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BAUER, BRUNO (1809-1882)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 538 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BAUER, See also:BRUNO (1809-1882) , See also:German theologianand historian, was See also:born on the 6th of See also:September 1809, the son of a painter in a See also:porcelain factory, at See also:Eisenberg in See also:Saxe-See also:Altenburg. He studied at See also:Berlin, where he attached himself to the " Right " of the Hegelian school under P. See also:Marheineke. In 1834 he began to See also:teach in Berlin as a licentiate of See also:theology, and in 1839 was transferred to See also:Bonn. In 1838 he published his Kritische Darstellung der See also:Religion See also:des See also:Allen Testaments (2 vols.), which shows that at that date he was still faithful to the Hegelian Right. Soon afterwards his opinions underwent a See also:change, and in two See also:works, one on the See also:Fourth See also:Gospel, Kritik der evangelischen Geschichte des Johannes (184o), and the other on the Synoptics, Kritik der evangelischen Geschichte der Synoptiker (1841), as well as in his Herr See also:Hengstenberg, kritische Briefe fiber den Gegensatz des Gesetzes See also:rand des Evangeliums, he announced his See also:complete rejection of his earlier orthodoxy. In 1842 the See also:government revoked his license and he retired for the See also:rest of his See also:life to See also:Rixdorf, near Berlin. Henceforward he took a deep See also:interest in See also:modern See also:history and politics, as well as in theology, and published Geschichte der Politik, Kultur and Aufklarung des 18ten Jahrhunderts (4 vols. 1843-1845), Geschichte der franzosischen Revolution (3 vols. 1847), and Disraelis romantischer and Bismarcks socialistischerlmperialismus (1882). Other See also:critical works are: a See also:criticism of the gospels and a history of their origin, Kritik der Evangelien and Geschichte ihres Ursprungs (1850-1852), a See also:book on the Acts of the Apostles, Apostelgeschichte (1850), and a criticism of the Pauline epistles, Kritik der paulinischen Briefe (1850-1852). He died at Rixdorf on the 13th of See also:April 1882, His criticism of the New Testament was of a highly destructive type.

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David See also:Strauss in his Life of Jesus had accounted for the Gospel narratives as See also:half-conscious products of the mythic See also:instinct in the See also:early See also:Christian communities. Bauer ridiculed Strauss's notion that a community could produce a connected narrative. His own contention, embodying a theory of C. G. Wilke (Der Urevangelist, 1838), was that the See also:original narrative was the Gospel of See also:Mark; that this was composed in the reign of See also:Hadrian; and that after this the other narratives were modelled by other writers. He, however, " regarded Mark not only as the first narrator, but even as the creator of the gospel history, thus making the latter a fiction and See also:Christianity the invention of a single original evangelist " (See also:Pfleiderer). On the same principle the four See also:principal Pauline epistles were regarded as forgeries of the and See also:century. He argued further for the preponderance of the Graeco-See also:Roman See also:element, as opposed to the Jewish, in the Christian writings. The writer of Mark's gospel was " an See also:Italian, at See also:home both in See also:Rome and See also:Alexandria " ; that of See also:Matthew's gospel " a Roman, nourished by the spirit of See also:Seneca "; the Pauline epistles were written in the See also:West in antagonism to the See also:Paul of the Acts, and so on. Christianity is essentially " Stoicism triumphant in a Jewish garb." This See also:line of criticism has found few supporters, mostly in the See also:Netherlands. It certainly had its value in emphasizing the importance of studying the See also:influence of environment in the formation of the Christian Scriptures. Bauer was a See also:man of rest-less, impetuous activity and See also:independent, if See also:ill-balanced, See also:judgment, one who, as he himself perceived, was more in See also:place as a See also:free-See also:lance of criticism than as an See also:official teacher.

He came in the end to be regarded kindly even by opponents, and he was not afraid of taking a line displeasing to his liberal See also:

friends on the Jewish question (See also:Die Judenfrage, 1843). His attitude towards the See also:Jews is dealt with in the See also:article in the Jewish Encyclopedia. See generally See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie; and cf. See also:Otto Pfleiderer, Development of Theology, p. 226; Carl See also:Schwarz, Zur Geschichte der neuesten Theologie, pp. 142 ff. ; and F. Lichtenberger, History of German Theology in the 19th Century (1889), PP. 374-378.

End of Article: BAUER, BRUNO (1809-1882)

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