Life of Ahmad — Page 317
as JESUS as IS DEAD 317 views. Their confusion is worse confounded. I reproduce here the words of a typical exponent. Dr. Albert Scheweitzer, of the University of Strassburg, says: "There is nothing more negative than the result of the critical study of the life of Jesus. The Jesus of Nazareth who came forward publicly as the Messiah, who preached the ethic of the Kingdom of God never had any existence. . . This image has not been destroyed from without, it has fallen to pieces, cleft and distintegrated by the concrete historical problems which came to the surface one after another. . . The historical foundation of Christianity as built up by rationalistic, by liberal, and by modern theology no longer exists; but that does not mean that Christianity has lost its historical foundation. Jesus means something to our world because a mighty spiritual force streams forth from Him and flows to our time also. This fact can neither be shaken nor confirmed by any historical discovery. It is the solid foundation of Christianity. . . further we must be prepared to find that the historical knowledge of the personality and life of Jesus will not be a help, but perhaps even an offence, to religion. But the truth is, it is not Jesus as historically known, but Jesus as spiritually arisen within men, who is significant for our time and can help it. '