Gerard Bolland

An excellent orator, he gave extremely well attended public lectures in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Delft, Groningen, Nijmegen and Belgium.

He became an expert in German idealism, being especially interested in the works of Eduard von Hartmann and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

Bolland had a "charismatic and eccentric personality, (was) harshly critical to various social groups and institutions, thus making lots of decided enemies, but also adorers.[1]".

His statue was removed from the House of Representatives in 2003 because of a complaint by MP Van Raak about Bolland's antisemitism.

He believed that the basis for Christianity developed among strongly syncretised, Hellenized Jews in Alexandria and Judeophile Greeks in the early Common Era.

He believed the development of Christianity took place during the first century in the decades after the Second Temple’s fall when the mythic Chrestos figure became transformed into the legendary Jesus.