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In 1906 [[Albert Schweitzer]] wrote that Bauer "originally sought to defend the honor of Jesus by rescuing his reputation from the inane parody of a biography that the Christian apologists had forged." However, he eventually came to the belief that it was a complete fiction and "regarded the Gospel of Mark not only as the first narrator, but even as the creator of the gospel history, thus making the latter a fiction and Christianity the invention of a single original evangelist" ([[Otto Pfleiderer]]).
Although Bauer did investigateinvestigated the 'Ur-Marcus', it was his remarks on the current version of the [[Gospel of Mark]] that captured popular attention. In particular, some key themes in the [[Gospel of Mark]] appeared to be literary. The [[Messianic Secret]] theme, in which Jesus continually performed wonders and then continually told the viewers not to tell anybody that he did this, seemed to Bauer to be an example of fiction. If the [[Messianic Secret]] is a fiction, Bauer wrote, then the redactor who added that theme was probably the final redactor of our current version of the [[Gospel of Mark]]. In 1901, [[Wilhelm Wrede]] would make his lasting fame by repeating many of Bauer's ideas in his book, ''The Messianic Secret''.
Also, for some influential theologians in the [[Tübingen School]], several [[Pauline epistles]] were regarded as forgeries of the 2nd century. Bauer radicalised that position by suggesting that '''all''' Pauline epistles were forgeries, written in the West in antagonism to the [[Paul of Tarsus|Paul]] of ''The Acts''. Bauer observed a preponderance of the Greco-Roman element, over and above the Jewish element, in Christian writings, and he added a wealth of historical background to support his theory;. thoughHowever, modern scholars such as [[E. P. Sanders]] and [[John P. Meier]] have disputed thisthe theory and attempted to demonstrate a mainly Jewish historical background. Other authors, such as [[Rudolf Bultmann]], tended to agree that a Greco-Roman element was dominant.
According to Bauer, the writer of [[Mark the Evangelist|Mark]]'s gospel was "an Italian, at home both in Rome and Alexandria"; that of [[Matthew the Evangelist|Matthew]]'s gospel was written by "a Roman, nourished by the spirit of [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]]"; and Christianity is essentially "[[Stoicism]] triumphant in a Jewish garb."
What Bauer added was a deep review of European literature in the 1st century. In his estimation, many key themes of the New Testament, especially those that are opposed to themes in the Old Testament, can be found with relative ease in Greco-Roman literature that flourished during the 1st century. Such a position was also maintained by some Jewish scholars.
Bauer's final book, ''Christ and the Caesars'' (1877) offers a penetrating analysis that shows common key-wordskeywords in the words of 1st-century writers like Seneca the Stoic and New Testament texts. While thisthat had been perceived even in ancient times, the ancient explanation was that Seneca 'must have been' a secret Christian. Bauer was perhaps the first to attempt to carefully demonstrate carefully that some New Testament writers freely borrowed from Seneca the Stoic. One modern explanation is that common cultures share common thought- forms and common patterns of speech;, thatand similarities do not necessarily indicate borrowing.
In ''Christ and the Caesars'', Bauer argued that [[Judaism]] entered Rome during the era of the [[Maccabees]], and increased in population and influence in Rome since that timethen. He cited literature from the 1st century to strengthen his case that Jewish influence in Rome was far greater than historians had yet reported. The Imperialimperial throne was influenced by the Jewish religious genius, he said, citing Herod's relation with the Caesar family, as well as the famous relationship between [[Josephus]] and the Flavians, [[Vespasian]] and [[Titus]], and also one of the poems of [[Horace]].
According to Bauer, [[Julius Caesar]] sought to interpret his own life as an Oriental miracle story, and Augustus Caesar completed that job by commissioning [[Virgil]] to write his ''Aeneid'', making Caesar into the Son of Venus and a relative of the Trojans, thereby justifying the Roman conquest of Greece and insinuating Rome into a much older history.
By contrast, said Bauer, [[Vespasian]] was far more fortunate, since he had [[Josephus]] himself to link his reign with an Oriental miracle. Josephus had prophesied that Vespasian would become Emperor of Rome and thus ruler of the world. ThisThat actually happened, and in this wayso the Roman conquest of Judea was justified and insinuated Rome into an even older history.
