The German theologian David Friedrich Strauss (1808-1874) published his highly controversial The Life of Jesus in three volumes between 1835 and 1836. This translation, by George Eliot, is based on the fourth German edition (1840). Strauss applied strict historical method to the gospel narratives and caused scandal across the Protestant world by concluding that all miraculous elements were mythical and ahistorical. Volume 1 introduces the idea of 'de-mythology' and applies modern historical methods to the narratives of Jesus' birth and early life; Volume 2 studies the idea of Jesus as Messiah, the narratives about the disciples, the discourses, and the miracles; and Volume 3 focuses on the passion, death and resurrection narratives with a concluding essay: 'The Dogmatic Import of the Life of Jesus'. This is a key text of nineteenth-century theology that pioneered the application of historical and scientific methods to the study of religious texts.
