PREFACE. THE present age is remarkable for the rise and development of an extraordinary interest in the history of Jesus of Nazareth. The enthusiasm with which this subject is investigated has infected the scientific mind universally, and the questions raised have agitated the thoughts and disturbed the dreams of people of nearly every rank and class over the Christian world. At the head of those who have contributed to awaken and keep alive this interest stand the names of Strauss and Renan; and to this subject these authors, aided by philosophy, have applied, the one the utmost keenness of criticism, and the other the utmost ingenuity of constructive art. Nevertheless, though both are men of much thoughtful originality, and possessed of that width of vision and range of culture which are due to intense study and profound scholarship, and while the writings of the one are marked by strength |