GROWTH AND DIFFUSION OF CRITICAL SPIRIT. 169 



applied in a lucid form and in elegant language by his 

 pupil.^ 



The effect of Strauss's work was enormous, and not 

 less so because the conclusions he came to were 

 premature. To the more sober - minded, who were 

 aware how in many instances Strauss had forestalled 



' Allowing that the greater part 

 of Strauss's work has become obso- 

 lete through subsequent criticism, 

 the Introduction to the first volume 

 and the Conclusion to the second 

 are still well worth reading by 

 those who desire to receive infor- 

 mation on two points. First of 

 all, we get in the Introduction 

 a vivid picture of the perplexity 

 and unsettlement which had pene- 

 trated into theological circles 

 through the influence of English 

 deism, German rationalism, life- 

 less traditional orthodoxy, and the 

 Kantian philosophy. We also 

 learn how the idea, which Strauss 

 professes to have worked out in its 

 completeness, the mythical or 

 legendary character of the biblical 

 records, had been prepared, but 

 only partially applied, by previous 

 religious and philosophical think- 

 ers. What he means by the 

 mythical point of view he defines 

 himself. (1st ed., Introduction, p. 

 75.) "Putting everything to- 

 gether, little stands in the way of 

 finding the mythical in all parts of 

 the Gospel Story. The word 

 ' myth ' will, however, give as little 

 umbrage to sensible persons as any 

 mere word should ever do ; for all 

 the ambiguity which, through the 

 suggestion of heathen mythology, 

 clings to that word, should dis- 

 appear through the explanation, 

 according to which the myths of 

 the New Testament are nothing 

 else but quasi-liistorical represent- 

 ations of genuine Christian ideas 



grown through unintentional 

 poetical legends." Further, in the 

 Conclusion to the second volume 

 (p. 729), Strauss refers to Schelling 

 and Hegel as the leaders of that re- 

 cent philosophy through which the 

 narrow conception of the relation 

 of the Deity to the world, as also the 

 purely moralising theory of Kant, 

 had been overcome. " If God is 

 conceived as Spirit, there is con- 

 tained in this statement, as man 

 also is spirit, that both are not 

 essentially different. . . . God is 

 not conceived as the rigid Infinite 

 over and outside of the Finite, but 

 as entering into the latter ; the 

 Finite nature and mind being His 

 external appearance out of which 

 He ever returns again into unity 

 with Himself. As little as the 

 human exists truly onlj' in its 

 finitude ; as little has God reality 

 only in His self-contained Infini- 

 tude. But the Infinite is only 

 truly Spirit when He unfolds Him- 

 self in finite spirits ; as the Finite 

 Spirit is likewise only real if He 

 dives into the Infinite. The real 

 and true existence of the Spirit is 

 therefore neither God alone nor 

 man alone, but the God -man." 

 With these two presuppositions — 

 the legendary envelope which sur- 

 rounds the biblical records and the 

 Hegelian conception of the idea 

 which he himself compares with 

 Plato's Ideology — Strauss with 

 much erudition expounds and ex- 

 plains all the main incidents of the 

 Life of Jesus, 



