Abstract

Wellhausen, Usener, Wilamowitz, and Schwartz found common presuppositions in a philological method which relied on the instrument of text analysis and avoided any theological or dogmatic interference. Wellhausen became a hero to Wilamowitz and Schwartz because he showed them that the same method was legitimate both in sacred and profane texts. He also confirmed them in what they had already learned from Usener: that repudiation of theological presuppositions did not mean absence of religious emotions. But Wellhausen, Wilamowitz, and Schwartz had in common political emotions which were alien to the contemplative Usener