the mythical explanation of the history takes a very subordinate place in the controversy. Few understood what Strauss's real meaning was; the general impression was that he entirely dissolved the life of Jesus into myth.
There appeared. Indeed, three satires ridiculing his method. One showed how, for the historical science of the future, the life of Luther would also become a mere myth,[1] the second treated the life of Napoleon in the same way;[2] in the third, Strauss himself becomes a myth.[3]
M. Eugene Mussard, "candidat au saint ministere," made it his business to set at rest the minds of the premier faculty at Geneva by his thesis, Du systeme mythique applique a I'histoire de la vie de Jesus, 1838, which bears the ingenious motto ou sesofismenoiV muqoiV (not ... in cunningly devised myths, 2 Peter i. 16). He certainly did not exaggerate the difficulties of his task, but complacently followed up an "Exposition of the Mythical Theory," with a "Refutation of the Mythical Theory as applied to the Life of Jesus."
The only writer who really faced the problem in the form in which it had been raised by Strauss was Wilke in his work "Tradition and Myth."[4] He recognises that Strauss had given an exceedingly valuable impulse towards the overcoming of rationalism and supernaturalism and to the rejection of the abortive
- ↑ Ausziige aus der Schrift "Das Leben. Luthers kritisch bearbeitet." (Extracts from a work entitled "A Critical Study of the Life of Luther.") By Dr. Casuar ("Cas- sowary"; Strauss = Ostrich). Mexico, 2836. Edited by Julius Ferdinand Wurm.
- ↑ Das Leben Napoleons kritisch gepriift. (A. Critical Examination of the Life of Napoleon.) From the English, with some pertinent applications to Strauss's Life of Jesus, 1836. [The English original referred to seems to have been Whateley's Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon Bonaparte, published in 1819, and primarily directed against Hume's Essay on Miracles.-TRANSLATOR.]
- ↑ La Vie de Strauss. Scrite en I'an 2839. Paris, 1839.
- ↑ Ch. G. Wilke, Tradition und Mythe. A contribution to the historical criticism of the Gospels in general, and in particular to the appreciation of the treatment of myth and idealism in Strauss's "Life of Jesus." Leipzig, 1837. Christian Gottlob Wilke was born in 1786 at Werm, near Zeitz, studied theology and became pastor of Hermannsdorf in the Erzgebirge. He resigned this office in 1837 in order to devote himself to his studies, perhaps also because he had become conscious of an inner unrest. In 1845 he prepared the way for his conversion to Catholicism by publishing a work entitled "Can a Protestant go over to the Roman Church with a good conscience?" He took the decisive step in August 1846. Later he removed to Wurzburg. Subsequently he recast his famous Clavis Nova Testamenti Philogica�which had appeared in 1840-1841�in the form of a lexicon for Catholic students of theology. His Hermeneutik des Neuen Testaments, published in 1843-1844, appeared in 1853 as Biblische Hermeneutik nach katholischen Grundsatzen (The Science of Biblical Interpretation according to Catholic principles). He was engaged in recasting his Clavis when he died in 1854. Of later works dealing with the question of myth, we may refer to Emanuel Marius, Die Personlichkeit Jesu mit besonderer Rilcksicht auf die Mythologien und Mysterien der alten Volker (The Personality of Jesus, with special reference to the Mythologies and Mysteries of Ancient Nations), Leipzig, 1879, 395 pp.; and Otto Frick, Mythus und Evangelism (Myth and Gospel), Heilbronn, 1879, 44 pp.
