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Rudolf Bultmann and his Successors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

Extract

It is the purpose of this introductory, critical survey to indicate some major contributions of Rudolf Bultmann and his successors, and to describe some of the more important problems which have been raised by these contributions.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1965

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References

page 396 note 1 Ogden, Schubert M. (ed.), Existence and Faith: Shorter Writings of Rudolf Bultmann (Meridian Books, New York, 1960), p. 288.Google Scholar

page 396 note 2 Bultmann, , Der Stil der paulinischen Predigt und die kynischstoische Diatribe (Vol.XIII of Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments, 78 vols., Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1910)Google Scholar; Bultmann, , Jesus and the Word (Scribner's Sons, New York, 1958)Google Scholar; Bultmann, , Primitive Christianity in its Contemporary Setting (Meridian Books, New York, 1956)Google Scholar; Bultmann, , Gnosis, trans. Coates, J. R. (Vol. V of Bible Key Words, Adam and Charles Black, London, 1952).Google Scholar

page 397 note 1 Bultmann, Rudolf, Die Geschichte der synoptischen Tradition, third edition (Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1957).Google Scholar

page 397 note 2 Grant, F. C. (ed.), Form Criticism: A New Method of New Testament Research (Willett, Clark and Co., Chicago, 1934), pp. 1175.Google Scholar

page 397 note 3 ibid., p. 28.

page 397 note 4 Cf., for instance, the publication in 1960 of Bultmann's Das Verhältnis der urchristlichen Christusbotschaft zum historischen Jesus, Auflage, zweite (Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, 1960) (C. Winter Universitätsverlag, Heidelberg, 1961), p. 17Google Scholar, etc. Cf. the translation of Bultmann's essay and discussion of the problems involved in the unfortunate dichotomy of the Jesus of history (à la Historicism) and the Christ of proclamation, in Braaten, Carl E. and Harrisville, Roy A. (eds.), The Historical Jesus and the Kerygmatic Christ (Abingdon, New York, 1964).Google Scholar

page 398 note 1 Bultmann, , Essays, Philosophical and Theological, trans. Greig, J. C. G. (S.C.M. Press, London, 1955), p. 241Google Scholar. Cf. Bultmann, , History and Eschatology (The University Press, Edinburgh, 1957), pp. 123ff.Google Scholar

page 398 note 2 Heinemann, F. H., Existentialism and the Modern Predicament (Harper Torch books, New York, 1958), pp. 8687.Google Scholar

page 398 note 3 Brown, James, Subject and Object in Modern Theology (S.C.M. Press, London, 1955).Google Scholar

page 398 note 4 Cf., however, a defence of Heidegger against the charge of subjectivism in Macquarrie, John, The Scope of Demythologizing (Harper and Brothers, New York, 1960), p. 242.Google Scholar

page 398 note 5 Heinemann, op. cit., p. 185.

page 399 note 1 Ogden (ed.), op. cit., p. 288.

page 399 note 2 Bartsch, Hans Werner (ed.), Kerygma and Myth (revised edition tr. by Fuller, Reginald H., Harper Torchbooks, New York, 1961), p. 24.Google Scholar

page 399 note 3 Fuchs, Ernst, ‘Bultmann, Rudolf’, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, I, dritte Auflage (J. C. B. Mohr, Tübingen, 1957), 15111512.Google Scholar

page 399 note 4 Bultmann, Rudolf, Jesus Christ and Mythology (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1958), p. 19.Google Scholar

page 399 note 5 ibid., p. 35.

page 400 note 1 ibid., pp. 83–84.

page 400 note 2 Bultmann, , Theology of the New Testament (S.C.M. Press, London, 1952, 1955), 2 vols.Google Scholar

page 400 note 3 Reitzenstein, Richard, Poimandres (B. G. Teubner, Leipzig, 1904)Google Scholar; Bousset, , Kyrios Christos (Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1913)Google Scholar. For example, Knox, W. L., St. Paul and the Church of Jerusalem (University Press, Cambridge, 1925), pp. 136149Google Scholar, recognises that Reitzenstein's three major books overestimate the influence of ‘Heltenistic’ conceptions on Paul's thought.

