Talk:David Strauss

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I haven't read any of Strauss' works, and I'm just wondering exactly what it was he thought about religion on the whole. He obviously rejected the biblical account of the life of Jesus, but apart from that, was he specifically anti-theistic, anti-religious, atheistic, jewish, or what?


 * Here are some excerpts from the editor's introduction to "The Life of Jesus Critically Examined" -


 * "...Strauss set out to write a destructive critique of the biblical and doctrinal views of Christ, which would enable him to abstract the true essence of Christian faith from the religious imagery with which it had been entangled..."


 * "Strauss was, to use Van Harvey's image, a straggler at the edge of the camp of Israel. He no longer could enter the camp of faith and affirm its rites and practices, but neither could he leave it, for he continued to draw spiritual sustenance from it..."


 * ''"Strauss was...a very religious man engaged in an intensely religious quest and struggle...he considered himself a defender of religion against its real enemies, the naturalists and atheists who cut the nerve center of divine


 * "...he became a free-lance theologian who dabbled in biography, in poetry, in philosophy - knowing that he was neither a historian, nor an artist, nor a philosopher. The theologian who cannot abandon theology, yet cannot practice it, is truly the alienated theologian.  It was the lack of a viable vocation that turned Strauss into a bitter antagonist of the Christian faith..." (this last quote describes the latter years of Strauss' life, after all his major scholarly works were produced)


 * Hope that answers your question. Dshin 01:21, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

So, Deist would be a good general descriptor, then? The Gonz 06:00, 21 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I do not think that would be a good descriptor. I think the word deism typically entails a worldview that rejects a priori the notion of God's interaction with the universe.  Strauss, in his scholarly works, is always open to the possibility of the miraculous - he happens to reject each individual instance based on historical/exegetical analysis, not because of some a priori worldview bias. Dshin 06:34, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Bad Paragraph
The second to last paragraph of the section on "Critique" lacks any references, also refers to what appears to be a non-existent work, is badly written besides, appears to be wrong, and adds nothing of value to an encyclopedia entry on Strauss. I think it is a paragraph of "original scholarship" (neither original nor scholarship) and that it taints this entry quite badly.

It should be removed, don't you think? Matthew Baldwin (talk) 03:13, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

If there is no objection, I intend to remove this paragraph. Matthew Baldwin (talk) 07:49, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

I want to clarify that the paragraph (a) is unnecessarily specific and focused on a particular topic of Strauss' Life of Jesus, and in this respect rather resembles the content of an (undergraduate) paper; (b) it makes reference to an unattributed work Demythologization that appears to be in error; (c) there appears to be no reason to focus on this particular element of critique, as it does not inform the reader of a specific critic's views, but rather offers a personal (and erroneous) criticism of a view attributed to Strauss, which is also without citation to Strauss' work. This is clearly "original research" and violates Wikipedia's standards and policies. Matthew Baldwin (talk) 07:53, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

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Lord Shaftesbury
The claim stated here is factually inaccurate:

"The Earl of Shaftesbury called the 1846 translation by Marian Evans "the most pestilential book ever vomited out of the jaws of hell."[6][7][8][9]"

As I point out in my book Victorian Jesus, which is inexplicably cited as evidence here, Lord Shaftesbury made this statement about John Seeley's anonymous book, Ecce Homo. I've deleted the statement. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:8003:E4FD:E201:4CC9:C0BD:BD95:CA47 (talk) 02:23, 21 May 2020 (UTC)


 * Your complaint seems to be correct. None of the four references seems to back up the statement, and I can see primary evidence from 1866 that Shaftesbury's remark was made about 'Ecce Homo'. (E.g. https://archive.org/details/sim_saturday-review-uk_the-saturday-review_1866-05-19_21_551/page/586/mode/2up). Also, I see that the user account by which your deletion of the incorrect statement was reverted has now been blocked. So I'm deleting it again. Unfortunately this piece of misinformation seems to have spread widely in the world. Mrmedley (talk) 04:59, 3 July 2024 (UTC)