Recent Lives of Jesus

Abstract

Nothing is more remarkable in the literature of our time than the endless procession of Lives of Jesus. They come to us in all languages, from Christians and unbelievers, from historians, theologians, social reformers, poets and romancers. In their number and variety they bear impressive witness to the perennial interest in Jesus, and the significance which men still find in him after two thousand years. Yet there is another side to this widespread curiosity about the history of Jesus. M. Goguel, in the book which will form the main subject of this paper, makes a suggestive comment on Renan's famous work. “There are questions, and the life of Jesus is one of them, which gain by being debated at leisure by specialists and brought in some degree to a focus, before they are exposed to the full daylight. The Vie de Jésus, by the very natural sensation which it provoked, perhaps thwarted, or at least retarded, the critical education of the French public.”