Strauss's first book was not faithfully followed, critical research
went on continuously; and the school of F. C. Baur of T체bingen in
particular imposed a measure of rational criticism on theologians in
general. Apart from Strauss, Baur was probably the ablest Christian
scholar of his day. Always lamed by his professionalism, he yet toiled
endlessly to bring scientific method into Christian research. His
Paulus, der Apostel Jesu Christi, 1845; Kritische Untersuchungen
체ber die Kanonischen Evangelien, 1847; and Das Christenthum und
die christliche Kirche der drei ersten Jahrhunderte, 1853, were
epoch-marking works, which recast so radically, in the name of
orthodoxy, the historical conception of Christian origins, that he
figured as the most unsettling critic of his time after Strauss. With
his earlier researches in the history of the first Christian sects
and his history of the Church, they constitute a memorable mass
of studious and original work. In the case of the T체bingen school
as of every other there was "reaction," with the usual pretence
by professional orthodoxy that the innovating criticism had been
disposed of; but no real refutation has ever taken place. Where Baur
reduced the genuine Pauline epistles to four, the last years of the
century witnessed the advent of Van Manen, who, following up earlier
suggestions, wrought out the thesis that the epistles are all alike
supposititious. This may or may not hold good; but there has been
no restoration of traditionary faith among the mass of open-minded
inquirers. Such work as Zeller's Contents and Origin of the Acts of
the Apostles (1854), produced in Baur's circle, has substantially
held its ground; and such a comparatively "safe" book of the next
generation as Weizs채cker's Apostolic Age (Eng. tr. of 2nd ed. 1893)
leaves no doubt as to the untrustworthiness of the Acts. Thus at the
close of the century the current professional treatises indicated
a "Christianity" stripped not only of all supernaturalism, and
therefore of the main religious content of the historic creed, but
even of credibility as regards large parts of the non-supernaturalist
narratives of its sacred books. The minute analysis and collocation
of texts which has occupied so much of critical industry has but made
clearer the extreme precariousness of every item in the records. The
amount of credit for historicity that continues to be given to them is
demonstrably unjustifiable on scientific grounds; and the stand for a
"Christianity without dogma" is more and more clearly seen to be an
economic adjustment, not an outcome of faithful criticism.