Reimarus's controversial work garnered a response from Semler in 1779: "Beantwortung der Fragmente eines Ungenannten" (Answering the Fragments of an Unknown). Schweitzer records that Semler "rose up and slew Reimarus in the name of scientific theology". Respect for Semler temporarily repressed the dissemination and study of Reimarus's work, but Semler's response had no long-term effect. Reimarus's writings, on the other hand, did have a long-term effect. They made a lasting change in the practice of biblical criticism by making it clear it could exist independently of theology and faith. His work also showed biblical criticism could serve its own ends, be governed solely by rational criteria, and reject deference to religious tradition. Reimarus's central question, "How political was Jesus?", continues to be debated by theologians and historians such as , Gerd Theissen and Craig S. Keener.