Gunkel became a leading representative of the "
history of religions school" (
Religionsgeschichtliche Schule), which addressed the history of traditions behind the biblical text. In addition to Gunkel, the original group also included
Albert Eichhorn,
William Wrede, Heinrich Hackmann,
Alfred Rahlfs,
Johannes Weiss,
Wilhelm Bousset,
Ernst Troeltsch, and
Wilhelm Heitmüller. Gunkel and the school thought that the oral traditions that form the origins of the Hebrew Bible were directly tied to other Near Eastern religions. Gunkel arguably produced his most important work in his commentary on
Genesis, published in three editions from 1901 to 1910. In these works he created the new critical methodology of
form criticism (
Formgeschichte). Form criticism examined the genres used in the biblical text to identify the
Sitz im Leben (setting in life) that produced the text. This approach was based on the assumption that each genre is organically associated with a particular social and historical situation. Nineteenth-century
source criticism had examined the biblical text, especially the
Pentateuch, on the basis of style, vocabulary, theology, and other criteria to identify the basic literary sources used to create the text. Form criticism allowed scholars to go behind these larger literary sources by identifying the smaller and older sources used by their authors. Because of its utility, form criticism became immensely influential in Germany and Europe during the 20th century, with important scholars like
Gerhard von Rad and
Martin Noth applying and developing it. == Major works ==