Albert Schweitzer, W. Montgomery (translator) · 1906 · EPUB · Calibre ID 2643
Resurfaced in The Day After His Arrival (2026-10-22).
Role in the triad
The theologian’s case and genealogical middle term: Christianity as the history of the delay of the Parousia; Reimarus’s stolen body; Renan’s novelistic Life.
Why this book
Thoroughgoing eschatology puts a failed prophecy at the origin of a religion, the structure Scholem sees again in 1666; its Renan chapter links to both Scholem and the novel. Dover EPUB, no print pagination; located by chapter.
Quotations
Verified against the book’s own text on the day of the reading.
- “The whole history of “ Christianity ” down to the present day, that is to say, the real inner history of it, is based on the delay of the Parousia, the non-occurrence of the Parousia” (ch. XIX) | “lays hold of the wheel of the world to set it moving on that last revolution which is to bring all ordinary history to a close” (ch. XIX) | “So they stole the body of Jesus and hid it, and proclaimed to all the world that He would soon return.” (ch. II) | “Accordingly, the main problem of primitive dogmatics was the delay of the Parousia.” (ch. II) | “There is no historical task which so reveals a man’s true self as the writing of a Life of Jesus.” (ch. I) | “He planned the work at Gaza” (ch. XIII, on Renan)
Themes
apocalyptic prophet · de-eschatologizing · delay · eschatology · lives of Jesus · Parousia · Paul · Reimarus · Renan