labors to establish the historical
position of Christ. The "guild" of professional theologians are
interested, he avers, in maintaining their own cause; of course, they
would not loose their hold very willingly. The only italicized sentence
in his preface is a thrust against this class, whom time has in nowise
led him to esteem: "_He who wants to clear the parsons out of the church
must first clear miracles out of religion._" The spirit of the
introduction, in which the German writer is always expected to announce
his opinions and give the historical reasons therefor, is not materially
different from the lengthy one in his _Life of Jesus_. It is divided
into three parts. The _first_ contains the important attempts which have
been made to write the life of Jesus and represent it in its true light.
They have all been failures. Hess, Herder, Paulus, Schleiermacher, Hase,
Neander, Ebrard, Weisse, Ewald, Keim, and Renan must be content to lie
in oblivion. Renan has done very well for a Frenchman; and as a work for
France his book has some merit. The _second_ treats of the gospels as
sources of the life of Jesus. These accounts, not being authentic, are
not of sufficient weight to be relied on. The _third_ part contains
certain explanations necessary to a proper appreciation of the remaining
portion of the work. The following language indicates the author's
unchanged opinion on the mythical character of Christ: "We now know for
a certainty at least, what Jesus was _not_ and what he did _not_ do,
namely, nothing superhuman, nothing supernatural; it will, therefore,
now be the more possible for us to so far trace out the suggestions of
the Gospels touching the human and natural in him as shall enable us to
give at least some outline of what he was and what he wanted to do."

The body of the book is substantially an attempt to show that Christ, as
represented by the Evangelists, is a mythical personage. Such a man
lived; but his life is not remarkable; it is not what they described it;
and not very different from the common life of ordinary men. We have
_first_, an historical outline of the life of Jesus. Here Strauss makes
himself, and not the Gospel narrators, the biographer of Christ.
_Secondly_, we are furnished with the mythical history of Jesus in its
origin and growth. The people were expecting some remarkable character,
and they seized upon the first one who best answered their notions. John
is as bad as his compeers. He