David Friedrich Strauss
David Friedrich Strauss was a German religious philosopher and biographer, best known for his landmark work, "Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet" (The Life of Jesus: Or, A Critical Examination of His History), published in the mid-1830s. Born in 1808 in Ludwigsburg, Germany, Strauss was significantly influenced by the Tübingen school of theology during his studies, as well as by prominent thinkers like Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. His major work sought to differentiate between the historical Jesus and the theological interpretations of Jesus found in Christian doctrine, which marked a pivotal moment in biblical criticism.
Strauss's academic journey began with his early ties to influential professors at seminary and continued as he engaged with the ideas of various philosophers, which ultimately shaped his critical approach to theology. He faced considerable backlash for his work, which led to the loss of his university position. Additionally, his personal life was marked by an unhappy marriage and subsequent separation, but he maintained custody of his children, moving frequently across Germany. Strauss's intellectual contributions and life experiences culminated in a legacy that continues to resonate in theological and philosophical discussions. He passed away in 1874.
David Friedrich Strauss
Theologian
- Born: January 27, 1808
- Birthplace: Ludwigsburg, Germany
- Died: February 8, 1874
- Place of death: Ludwigsburg, Germany
Biography
German religious philosopher and biographer David Friedrich Strauss is known for a multi-volume work, published between 1835 and 1836, which distinguishes between the historical Jesus and the biblical Jesus of Christian belief. Entitled Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet (The Life of Jesus: Or, A Critical Examination of His History, 1843), the work shows the influence of both Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, as well as the scientifically oriented Tübingen school of theology in which Strauss was trained while a theology student at the University of Tübingen in the mid-1820’s.
Strauss was born in 1808 in Ludwigsburg, Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, near Stuttgart. He attended junior seminary in southwest Germany in Württemberg and established early ties to the Tübingen school through his professor Friedrich Heinrich Kern and Ferdinand Christian Baur. In these formative years, Strauss’s religious beliefs were influenced somewhat by Schelling, but particularly by the mystic Jakob Böhme and the physician-poet Justinius Kerner, to whom Strauss was introduced by a relative.
By the late 1820’s, Strauss was reading Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Der christliche Glaube (1820-1821) and Hegel’s Die Phänomenologie des Geistes (1807; Phenomenology of Spirit, 1868). These works influenced him to abandon mysticism altogether in favor of a more critical mindset. In 1830, Strauss became pastor of a church in Klein-Ingersheim and the following year took a teaching appointment in Maulbronn, but his continuing study of Schleiermacher and Hegel distracted him, and he resigned within months of his appointment. He returned to Berlin with the intention of studying directly under Hegel’s tutelage. He was able to attend two lectures, but Hegel died in a cholera epidemic shortly after Strauss’s arrival. Disheartened, Strauss initially considered a return to Tübingen, but found other Hegelian colleagues in Berlin and decided to remain and pursue his study after all.
Strauss submitted and received his Ph.D. from the faculty at Tübingen shortly after, in late 1831. His dissertation focused on the history of the doctrine of restoration, a term he used to refer to the broad theological concept of reincarnation, including both the Christian understanding of resurrection and the broader understanding from Indian religion. Strauss pays particular attention to problems in Schleiermacher’s treatment of the issues and advances Hegelian solutions to them.
Strauss did return to Tübingen in 1832 to join the faculty there. He had completed the outline for Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet in his last weeks in Berlin and spent the first years of his faculty appointment completing the book’s first volume. Despite its historically valuable analysis of the origins of the Gospel narratives, the reception for the book was unsurprisingly brutal, and Strauss lost his university appointment.
He married the respected singer Agnes Schebest in 1841 but the marriage was unhappy and resulted in a separation, although Strauss eventually received custody of his two children. They moved around Germany for several years, and after the children married and established their own households, Strauss returned home to Ludwigsburg, where he died in 1874 after an illness.