The quest of the historical Jesus : $b a critical study of its progress from Reimarus to Wrede

by Albert Schweitzer

"The Quest of the Historical Jesus" by Albert Schweitzer is a work of Biblical historical criticism written in 1905 and published in 1906. Schweitzer surveys over a century of scholarly attempts to understand the real Jesus, revealing how each generation reshaped his image according to their own times. He argues that Jesus must be understood through "late Jewish eschatology"—that Jesus genuinely believed his ministry would bring history's immediate end. This controversial conclusion challenges both nineteenth-century scholarship and modern Christianity's interpretation of its founding figure.