Carl Christian Clemen (30 March 1865, near

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

– 8 July 1940,

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

), best known as Carl Clemen, was a German

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 ...

and religious historian. He was a member of the

history of religions school The history of religions school (German: ''Religionsgeschichtliche Schule'') is a term applied to a group of German Protestant theologians associated with the University of Göttingen in the 1890s. Ideas The ''Religionsgeschichtliche Schule'' use ...

Career

Clemen was Professor of

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

and religious history at the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

. 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 fringe view that the story of Jesus is a work of mythology with no historical substance. Alternatively, in terms given by ...

and refuted the arguments of

Arthur Drews Christian Heinrich Arthur Drews (; 1 November 1865 – 15 July 1935) was a German people, German writer, historian, philosopher, and important representative of German Monism, monist thought. He was born in Uetersen, Duchy of Holstein, Holstein, ...

, Peter Jensen and other mythicists. He was also critical of the ideas of

Anthroposophy Anthroposophy is a spiritual new religious movementSources for 'new religious movement': which was founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensibl ...

and

Theosophy Theosophy is a religious movement established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neop ...

. Clemen has approximately six hundred publications. His brothers were art historian Paul Clemen 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 ''The Journal of Religion'' is an academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press founded in 1897 as ''The American Journal of Theology''. The journal "embraces all areas of theology (biblical, historical, ethical, and constructive) ...

'' 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?''
''

'' 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''
''

'' 20 (4): 536–548.

References

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