We may quote from the ecclesiastical Approbation printed at the beginning of Didon's Life of Jesus. “If the author sometimes seems to speak the language of his opponents, it is at once evident that he has aimed at defeating them on their own ground, and he is particularly successful in doing so when he confronts their irreligious a priori theories with the positive arguments of history.”
As a matter of fact the work is skilfully written, but without a spark of understanding of the historical questions.
All honour to Alfred Loisy! (Le Quatrième Évangile, Paris, 1903, 960 pp.), who takes a clear view on the Johannine question, and denies the existence of a Johannine historical tradition. But what that means for the Catholic camp may be recognised from the excitement produced by the book and its express condemnation. See also the same writer's L'Évangile et l'Église (German translation, Munich, 1904, 189 pp.), in which Loisy here and there makes good historical points against Harnack's “What is Christianity?”
Otto Schmiedel, Professor at the Gymnasium at Eisenach, Die Hauptprobleme der Leben-Jesu-Forschung. Tübingen, 1902. 71 pp. Schmiedel was born in 1858.
Hermann Freiherr von Soden, Die wichtigsten Fragen im Leben Jesu. Von Soden, Professor in Berlin, and preacher at the Jerusalem Kirche, was born in 1852.
We may mention also the following works:—
Fritz Barth (born 1856, Professor at Bern), Die Hauptprobleme des Lebens Jesu. 1st ed., 1899; 2nd ed., 1903.
Friedrich Nippold's Der Entwicklungsgang des Lebens Jesu im Wortlaut der drei ersten Evangelien (The Course of the Life of Jesus in the Words of the First Three Evangelists) (Hamburg, 1895, 213 pp.) is only an arrangement of the sections.
Konrad Furrer's Vorträge über das Leben Jesu Christi (Lectures on the Life of Jesus Christ) have a special charm by reason of the author's knowledge of the country and the locality. Furrer, who was born in 1838, is Professor at Zurich.
Another work which should not be forgotten is R. Otto's Leben und Wirken Jesu nach historisch-kritischer Auffassung (Life and Work of Jesus from the Point of View of Historical Criticism). A Lecture. Göttingen, 1902. Rudolf Otto, born in 1869, is Privat-Docent at Göttingen.