SOURCE: “Renan's Life of Jesus.” North American Review Advertiser (January 1864): 195-233.

In the following review, the critic praises The Life of Jesus for its vivid portrayal of Jesus while condemning the book for its rejection of Jesus' divinity.

When we take up a new book on any old and familiar subject, on which many books have been written, we naturally ask, first, Was there any need of a new book on this subject? and if so, then, Was its author the man to write it?—and the second of these questions there are two ways of answering: either to inform ourselves from other sources who and what the man is, or to read the book itself, and judge from that in what spirit he undertook his work, and with what success he has accomplished it.

These questions will come to one and another reader with peculiar force, when...