David Strauss

David Friedrich Strauss (1808 to 1874) was a German liberal Protestant theologian and writer who influenced Christian Europe with his portrayal of the historical Jesus. Born in Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart, he was prepared for theology at the seminary at Blaubeuren, where the masters Friedrich Heinrich Kern and Ferdinand Christian Baur taught him the principles of textual criticism, and he entered the Tübinger Stift in 1825, where the theories of Schelling, Böhme, Schleiermacher and Hegel successively claimed his allegiance. In 1831 he went to Berlin to study under Schleiermacher and Hegel. He argued that many Gospel narratives are myths, understood not as mere falsity but as the imaginative expression of religious truth, while rejecting orthodox supernatural claims about Jesus. His work was connected to the Tübingen School, and he was a pioneer in the historical investigation of Jesus.