The Old Faith and the New (Westminster College-Oxford Classics in the Study of Religion)
David Friedrich Strauss was a 19th Century theologian and philosopher whose criticism and eventual abandonment of Christianity was considered radical in his time. A modern reading of his final work, The Old Faith and The New, strikes a chord of familiarity in today's hypercritical, overly analytical world.  Here we are confronted with one of the original philosophers who began deconstructing the Bible. Rapidly advancing scientific knowledge along with the new propensity toward rational thought brought to light the implausibility of certain Biblical accounts. Strauss begins volume one by systematically criticizing the weaknesses in the Old Testament and giving his rational analysis of why he can no longer believe in Christianity. The second volume concerns itself with his new approach to faith considering things ethical, political and cultural.  This book is complemented by an introduction by Biblical scholar, G.A. Wells, who puts Strauss's work into a modern perspective and elaborates on his positions relative to contemporary philosophers, Kant, Nietzsche and others.   The Old Faith and The New gives rise to important questions in modern religious thought that have lingered since Strauss's time. The devout and skeptic alike will enjoy the mental gymnastics this discourse provides while challenging the basic tenets of religious thought.   --FromIndependent PublisherGerman philosopher and radical theologian David Friedrich Strauss (1808-1874) distinguished himself as one of Europe's most controversial biblical critics and as an intellectual martyr for freethought. His first work, The Life of Jesus Critically Examined (1835), which exposed the inconsistencies and contradictions in the gospel accounts of Jesus' life, led to his dismissal from his teaching post at the University of Tubingen. In 1839 he was elected to a chair of theology at the University of Zurich, but the storm of clerically organized protest prevented him from taking up the appointment. In his final work, The Old Faith And The New (1872), Strauss abandons Christianity altogether and turns to a critique of theism in general: Relying on contemporary science and leading philosophers, he rejects God as the creator of the universe and humankind, the divinity of Christ, and the reality of miracles (the Old Faith), thus confining religion to the domains of history, myth, and ethics. With the Christian cosmology underminded, Strauss constructs a new view of the university and humanity's place in it which is grounded in science and technology, Darwinian evolution, and inductive reasoning (the new Faith), all of which hold out the hope of finding true solutions to human problems. Strauss made a lasting contribution to New Testament scholarship. His views on theism, the cosmos and humankind's place in it, and moral and political issues are likewise of abiding interest. Strauss was truly a pioneer in the history of freethought, often resisted because freethought requires the audience to give up much of what had long been accepted as undeniably true. For this reason Strauss knew that his work would be denigrated in his own time. The Old Faith And The New combines his two benchmark books under one cover and brings his work to the attention of a whole new generation of readers and freethinkers.  --Midwest Book Review