Strauss, David Frederick

David Frederick (1808-1874), a noted German theologian and writer. Strauss was educated at the universities of Tubingen and Berlin. While lecturing in the University of Tubingen he wrote a Life of Christ in which he sought to prove that the gospel history is mythical in character,--that Christ is hardly to be regarded as an historical character. This work was translated into many languages and created quite a storm. It cost Strauss his university position. Later he was appointed to a professorship in Zurich, but there was so much opposition that he was pensioned and dismissed. He spent the remainder of his life at Stuttgart, Darmstadt, and elsewhere, writing works chiefly controversial in support of the position taken in his Life of Christ.