Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

Jesus Christ As Poetic Symbol: Wilhelm Bousset’S Contribution To The Faith-History Debate, Brent A. R. Hege

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Wilhelm Bousset, a leading member of the religionsgeschichtliche school and author of a seminal work on early Christology, Kyrios Christos, is typically regarded by reviewers of his work as a classic nineteenth-century liberal who sought a secure foundation for faith in the historical Jesus. However, this view of Bousset fails to appreciate the significant development of his theological perspective on the relationship between faith and history, a perspective that underwent a profound shift due to the influence of the English historian Thomas Carlyle and the Kantian philosopher Jakob Friedrich Fries. It is the influence of these two figures that enables …