Schweitzer's Jesus was essentially a failure - Jesus is not painted in the image of a pleasing, ethical 19 th Century figure. Schweitzer's work is therefore seminal. The Jesus of Nazareth who came forward publicly as the Messiah, who preached the ethic of the Kingdom of God, who founded the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth, and died to give his work its final consecration, never had any existence. Scholars began to sever the Historical Jesus from the Christ of preaching, claiming that the latter is the one on whom Christians should focus. The historical Jesus portrayed by modern scholars conceals from us the living Christ . . .
Emphasis therefore moves away from writing lives of Jesus.
What is now stressed is the Christ of the kerygma . Bultmann denies the possibility of writing a biography of Jesus. The word of preaching confronts us as the Word of God. It is not for us to question its credentials. The Historical Jesus' parables were one-point parables focused on a realised eschatology , i.e. the kingdom had come.