Flaubert: Revue Critique et Génétique (Dec 2010)
La lettre perdue
Abstract
For a quarter of a century, from 1838 to 1865, numerous articles appeared in the Revue des Deux Mondes presenting the works of German historians of religion. We will focus on the historians of Christianity, concerned with literary and historical criticism of the Bible. Three major movements rhythm this cultural transfer: the first one was brought about by Doctor Strauss and his mythographic reading of Christianity, the second by Bauer and the Tübingen School and its historical reading, and the third by Ernst von Bunsen and his archeological reading. These three types of readings all attacked the orthodoxy: Strauss dismantled the historical foundations of the origins of Christianity. Baur desanctified the Texts, only written by humans and bearers of disagreements between Paulinians and Judaic Christians. Bunsen led Christianity towards Arianism by cutting it off from Judaism and linking it to Zoroaster. French readers were both fascinated and frightened by this methodical vision of the Texts.
