Arthur Drews

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Christian Heinrich Arthur Drews [pronounced "drefs"] (November 1, 1865-July 19, 1935) was a German philosopher, writer, and important representative of German Monist thought. He was born in Uetersen, Holstein, present day Germany.

Drews became professor of philosophy and German at the Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe. During his career he wrote widely on a variety of subjects, often provoking controversy—in part because of his unorthodox ideas on religion, and in part because of his repeated attacks on the philosophy of Nietzsche—and was instrumental in the rise of the German Faith Movement.

Contents

Christ Myth

Along with Bruno Bauer, Arthur Drews is one of the best known representative of the Christ myth theory, which disputes the existence of a historical Jesus. His work Die Christusmythe ("The Christ Myth") (1909) expounded this theory, arguing that the figure of "Christ" arose from mystical and apocalyptic ideas of the period, that indeed everything about the story of Jesus had a mythical character, and that it was therefore not necessary to presuppose that a historical Jesus had ever existed.[1] The book caused considerable controversy, drawing Drews into many public debates which often became emotionally charged.[2] Albert Schweitzer dedicated a chapter to Drews's thesis in his Life of Jesus (1913) and Nikolai Berdyaev observed that Drews, "in his capacity as a religious anti-Semite", argued against the historical existence of Jesus "for the religious life of Aryanism."[3]

On Nietzsche and Nazism

Drews also offered a critique of the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche in his article "Nietzsche als Philosoph des Nationalsozialismus? ("Nietzsche as philosopher of National Socialism?") in the journal Nordische Stimmen 4 (1934: 172-79). There Drews condemned Nietzsche as an "enemy of everything German", as an individualist whose thought was antithetical to National Socialism, and for granting the Jews a prominent place in his political philosophy.[4]

Drews lamented that "most people today who make statements about Nietzsche are only picking the 'raisins' out of the cake of his 'philosophy' and, given his aphoristic way of writing, have no clear idea at all about the context of his thoughts."

German Faith Movement

Drews ultimately embraced a form of Germanic Neopaganism and was instrumental in early attempts during the Nazi era to unite the various German pagan organizations into a unified body.[5] It was in this period that Drews wrote Deutsche Religion, a book that has been described as a "[w]ork on the ‘new’ German religion that mixes faith and Nazi mysticism."[6]

Drews died on 19 July 1935 in Illenau bei Bühl, Baden at the age of 70.

Literary works

Notes

  1. ^ Weaver, Walter P. (1999). The Historical Jesus in the Twentieth Century, 1900-1950. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity. p. 50. ISBN 1-56338-280-6. 
  2. ^ unknown (6 February 1910), "Jesus Never Lived, Asserts Prof. Drews; Stirs Germany Deeply by Publicly Attacking Basis of the Christian Religion", The New York Times: 1, http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9900E7DA1539E433A25755C0A9649C946196D6CF, retrieved 2010-03-26 
  3. ^ Berdyaev, Nikolai, "The Scientific Discipline of Religion and Christian Apologetics", Put' / Путь vol. 6, 1927
  4. ^ Safranski, Rüdiger (1999). Martin Heidegger: Between Good and Evil. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. 300. ISBN 978-0674387102. 
  5. ^ Forster, Leonard (1938). "The New Paganism and the Old Teutonic Religion". German Life and Letters 2a (2): 119–131. 
    • Poewe, Karla O. (2005). New Religions and the Nazis. Oxford: Routledge. p. 96. ISBN 978-0415290258. 
  6. ^ Morrison, Amanda (2009), "Nazi Collection Research Resources in the Archives and Special Collections", in Read, Maren, Archives and Special Collections, University Libraries, Muncie, IN: Ball State University Library, p. 12, http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/collections/archives/collectionguides/NaziCollectionBibliography2009.pdf 

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