A fierce critic of the Higher Critic David Friedrich Strauss and his fellow "Modern Infidels," Schmucker unwittingly anticipated the Shakespearean authorship question with a mocking demonstration that "historic doubts regarding Christ" were "equally applicable to Shakespeare."
Schmucker, a strong dissenter of the Higher Critic David Friedrich Strauss and his fellow "Modern Infidels," inadvertently predicted the Shakespearean authorship controversy with a humorous demonstration that the uncertainties surrounding Jesus' existence were similarly relevant to Shakespeare's authorship.