Reimarus: Fragments

Book excerpt: Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694-1768), a German deist and rationalist, inaugurated modern critical investigation into the life of Jesus. He asserted that much of the New Testament record was a pious fabrication and that Jesus was primarily a political revolutionary. Albert Schweitzer has said of Reimarus: His work is perhaps the most splendid achievement in the whole course of the historical investigation of the life of Jesus, for he was the first to grasp the fact that the world of thought in which Jesus moved was essentially eschatological. This edition contains Reimarus' writings, On the Resurrection and On the Intention of Jesus and His Disciples, as well as a portion of D. F. Strauss's evaluation of Reimarus. Dr. Talbert, Professor of Religion at Wake Forest University, offers a critical introduction to the book. This new translation of the two writings was done by Ralph S. Fraser, Professor of German at Wake Forest.