The Person and Work of Jesus Christ 105 miraculous “Gift of God,” and furthermore they thought that if a man personifying their ideals really had full sway, their country would be changed to a “Field of Roses.” This explanation is strictly scientific. No doubt a good many machine politicians and heads of trusts would be de- lighted to awake some morning and find out that Theodore Roosevelt is nothing but a mythological figure. But, he is not. He is a living fact and tremendous power in the life of our nation. And so is Jesus Christ. THE CHRIST OF LIBERAL THEOLOGY The other avenue which led to the negation of the his- toricity of Jesus Christ is the well-known modernization and reduction of the life and work of Jesus which liberal theo- logians have accomplished by means of literary and historical criticism. The history of the critical investigation of the life of Jesus during the last hundred and fifty years is an in- tensely interesting and instructive study. It has recently been summarized by Dr. A. Schweitzer in his book, “From Reim- arus to Wrede.” (Reimarus, the contemporary of Lessing, whose “Wolfenbuttler Fragmente” mark the beginning of modern critical research in the life of Christ; Professor Wil- liam Wrede, who died in November, 1906, was one of the most prominent liberal theologians.) A more popular presen- tation of the subject, covering the latest phases, is given by Professor Grutzmacher in his booklet, “Is the Liberal Picture of Jesus Modern?” Without going into the history of this investigation, I merely state that the life of Christ as it is presented now by all liberal theologians—like Harnack, Bousset, Weinel, Wrede, Holtzmann, Julicher, Wemle—as the established result of critical scientific research, is gained, not from an examination of the whole New Testament material, but by means of a complicated process of finding the alleged true sources from which this life may be construed. The oldest por-
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