Carl Christian Clemen (30 March 1865, near

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

– 8 July 1940,

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

), best known as Carl Clemen, was a German

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...

and religious historian. He was a member of the history of religions school.

Career

Clemen was Professor of

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

and religious history at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...

. He was a critic of the

Christ myth theory The Christ myth theory, also known as the Jesus myth theory, Jesus mythicism, or the Jesus ahistoricity theory, is the view that "the story of Jesus is a piece of mythology", possessing no "substantial claims to historical fact". Alternatively ...

and refuted the arguments of Arthur Drews, Peter Jensen and other mythicists. He was also critical of the ideas of

Anthroposophy Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Followers ...

and

Theosophy Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...

. Clemen has approximately six hundred publications. His brothers were art historian

Paul Clemen Paul Clemen (31 October 1866 – 8 July 1947) was a German art historian known in particular for his large inventory of monuments in the Rhineland area, many of which were destroyed or severely damaged in World War II. Clemen was born in Leip ...

and historian Otto Clemen.

Selected publications

;Books *''Die religionsgeschichtliche Methode in der Theologie'' (1904) *''Paulus: Sein Leben und Wirken'' (1904)
''Religionsgeschichtliche Erklärung des Neuen Testaments''
(1909) *''Die entstehung des Johannesevangeliums'' (1912) Case, Shirley Jackson. (1913)
''Review: The Johannine Studies of Clemen and B. Weiss''
'' The American Journal of Theology'' 17 (2): 288–291.
''Primitive Christianity and Its Non-Jewish Sources''
(1912) *''Der Einfluss der Mysterienreligionen auf das älteste Christentum'' (1913) *''Mysterienreligionen auf das älteste Christentum'' (1913)
''Die griechischen und lateinischen Nachrichten über die persische Religion''
(1920) *''Religionsgeschichtliche Erklärung'' (1924) *''Die Anwendung der Psychoanalyse auf Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte'' (1928)
''Religions of the World: Their Nature and Their History''
(1931) *''Die Religion der Etrusker'' (1936) ;Papers *Clemen, Carl. (1905)
''Josephus and Christianity''
''The Biblical World'' 25 (5): 361–375. *Clemen, Carl. (1908)
''Does the Fourth Gospel Depend Upon Pagan Traditions?''
'' The American Journal of Theology'' 12 (4): 529–546. *Clemen, Carl. (1909)
''The Revelation of John''
''The Biblical World'' 34 (2): 91–103. *Clemen, Carl. (1916)
''Buddhistic Influence in the New Testament''
'' The American Journal of Theology'' 20 (4): 536–548.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clemen, Carl 1865 births 1940 deaths Critics of the Christ myth theory Critics of Theosophy German biblical scholars German theologians German historians of religion University of Bonn alumni Writers on Germanic paganism