BAUER

bauer, bruno (1809-1882), german theologian and historian, was born on the 6th of september 1809, the son of a painter in a porcelain factory, at eisenberg in saxe-altenburg. he studied at berlin, where he attached himself to the "right" of the hegelian school under p. marheineke. in 1834 he began to teach in berlin as a licentiate of theology, and in 1839 was transferred to bonn. in 1838 he published his _kritische darstellung der religion des alten testaments_ (2 vols.), which shows that at that date he was still faithful to the hegelian right. soon afterwards his opinions underwent a change, and in two works, one on the fourth gospel, _kritik der evangelischen geschichte des johannes_ (1840), and the other on the synoptics, _kritik der evangelischen geschichte der synoptiker_ (1841), as well as in his _herr hengstenberg, kritische briefe uber den gegensatz des gesetzes und des evangeliums_, he announced his complete rejection of his earlier orthodoxy. in 1842 the government revoked his license and he retired for the rest of his life to rixdorf, near berlin. henceforward he took a deep interest in modern history and politics, as well as in theology, and published _geschichte der politik, kultur und aufklarung des 18ten jahrhunderts_ (4 vols. 1843-1845), geschichte der franzosischen revolution (3 vols. 1847), and _disraelis romantischer und bismarcks socialistischer imperialismus_ (1882). other critical works are: a criticism of the gospels and a history of their origin, _kritik der evangelien und geschichte ihres ursprungs_ (1850-1852), a book on the acts of the apostles, _apostelgeschichte_ (1850), and a criticism of the pauline epistles, _kritik der paulinischen briefe_ (1850-1852). he died at rixdorf on the 13th of april 1882. his criticism of the new testament was of a highly destructive type. david strauss in his _life of jesus_ had accounted for the gospel narratives as half-conscious products of the mythic instinct in the early christian communities. bauer ridiculed strauss's notion that a community could produce a connected narrative. his own contention, embodying a theory of c.g. wilke (_der urevangelist_, 1838), was that the original narrative was the gospel of mark; that this was composed in the reign of hadrian; and that after this the other narratives were modelled by other writers. he, however, "regarded mark not only as the first narrator, but even as the creator of the gospel history, thus making the latter a fiction and christianity the invention of a single original evangelist" (pfleiderer). on the same principle the four principal pauline epistles were regarded as forgeries of the 2nd century. he argued further for the preponderance of the graeco-roman element, as opposed to the jewish, in the christian writings. the writer of mark's gospel was "an italian, at home both in rome and alexandria"; that of matthew's gospel "a roman, nourished by the spirit of seneca"; the pauline epistles were written in the west in antagonism to the paul of the acts, and so on. christianity is essentially "stoicism triumphant in a jewish garb." this line of criticism has found few supporters, mostly in the netherlands. it certainly had its value in emphasizing the importance of studying the influence of environment in the formation of the christian scriptures. bauer was a man of restless, impetuous activity and independent, if ill-balanced, judgment, one who, as he himself perceived, was more in place as a free-lance of criticism than as an official teacher. he came in the end to be regarded kindly even by opponents, and he was not afraid of taking a line displeasing to his liberal friends on the jewish question (_die judenfrage_, 1843). his attitude towards the jews is dealt with in the article in the _jewish encyclopedia_. see generally herzog-hauck, _realencyklopadie_; and cf. otto pfleiderer, _development of theology_, p. 226; carl schwarz, _zur geschichte der neuesten theologie_, pp. 142 ff.; and f. lichtenberger, _history of german theology in the 19th century_ (1889), pp. 374-378.