According to [[Albert Schweitzer]], Bauer's criticisms of the New Testament provided the most interesting questions about the historical Jesus that he had seen.<ref>Schweitzer, Albert, The Quest of the Historical Jesus – 1906 – Adam and Charles Black, on p.159, Schweitzer explicitly states, "Bauer's 'Criticism of the Gospel History' is worth a good dozen Lives of Jesus, because his work, as we are only now coming to recognise, after half a century, is the ablest and most complete collection of the difficulties of the Life of Jesus which is anywhere to be found."</ref>
Judging by theThe second-to-last chapter of his ''Quest'', suggests that Schweitzer's own theology was partly based on Bauer's writings. The title of that chapter is "Thoroughgoing Skepticism and Eschatology". in In that chapterwhich Schweitzer clashes head-on with [[Wilhelm Wrede]], who had recently (in 1905) proposed the theory of a [[Messianic Secret]]. Wrede's theory claimed that Jesus' continual commands to his followers to "say nothing to anybody" after each miracle was performed could only be explained only as a literary invention of this Gospel writer. (That is, Wrede was the thoroughgoing skeptic, and Schweitzer was the thoroughgoing eschatologist.) Schweitzer began by showing that Wrede had merely copied thisthe idea from Bruno Bauer. Then, Schweizter40 listed another forty brilliant criticisms from Bauer (pp. 334–335) someand ofdisagreed whichwith hesome disagreedof withthem (such as the so-called [[Messianic Secret]]) and someconsidered of which he consideredothers indispensable for any modern theology of the Gospel.
ThisThat line of criticism has value in emphasizing the importance of studying the influence of environment in the formation of the Christian Scriptures. Bauer was a man of restless creativity, interdisciplinary activity and independent judgment. Many reviewers have charged that Bauer's judgment was ill-balanced,. Because Due toof the controversial nature of his work as a social theorist, theologian and historian, Bauer was banned from public teaching by a Prussian monarch. After many years of similar censorship, Bauer came to resign himself to his place as a free-lancefreelance critic, rather than as an official teacher.
[[Douglas Moggach]] published ''The Philosophy and Politics of Bruno Bauer'' in 2003. ThisIt is the most comprehensive overview of Bauer's life and works, in English to date. Bauer's biography has now obtained more kindly reviews these days, even by opponents. In his own day, his opponents often respected him, since he was not afraid of taking a line on principle.
One point that is often raised in this regard is his line that was displeasing to his liberal friends on the [[Jewish question]] (''Die Judenfrage'', 1843).
Bauers later article, "Jews abroad" (Das Judentum in der Fremde) in "Staats- und Gesellschaftslexicon", was even more radical and extensive, by mixing arguments of racism, religion and "voelkischvölkisch" ideology.
The topic of Bauer's personal religious views or lack thereof is a continuing debate in contemporary scholarship about Bauer. One modern writer, Paul Trejo (2002), has made the case that Bauer remained a radical theologian who criticized specific types of Christianity, and that Bauer maintained a Hegelian interpretation of Christianity throughout his life. According to Trejo, Bauer's book, ''Christianity Exposed'' (1843), was very mild, onlyby setting only one sect of Christian against another. Trejo Further, opined Trejo,thought Bauer's ''Trumpet of the Last Judgment against Hegel the Atheist and Antichrist'' wasto have been a comedy –, actually a prank –, in which Bauer pretended to be a right-wing cleric who was attacking Hegel. When many right-wing readers publicly praised the book, Bauer revealed himself as the actual author and had a good laugh.
''The Trumpet'', written by Bauer and published anonymously, was of inspiration to [[Gianfranco Sanguinetti]], for his 1975 pamphlet ''Veritable Report on the Last Chances to Save Capitalism in Italy'', a [[Situationist International|Situationist]] prank whichthat caused him to leave Italy under the force ofby political pressure.<ref>[http://www.notbored.org/censor-nonexistence.html Bauer citation], [http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/299604.shtml report of scandal].</ref>
==Antisemitism==
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