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Secondary sourceBook1910

The Quest of the Historical Jesus

Albert Schweitzer · 1910

A landmark 1910 scholarly book by Albert Schweitzer tracing how historians had tried to reconstruct the life of Jesus.

A major scholarly history of attempts to reconstruct the historical Jesus, useful for understanding how his life has been studied.

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About this source

What it is

This book was written by Albert Schweitzer and published in 1910, surveying critical scholarship on Jesus from the Enlightenment writer Reimarus to more recent scholars. It was translated into English by W. Montgomery with a preface by F. C. Burkitt.

Why it matters

Schweitzer's book is a history of how scholars tried to separate the historical Jesus from later religious tradition. It shows students how each generation of historians brought its own assumptions to the subject, and how the 'quest' for the historical Jesus says as much about the researchers as about Jesus himself.

Look closer

  • Why might studying the history of a question be as useful as studying the question itself?
  • What challenges would a historian face trying to separate fact from belief in ancient religious texts?
  • Does Schweitzer seem to take a side, or try to stay neutral?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Jesus Christ on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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