma 

of his sect, and against freedom of thought and reason, no 

praise would have been too great to bestow upon him.  What if 

he is sometimes in error; was a theologian never mistaken be-

fore ? What if he does push his mythical hypothesis too far; did 

Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, make no mistakes? Did they commit 

no sins? Yet Strauss, we think, has never cursed, and are cer-

tain that he never burned an opponent! We honor the manly 

openness which has said so plainly what was so strongly felt. 

We cannot say, as a late highly distinguished divine used to 

say, that we “ should not be sorry to see the work republished 

here,” because there is no general theological scholarship to 

appreciate its merits and defects. With many of his doctrines, 

as we understand them, especially his dogmas relative to God 

and Immortality, we have no sympathy; but as little fear that 

they will do a permanent injury any where. We still believe our 

real enemies are “the Flesh and the Devil,” and that neither the 

philosophy of Hegel, nor the Biblical Criticism of the Germans 




THEODORE

 

PARKER



306

STRAUSS


S

 



LIFE

 

OF



 

JESUS


307

will ever weaken the popular faith in God or man, or the pure 

religion that mediates between the two. Strauss has thrown 

a huge stone into the muddy pool of theology, and it will be 

long before its splashing waters fi nd their former repose and 

level. Let it not be supposed Strauss is an exponent of the Ger-

man school of theology or religion, as it is sometimes unwisely 

urged. He is a single element in a vast mass. His work fi nds 

opponents in the leaders of the three great Protestant theolog-

ical parties in Germany. The main body of theologians there is 

represented by Schleiermacher, Tholuck, Neander, De Wette, 

and men of a similar spirit. Strauss is the representative of a 

small party. He is by no means the representative of the fol-

lowers of Hegel, many of whom are opposed to him.*

The whole book has the savor of Pantheism pervading it, as 

we think, using Pantheism in its best sense, if our readers can 

fi nd a good sense for it. He does not admit a personal God, we 

are told, and, therefore, would not admit of a personal Christ, 

or incarnation of God. This, we suspect, is the sole cause of his 

aversion to personalities. But he nowhere avows this openly 

and plainly; we, therefore, only give it as our conjecture, 

though Tholuck openly calls him a Pantheist of the school of 

Hegel, defi ning that school “Atheistic;” while Ullmann brings 

the same charge, but with much more modesty, asking men to 

translate it more mildly if they can.

We are not surprised at the sensation Mr. Strauss has ex-

cited in Germany, nor at the number of replies, which have 

been showered down upon him. Destruction always makes a 

great noise, and attracts the crowd, but nobody knows when 

the Gospels were published, and the world, doubtless, was in

*See, for example, an article on the second volume of the “Leben 

Jesu,” in the Berlin “Jahrbücher für Wissenschaftliche Kritik,” for 1836. 

Band I. p. 681, seq., by Bruno Bauer.

no great haste to receive them. It is fortunate the book has 

been written in the only country where it can be readily an-

swered. We have no fears for the fi nal result. Doubtless, some 

will be shaken in their weakly rooted faith; and the immediate 

effect will probably be bad; worse than former religious revo-

lutions with them. The Rationalists took possession of the pul-

pit, but unlike Strauss, says Mr. Tholuck, they pulled down 

no churches. But we have no fear that any church will be de-

stroyed by him. If a church can be destroyed by a criticism, 

or a book, however pungent, the sooner it falls the better. A 

church, we think, was never written down, except by itself. To 

write down the true Christian Church seems to us as absurd 

as to write down the solar system, or put an end to tears, joys, 

and prayers. Still less have we any fear, that Christianity it-

self should come to an end, as some appear to fancy; a form 

of Religion, which has been the parent and the guardian of all 

modern civilization; which has sent its voice to the ends of the 

world; and now addresses equally the heart of the beggar and 

the monarch; which is the only bond between societies; an in-

stitution, cherished and clung to by the choicest hopes, the 

deepest desires of the human race, is not in a moment to be 

displaced by a book. “There has long been a fable among men,” 

says an illustrious German writer, “and even in these days is it 

often heard; unbelief invented it, and little-belief has taken it 

up. It runs thus; there will come a time, and, perhaps, it has 

already come, when it will be all over with this Jesus of Naz-

areth; and this is right. The memory of a single man is fruit-

ful only for a time. The human race must thank him for much; 

God has brought much to pass through him. But he is only one 

of us, and his hour to be forgotten will soon strike. It has been 

his earnest desire to render the world entirely free; it must, 

therefore, be his wish to make it free also from himself, that 

God may be all in all. Then men will not only know that they 




THEODORE

 

PARKER



308

have power enough in themselves to obey perfectly the will of 

God; but in the perfect knowledge of this, they can go beyond 

its requisitions, if they only will! Yea, when the Christian name 

is forgotten, then for the fi rst time shall a universal kingdom of 

Love and Truth arise, in which there shall lie no more any seed 

of enmity, that from the beginning has been continually sown 

between such as believe in Jesus, and the children of men. But 

this fable can never be true. Ever, since the day that he was 

in the fl esh, the Redeemer’s image has been stamped inefface-

ably on the hearts of men. Even if the letter should perish, — 

which is holy, only because it preserves to us this image, — the 

image itself would remain forever. It is stamped so deep in the 

heart of man, that it never can be effaced, and the word of the 

Apostle will ever be true, ‘Lord, whither shall we go? thou only 

hast the words of eternal life.’”*

* While we have been preparing these pages, we have sometimes glanced 

at another book, attacking Christianity. Its title is Jesus-Christ et sa doc-

trine, Histoire de la Naissance de l’Eglise, de son organization et de ses 

progrès, pendant le premier siècle, par J.  Salvador. Paris: 1838. 2 vols. 

