Strauss, David Friedrich (1808–1874)

German theologian. He became lecturer in philosophy at Tübingen University in 1832 and was later appointed to a chair at the University of Zürich. In 1835 he published his rationalist Life of Jesus, in which he treated Christianity as a commonplace pseudo-mythological religion and Christ as a sort of Jewish Socrates. As a result of the furore it provoked, he was forced to resign his chair at Zürich and he chose to abandon Christianity.

Strauss was born in Ludwigsburg, Wurttemberg, Germany. He studied at Tübingen and Berlin universities. In 1840–41 he published Christliche Glaubenslehre. Among his other works are Reimarus (1862), Voltaire (1870), and The Old and New Faith (1872).