In 1835 the first volume of David Friedrich Strauß's Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet (1835-1836; translated as The Life of Christ; or, A Critical Examination of His History, 1843) was published. In this, his most significant work, the twenty-seven-year-old theologian called into question the authenticity of the very foundation for Christian belief and, therewith, its authority.

Strauß was born in Ludwigsburg on 27 January 1808 to Katharina Christiane Strauß, née Beck, and Johann Friedrich Strauß. His birth followed shortly after the death of their eight-year-old son Fritz. A third son, Wilhelm, was born eighteen months later.

In 1821 Strauß entered Blaubeuren, one of the four junior seminaries in Württemberg, a former state in southwest Germany (now part of Baden-Württemberg). One of his schoolmates was Christian Märklin, who would become a theologian and pedagogue. In his 1851 memorial to Mä...