Heinrich Paulus


Heinrich Eberhard Gottlob Paulus was a German theologian and critic of the Bible. He is known as a rationalist who offered natural explanations for the biblical miracles of Jesus.

Career

Paulus was a professor of theology and oriental languages at the University of Jena, then professor at the University of Würzburg. He spent time in Bamberg, Nürnberg and Ansbach before becoming professor of exegesis and church history at the University of Heidelberg, where he was instrumental in hiring Hegel in 1816. His theological rationalism greatly influenced Hegel's own theology.
As a Lutheran in the Age of Enlightenment, he firmly believed in the autonomy of the individual and freedom of the individual from the dogma of the church.
Charges of anti-semitism have been levelled at Paulus for his advocacy of assimilation of Jewish people into German culture. In his published pamphlet "The Jewish National Separation: Its Origin, Consequences, and the Means of its Correction." he argued that "Jews were a nation apart, and would remain so as long as they were committed to their religion, whose basic intent and purpose were to preserve them in that condition. In a country that was not their own, therefore, Jews could not claim more than the bare protection of their lives and possessions. They might certainly not claim political equality."
Paulus is the first scholar to propose "the swoon theory" which speculates that Jesus did not actually die on the cross, but somehow survived his execution and proclaimed that He had risen from the dead. This theory has faced criticism and is almost unanimously rejected by scholars.

Published works