The Life of Jesus Critically Examined

Only those who consider the book’s first appearance inexcusable and unfortunate can question the desirability of its republication. No one who follows the history of Protestant religious thought can hold such an opinion. | [Handwritten vertical line] The critical process that reached its conclusion in Strauss's book, with its revolutionary results, was latent from the beginning in the lifeblood of Protestantism. The theologians of the sixteenth-century Reformed Churches subjected Catholic Church history to keen historical criticism; and even if they did not then think of applying this to Biblical tradition, we are justified in recognizing in Luther’s well-known statements—regarding the inferior value of certain books of the Bible and the unimportance of physical versus spiritual miracles—clear predictions of the development that Protestant theology was destined to take.

It is understandable that Biblical criticism could not arise among the orthodox theologians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They were restrained by a rigid doctrine of inspiration from treating the Bible without prejudice, and were too absorbed in dogmatic controversies and defending their confessions of faith to feel the need for more searching studies. It was among English Free-thinkers and Deists that the credibility of Biblical narratives was first seriously assailed, albeit with so much tem- per as to greatly detract from the scientific value of the result. Thomas Woolston's Discourses on the Miracles of our Saviour (1727-1729) are especially noteworthy.