Albert Kalthoff (5 March 1850,

Barmen Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of Wuppertal. Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the first electric ...

– 11 May 1906,

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

) was a German Protestant

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

, who along with Emil Felden (1874–1959), Oscar Mauritz (1867–1959), Moritz Schwalb (1833–1916) and Friedrich Steudel (1866–1939) formed a group in

, named the Deutscher Monistenbund ( German Monists League), who no longer believed in Jesus as a historical figure.

Biography

Kalthoff criticized what he regarded as the romanticist and sentimental image of Jesus as a "great personality" of history developed by German liberal theologians, including

Albert Schweitzer Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was a German and French polymath from Alsace. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. As a Lutheran minister, ...

who noted Kalthoff in his work '' The Quest of the Historical Jesus''. In Kalthoff's views, it was the early church that created the New Testament, not the reverse; the early Jesus movement was

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

, expecting a social reform and a better world, which was combined with the Jewish apocalyptic belief in a Messiah. Kalthoff saw Christianity as a social

psychosis In psychopathology, psychosis is a condition in which a person is unable to distinguish, in their experience of life, between what is and is not real. Examples of psychotic symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized or inco ...

. (Per Arthur Drews, '' The Denial of the Historicity of Jesus in Past and Present'' - see the section on Kalthoff) Arthur Drews was influenced by Kalthoff. Bruno Bauer (1809–1882) was the first academic theologian posit the ahistoricity of Jesus. However his scholarship was buried by German academia, and he remained a pariah, until Albert Kalthoff rescued his works from neglect and obscurity. Kalthoff revived Bruno Bauer's Christ Myth thesis in his ''Das Christus-Problem. Grundlinien zu einer Sozialtheologie'' (''The Problem of Christ: Principles of a Social Theology'') and ''Die Entstehung des Christentums, Neue Beiträge zum Christusproblem'' (''The Rise of Christianity'').

Quotes

* 1904: "Was There An Historical Jesus?", ''How Christianity arose: New contributions to the Christ-problem''

A Son of God, Lord of the World, born of a virgin, and rising again after death, and the son of a small builder with revolutionary notions, are two totally different beings. If one was the historical Jesus, the other certainly was not. The real question of the historicity of Jesus is not merely whether there ever was a Jesus among the numerous claimants of a Messiahship in Judea, but whether we are to recognise the historical character of this Jesus in the Gospels, and whether he is to be regarded as the founder of Christianity.

Works

* ''Das Leben Jesu. Reden gehalten im protestantischen Reform-Verein zu Berlin,'' Berlin 1880. he life of Jesus: Lectures given to the Protestant Reform Club of Berlin* ''Das Christus-Problem. Grundlinien zu einer Sozialtheologie,'' Leipzig 1902. he Problem of Christ: Principles of a Social Theology* ''Die Entstehung des Christentums. Neue Beiträge zum Christusproblem,'' Leipzig 1904. transl
''The Rise of Christianity''
1907. * ''Was wissen wir von Jesus? Eine Abrechnung mit W. Bousset,'' Berlin 1904. hat do We Know of Jesus? A Settlement with Wilhelm Bousset">Wilhelm_Bousset.html" ;"title="hat do We Know of Jesus? A Settlement with Wilhelm Bousset">hat do We Know of Jesus? A Settlement with Wilhelm Bousset* ''Modernes Christentum,'' Berlin 1906. [Modern Christianity]

References

External links

* * Albert Kalthoff article. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kalthoff, Albert 1850 births 1906 deaths Writers from Wuppertal People from the Rhine Province German Calvinist and Reformed theologians German Progress Party politicians 19th-century German Protestant theologians 19th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers German Peace Society members Calvinist pacifists Clergy from Wuppertal Nontrinitarian Christians