8vo.; a work of great pretensions and very little merit.

◊    ◊    ◊    ◊

About the Author

T

HEODORE



 

P

ARKER



 

was born in 1810 in Lexington, Massachu-

setts, the tenth and youngest child of a farm family. His mother died 

when he was 12. At 16, he became a schoolteacher. At 19, he passed 

the entrance examinations for Harvard College, but was unable to at-

tend. At 22, he started an academy at Watertown, where he met Lydia 

Dodge Cabot. He gained admission to Harvard Divinity School in 1834 

and graduated in 1836. In 1837, he married Lydia Cabot and became 

minister of the West Roxbury Unitarian church. Parker’s studies of the 

new German historical biblical criticism, especially W. M. L. De Wet-

te’s Critical and Historical Introduction to the Old Testament (1817) 

and D. F. Strauss’s Life of Jesus, Critically Examined (1835), led him 

to speak out publically against the literal factuality of biblical miracles 

and prophecies. This brought him into confl ict with some other Uni-

tarian ministers and their association, but it brought him into con-

tact with the emerging Transcendentalists, including Ralph Waldo 

Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and George Ripley. He published numer-

ous articles in The Dial during its brief existence, and his controver-

sies with the Unitarians became more public and more pronounced. 

In 1846 he resigned from his church in West Roxbury to become min-

ister of the newly-formed 28th Congregational Society in Boston, 

which met at fi rst in the Melodeon Theater and later in the Boston 

Music Hall, eventually drawing crowds of more than 2,000 worship-

pers. He denounced the Mexican War, opposed and resisted the Fu-

gitive Slave Act, and secretly helped fi nance John Brown’s insurrec-

tion. Parker became ill with tuberculosis in 1858–1859, and sought 

to recoup his health by travel. He died May 10, 1860 in Florence, It-

aly. An excellent biographical sketch by Dean Grodzins is online at

http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/theodoreparker.html



Abstract

David Strauss’s Das Leben Jesu (1835) was one of the most infl u-

ential and controversial theological works of the nineteenth century. 

It was fi rst translated into English by Mary Ann Evans (“George El-

iot”) in 1860, and is said to have been an important early infl uence on 

Friedrich Nietzsche. Strauss (1808-1874) applied the methods of Ger-

man “higher criticism” or textual criticism to the Gospels, and argued 

that their accounts of Jesus’ miracles and prophecies were to be un-

derstood “mythically”—as products of the early church’s use of Jew-

ish messianic ideas and expectations to underscore the conviction 

that Jesus was the Messiah.

Parker’s long (20,000 words) review recaps Strauss’s arguments 

regarding the birth, genealogy, career, and miracles of Jesus, and 

places Strauss’s work in the context of German and English theol-

ogy and philosophy. He writes: “It is not our aim to write a polemic 

against the author of the ‘Life of Jesus,’ but to describe his book or 

‘defi ne his position,’ as the politicians are wont to say. The work in 

question comprises, fi rst, an Introduction, relating to the formation 

of ‘the Mythical stand-point,’ from which the Evangelical history is 

to be contemplated; second, the main work itself, which is divided 

into three books, relating respectively to the History of the Birth and 

Childhood of Jesus; his Public Life; his Sufferings, Death, and Res-

urrection; third, a conclusion of the whole book, or the doctrinal sig-

nifi cance of the life of Jesus. … [A] more descriptive title would be, A 

Fundamental Criticism on the Four Gospels; … it is not a history, but 

a criticism and collection of materials, out of which a conjectural his-

tory may be constructed. … The general manner of treating the sub-

ject, and arranging the chapters, sections, and parts of the argument, 

indicates consummate dialectical skill; while the style is clear, the ex-

pression direct, and the author’s openness in referring to his sources 

of information, and stating his conclusions in all their simplicity, is 

candid and exemplary.”

While Parker does take issue with the “presuppositions” with 

which Strauss approached his materials, he nonetheless concludes: 

“The wonderful ability with which it is written, the learning, so var-

ious and exact, wherewith it is stored, are surprising in any one, but 

truly extraordinary in so juvenile an author; born 1808. For our own 

part, we rejoice that the book has been written, though it contains 

much that we cannot accept. May the evil it produces soon end! But 

the good it does must last forever. To estimate it aright, we must see 

more than a negative work in its negations. Mr. Strauss has plainly 

asked the question, ‘What are the historical facts that lie at the ba-

sis of the Christian movement?’ Had he written with half this ability, 

and with no manner of fairness, in defence of some popular dogma of 

his sect, and against freedom of thought and reason, no praise would 

have been too great to bestow upon him.” 

Controversies over the literal-historical status of the miracles 

and prophecies of the New Testament played an important role in 

the evolution of Unitarianism and Transcendentalism. Parker’s re-

view brought the European debate into American homes and pulpits 

and was an important factor in the development of liberal theology in 

New England.



The review was published originally in the Christian Examiner for 

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