1001Philosophers

Bruno Bauer Quotes

Bruno Bauer was a German theologian, philosopher, and historian of the early Christian church and one of the leading figures of the Young Hegelian movement in the 1830s and 1840s. Initially a right-wing Hegelian biblical scholar at Bonn, he moved into a radical critical position from which the Gospels appeared as imaginative literary constructions rather than historical reports, a thesis for which he lost his theological teaching license in 1842. The quotes below are attributed to Bruno Bauer, organized by topic.

Bruno Bauer on Freedom

  • Attributed to Bruno Bauer:

    “Critique is the laboratory of every emerging epoch.”

Bruno Bauer on God

  • Attributed to Bruno Bauer:

    “The Gospels are works of literature, not of history.”

  • Attributed to Bruno Bauer:

    “Religion is the consciousness of self projected as another.”

Bruno Bauer on Mind

  • Attributed to Bruno Bauer:

    “Self-consciousness is the principle of all true criticism.”

Bruno Bauer on Truth

  • Attributed to Bruno Bauer:

    “What once seemed substance dissolves under careful inquiry.”