Schweitzer’s Quest of the Historical Jesus (Influential Book 3)

Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus (Ed. by John Bowden; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001). For the third installment of influential books that I read during seminary, I thought I would address Schweitzer’s Jesus book. This is a work that everyone should know. Not only was Schweitzer an incredible biblical scholar, but he was an amazing person—the kind that only comes around once. He excelled at whatever he set his mind to (he was also an authority on Bach), yet ultimately he dedicated his life to the welfare of others. Although I’m greedy at times and wish that he had published more in our field, he reminds us that there is more to life than biblical scholarship!

Schweitzer’s main objective was to survey historical Jesus scholarship and offer his own conclusions on the subject. Since the genre of books about Jesus were often called “lives of Jesus,” the title of Schweitzer’s book in German was Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung (History of the Life-of-Jesus Research). The English title took a slightly different route, but ended up influencing the very nomenclature of our discipline: The Quest of the Historical Jesus. Nowadays we talk about the various “quests” for Jesus, the first of which is that which Schweitzer addresses. The subtitle of his book, after all, is “A Critical Study of Its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede.” Others since Schweitzer have written good surveys of Jesus scholarship, but his book remains the first resource that many people turn to about the first quest because it is still the best after all these years. His clarity and vivid writing style only serve to complement his keen ability to navigate three hundred years of scholarship.

I owned a copy of Schweitzer for awhile before reading through it cover to cover. I knew I had to read it and to learn more about the historical Jesus in general, so I petitioned one of my professors to lead a directed study on the historical Jesus. A good portion of that course was working through this book. As I was going through Schweitzer I also read works or sections of works by Jesus scholars as Schweitzer addressed them. So using Schweitzer as an introduction, I also read good portions of Reimarus, Strauss, Renan, Weiss, and Wrede. Needless to say, it was one of the most unforgettable courses I took.

Now let me highlight a few things about Schweitzer’s book and what he accomplishes with it. He famously criticizes earlier scholars because of their tendency to make Jesus in their own image, and argues that some have written about Jesus out of love, whereas other write out of hate. He organizes his survey by letting opposed ideologies battle against each other. Do we look at Jesus through a historical lens or a supernatural one? Historical. Which sources do we use? The Synoptic Gospels or John’s Gospel? Synoptics. Did Jesus think eschatologically or non-eschatologically? Eschatologically. The final choice was to see Jesus’s self-understanding as “thoroughgoing eschatology” or to be completely skeptical about the historical Jesus (e.g., Wrede). He comes down on the side of eschatology, a view which remains popular among many Jesus scholars today. What makes Schweitzer so engaging is the rich psychological picture he draws of Jesus. He ultimately argues that Jesus is an apocalyptic prophet and failed enthusiast of God’s kingdom. A very controversial claim, to be sure. Colin Brown has a good, short summary in his article on Schweitzer in the Encyclopedia of the Historical Jesus edited by Craig Evans.

Of course, Schweitzer’s book has not been free from controversy. Some have accused him of being susceptible to his own criticism that scholars have made Jesus in their own likeness. Others have pointed out that by starting with Reimarus, Schweitzer overlooks British scholarship, especially the deists like Thomas Chubb (I think Colin Brown makes this point ). Also, many scholars have questioned his portrait of Jesus, especially those who do not see Jesus as an apocalyptic figure. Schweitzer might even be viewed as too radical by scholars who buy into the apocalyptic argument.

In order to keep this post relatively short, I plan to write a few more follow-up posts on Schweitzer. I hope to talk about different editions of his book, briefly address the famous “wheel of the world” passage, share a little anecdotal story about Schweitzer, and also look at a couple of other topics in the book at greater depth.