ALBERT SCHWEITZER

"Mi estudio intenta ser un estudio estético antes que histórico. La parte histórica no necesita hacerse; ya ha sido realizada por Spitta, que reunió los documentos biográficos. Los capítulos históricos de la presente obra se basan en estudios cumplidos por esos investigadores, de los que me siento deudor en cada pagina.. Las paginas que vais a leer muestran, mejor que todos los discursos del mundo, el poder de esa mente extraordinaria de la que se os daran ejemplos y pruebas. Desde Mozart hasta Wagner no hay un musico que haya dejado de juzgar la obra de J. S. Bach como la mas fecunda de las enseñanzas." Al recorrer el libro de Schweitzer parece que asistieramos a la inauguracion de un monumento. Los ultimos andamios, los ultimos velos, han caido. Circulamos en torno para estudiar los detalles; luego, retrocedemos hasta que nuestra vista abarca el conjunto, y lo juzgamos.

In this broad survey of the efforts to establish, amend, or deny the historical Jesus, Albert Schweitzer presents the history of a debate about what mattered most to millions of people: If God had entered human history, what could history tell about it? Throughout the course of this heated and prolonged dispute, one retelling of the life of Jesus followed another, enjoying -- in Schweitzers phrase -- "the immortality of revised editions." Lesser writers might consider differences of opinion as signs of a hopeless enterprise, but Schweitzer instead finds immense value in the differences. Approaches and conclusions may differ, he concludes, but the quest for the historical Jesus has provided ample testimony to the importance of the effort and the rewards of the experience.

In this book, Schweitzer traces the historical progress of Historical Jesus research, from Hermann Reimarus in the mid 18th century, to William Wrede at the turn of the 20th. Schweitzer showed how Jesus image had changed with the times and with the personal proclivities of the various authors. He concluded with his own synopsis and interpretation of what had been learned over the course of the previous century. He took the position that the life of Jesus must be interpreted in the light of Jesus own convictions, which he characterized as those of late Jewish eschatology.