Editing Bruno Bauer (section)

== Legacy ==
Bauer's scholarship was buried by German academia, and he remained a pariah, until [[Albert Kalthoff]] rescued his works from neglect and obscurity. Kalthoff revived Bauer's Christ Myth thesis in his ''Das Christus-Problem. Grundlinien zu einer Sozialtheologie'' (''The Problem of Christ: Principles of a Social Theology'', 1902) and ''Die Entstehung des Christentums, Neue Beiträge zum Christusproblem'' (''The Rise of Christianity'', 1904).{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

[[Arthur Drews]] noted Bauer's views in his own work ''[[The Denial of the Historicity of Jesus in Past and Present]]'', "Christianity is the product of the intimidated class of Romans who needed a straw of hope and faith in their struggle against the egoism of Caesars. It's absurd to suppose it to be originating from Hierosolyma [Jerusalem]. The origin of the Gospel literature is then reexamined. Originally, it's just a demonstration of the new principle of freedom, in rebellion against the law-dominated world, represented by Judaism. The Gospels demonstrate various steps in the evolution of this esteem. The main factor of influence was the Roman empire, whose oppression forced the community to look for hope in a kingdom of heavens and exterminate the kingdom of Rome to make it possible. ... Absolutely no such thing as a historical Jesus of Galilee is needed to explain the genesis of Mark's gospel."<ref>{{cite book|last=Drews |first=Arthur |author-link=Arthur Drews |title=Die Leugnung der Geschichtlichkeit Jesu in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart. Karlsruhe 1926 |trans-title=The denial of the historicity of Jesus in the past and present. Karlsruhe 1926 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NvMOAAAAQAAJ |year=1926 |publisher=G. Braun |language=de |pages=65–68|quote=The Denial of the Historicity of Jesus in Past and Present}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Schilling |first1=Klaus |title=The Denial of the Historicity of Jesus in Past and Present |url=http://www.egodeath.com/drewshistorymythiconlyjesus.htm |website=Ego Death and Self-Control Cybernetics |publisher=Michael Hoffman}}</ref>

Despite these attempts at revival, Bauer's positions are nowadays considered fringe. Already in 1906, Albert Schweitzer, while appreciating Bauer's earlier work, was sharply critical towards his later support for the [[Christ myth theory]], writing in his book ''[[The Quest of the Historical Jesus]]'' that Bauer "originally sought to defend the honor of Jesus by rescuing his reputation from the inane parody of a biography that the Christian apologists had forged." However, he eventually came to the belief that it was a complete fiction and "regarded the Gospel of Mark not only as the first narrator, but even as the creator of the gospel history, thus making the latter a fiction and Christianity the invention of a single original evangelist" ([[Otto Pfleiderer]]).<ref name=":0" />

In modern scholarship, the Christ myth theory is a [[fringe theory]], which finds virtually no support from scholars,<ref name="Ehrman Blog2">{{cite web|last=Ehrman |first=Bart D. |author-link=Bart D. Ehrman |date=April 25, 2012 |title=Fuller Reply to Richard Carrier |url=https://ehrmanblog.org/fuller-reply-to-richard-carrier/ |access-date=May 2, 2018 |website=The Bart Ehrman Blog |ref=none}}</ref> to the point of being addressed in footnotes or almost completely ignored due to the obvious weaknesses they espouse.{{sfn|Voorst|2000|p=6}} Common criticisms against the Christ myth theory include: general lack of expertise or relationship to academic institutions and current scholarship; reliance on [[arguments from silence]], dismissal of what sources actually state, and superficial comparisons with mythologies.{{sfn|Casey|2014|p=243-245}}