Rudolf Bultmann: Interpreting Faith for the Modern Era (Making of Modern Theology)

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Summary: How to read the Bible...
Review: This volume on the works of Rudolf Bultmann is part of a series by Fortress Press entitled 'the Making of Modern Theology: Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Texts'. Each of the volumes in the series focuses upon one particular theologian of note. These volumes are of use to students, seminarians, ministers and other readers interested in the development of theological ideas in the modern and postmodern world. Each volume is a reader of key texts from the theologian highlighted - the text entries are annotated a bit by the editors, and the editor of each volume provides an introduction setting the general stage for context and understanding.

Editor Roger A. Johnson describes Bultmann as being somewhat of a partner with Karl Barth in opposing the established nineteenth-century liberal theology, yet with dramatically different results. Bultmann is a theologian who is often categorised under the heading of 'biblical studies' rather than theology; there is a blurring of the disciplines with regard to Bultmann. His project of demythologising the New Testament is often misunderstood, but goes in significantly different ways than his contemporary Barth.

Bultmann's faith led him to discount the prevailing liberal theological notion that Christianity and scripture were essentially human-constructed codes of moral behaviour tinged with emotive aspects. He also had the sense that God was not something or someone rooted in a particular time only, but had eternal and universal qualities that could not be ignored. God was 'wholly other', a phrase often used by Barth as well, was actually drawn from Rudolf Otto. The uneasy alliance theologically with Barth (and a third party, Gogarten) did not last long, but a lifelong friendship was born of the early connections in resistance to the prevailing liberal theology.

Bultmann was influenced by Heidegger's writing, particularly in existentialist ways of thinking. Bultmann's sense of the existential, however, is rather different form Heidegger and the other German philosophical establishment. He develops his terminology carefully, and explores the issues of creation, faith versus theology, and other important terms. He drew significantly from church history and the history of biblical interpretation, illustrating in important ways the conflicts of faith and modern worldviews, particularly the natural sciences and scientific methods at work in the modern world.

Demythologising is perhaps the best known and least understood of Bultmann's concepts. Mythology is a pre-scientific method of looking at the world, in Bultmann's construct -- to demythologise is to strip away pre-scientific aspects of understanding. It does not mean to call all biblical stories myths, but does understand that some of the underpinnings of biblical understanding, even among those who were the original authors, have mythological preconceptions.

Bultmann's works are explored topically in here, in Johnson's arrangement. Key texts from Bultmann's books and articles are brought together under the topics of God as Wholly Other, Kerygma, Jesus and Eschatology, Existential Interpretation, Modernity and Faith in Crisis, and finally, Demythologising. Johnson provides some introductions to the texts, but primary they speak for themselves, with Johnson's editorial arrangement aiding the reader in the selections.

Each volume in this series also has a selected bibliography section -- this one for Bultmann is divided into works by Bultmann (primary sources in English, including journal articles as well as books), and works about Bultmann (secondary sources in English). The book also has several indexes -- a place and subject index, and a names index. This is a very good book for scholarship. The translations of the works from the original German is new, preserving some of the language uses (masculine pronouns for God) while modifying others (gender neutral translations for terms such as Mensch, Menschen).

Rating:
Summary: How to read the Bible...
Review: This volume on the works of Rudolf Bultmann is part of a series by Fortress Press entitled 'the Making of Modern Theology: Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Texts'. Each of the volumes in the series focuses upon one particular theologian of note. These volumes are of use to students, seminarians, ministers and other readers interested in the development of theological ideas in the modern and postmodern world. Each volume is a reader of key texts from the theologian highlighted - the text entries are annotated a bit by the editors, and the editor of each volume provides an introduction setting the general stage for context and understanding.

Editor Roger A. Johnson describes Bultmann as being somewhat of a partner with Karl Barth in opposing the established nineteenth-century liberal theology, yet with dramatically different results. Bultmann is a theologian who is often categorised under the heading of 'biblical studies' rather than theology; there is a blurring of the disciplines with regard to Bultmann. His project of demythologising the New Testament is often misunderstood, but goes in significantly different ways than his contemporary Barth.

Bultmann's faith led him to discount the prevailing liberal theological notion that Christianity and scripture were essentially human-constructed codes of moral behaviour tinged with emotive aspects. He also had the sense that God was not something or someone rooted in a particular time only, but had eternal and universal qualities that could not be ignored. God was 'wholly other', a phrase often used by Barth as well, was actually drawn from Rudolf Otto. The uneasy alliance theologically with Barth (and a third party, Gogarten) did not last long, but a lifelong friendship was born of the early connections in resistance to the prevailing liberal theology.

Bultmann was influenced by Heidegger's writing, particularly in existentialist ways of thinking. Bultmann's sense of the existential, however, is rather different form Heidegger and the other German philosophical establishment. He develops his terminology carefully, and explores the issues of creation, faith versus theology, and other important terms. He drew significantly from church history and the history of biblical interpretation, illustrating in important ways the conflicts of faith and modern worldviews, particularly the natural sciences and scientific methods at work in the modern world.

Demythologising is perhaps the best known and least understood of Bultmann's concepts. Mythology is a pre-scientific method of looking at the world, in Bultmann's construct -- to demythologise is to strip away pre-scientific aspects of understanding. It does not mean to call all biblical stories myths, but does understand that some of the underpinnings of biblical understanding, even among those who were the original authors, have mythological preconceptions.

Bultmann's works are explored topically in here, in Johnson's arrangement. Key texts from Bultmann's books and articles are brought together under the topics of God as Wholly Other, Kerygma, Jesus and Eschatology, Existential Interpretation, Modernity and Faith in Crisis, and finally, Demythologising. Johnson provides some introductions to the texts, but primary they speak for themselves, with Johnson's editorial arrangement aiding the reader in the selections.

Each volume in this series also has a selected bibliography section -- this one for Bultmann is divided into works by Bultmann (primary sources in English, including journal articles as well as books), and works about Bultmann (secondary sources in English). The book also has several indexes -- a place and subject index, and a names index. This is a very good book for scholarship. The translations of the works from the original German is new, preserving some of the language uses (masculine pronouns for God) while modifying others (gender neutral translations for terms such as Mensch, Menschen).