Hermann Samuel Reimarus

Hermann Samuel Reimarus was a German philosopher and writer of the Enlightenment, born in Hamburg in 1694 and remembered for his Deism, the doctrine that human reason can reach a knowledge of God and ethics from the study of nature, so that religions based on revelation are unnecessary. He denied the supernatural origin of Christianity and was the first influential critic to investigate the historical Jesus, holding that Jesus was a mortal Jewish prophet and that the apostles founded Christianity as a separate religion. He studied theology, ancient languages and philosophy at Jena, taught at Wittenberg, and from 1727 until his death in 1768 was professor of Hebrew and Oriental languages in Hamburg. He also wrote a work on logic and popular books on natural religion.