Paul and His Interpreters: A Critical History

Published by J. C. B. Mohr in Tübingen in 1911, and in William Montgomery's English translation in London in 1912. Schweitzer's preface presents it as the continuation of Von Reimarus zu Wrede: having traced the study of Jesus, he now traces the study of Paul from the Reformation to his own day, through the Tübingen school, the liberal critics and the history-of-religions scholars who derived Paul's thought from Greek mystery religions. As in the earlier book, the survey is also an argument. Schweitzer contends that Paul's teaching does not come from Hellenism but from Jewish eschatology, and that every account which misses this fails to explain his mysticism of being in Christ. The positive exposition he promised here appeared only in 1930, as Die Mystik des Apostels Paulus.