page 401 note 1 Burkitt, F. C., Church and Gnosis: A Study of Christian Thought and Speculation in the Second Century (University Press, Cambridge, 1932).Google Scholar

page 401 note 2 Cf. the various approaches of Davies, W. D., Christian Origins and Judaism (Westminster, Philadelphia, 1962)Google Scholar; Dupont, , Gnosis (Gabalda, Paris, 1949)Google Scholar; Schweizer, E., Neotestamentica (Zwingli Verlag, Zürich, 1963)Google Scholar, especially the studies of the Church as the body of Christ, and the source of Paul's thought concerning Jesus' pre-existence; Schweizer, E., Erniedrigung und Erhōhung bei Jesus und seinen Nachfolgern, zweite stark umgearbeitete Auflage (Zwingli Verlag, Zürich, 1962).Google Scholar

page 401 note 3 Cullmann, Oscar, ‘Out of Season Remarks on the “Historical Jesus” of the Bultmann School’, Union Seminary Quarterly Review, XVI (1960), 137.Google Scholar

page 401 note 4 ibid., p. 142.

page 401 note 5 Bartsch, op. cit., p. xi, says that the term existentiell means ‘that which belongs to existence as such’, but the term existential means ‘that which belongs to the particular philosophical system called existentialism’.

page 402 note 1 Bartsch (ed.), op. cit., p. 25.

page 402 note 2 Bartsch, Hans Werner (ed.), Kerygma and Myth, II (S.P.C.K., London, 1962), P. 157.Google Scholar

page 402 note 3 Robinson, James M., ‘Basic Shifts in German Theology’, Interpretation, XVI (1962), p. 95.Google Scholar

page 402 note 4 Brown, op. cit., pp. 177–8.

page 403 note 1 Bartsch (ed.), op. cit., II, p. 96.

page 403 note 2 Bultmann, Theology, II, 66, etc.

page 403 note 3 Bultmann, Essays, p. 280. Cf. Bartsch, op. cit., II, 340–55.

page 404 note 1 Bartsch (ed.), op. cit., II, 346.

page 404 note 2 Bultmann, Jesus and the Word, p. 13.

page 404 note 3 Bultmann, , Theology, II, 239.Google Scholar

page 404 note 4 Bartsch (ed.), op. cit., II, 1–82; Gogarten, , Demythologizing and History (S.C.M. Press, London, 1955)Google Scholar; Forstman, H. Jackson, ‘The Interpretation of Scripture, IV: Bultmann's Conception and Use of Scripture’, Interpretation, XVII (1963), 450465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 404 note 5 Buri, Fritz, ‘Entmythologisierung oder Entkerygmatisierung der Theologie’, in Bartsch, H. W. (ed.), Kerygma und Mythos, II (Herbert Reich-Evangelischer Verlag, Hamburg, 1952), 85ff, etc.Google Scholar Cf. John Macquarrie, op. cit., pp. 129–53.

page 404 note 6 Bultmann, Theology, I, 299, 305; II, 57, etc.

page 404 note 7 ibid., I, 43.

page 404 note 8 ibid., II, 239.

page 405 note 1 ibid., I, 302.

page 405 note 2 ibid., II, 57.

page 405 note 3 ibid., II, 127. Cf. James M. Robinson, op. cit., p. 87.

page 405 note 4 Bartsch, op. cit., II, 317. Cf. pp. 332–3.

page 405 note 5 ibid., II, 306–35.

page 406 note 6 Kähler, Martin, Der sogenannte historische Jesus und der geschichtliche biblische Christus (C. Kaiser, München, 1953)Google Scholar. Cf. translation by Carl E. Braaten (Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1964). This is not to deny that there are problems in Kähler's position as well. Cf., for instance, the criticisms of Kümmel, W. G., Das Neue Testament, Geschichte der Erforschung seiner Probleme (Karl Alber, Freiburg, 1958), p. 285Google Scholar; and Reicke, Bo, ‘Incarnation and Exaltation: The Historic Jesus and the Kerygmatic Christ’, Interpretation, XVI (1962), 159Google Scholar. On the other hand, Ott, Heinrich, Die Frage nach dem historischen Jesus und die Ontologie der Geschichte (Theologische Studien, Heft 62, Evangelischer Verlag, Zürich), 1960Google Scholar, suggests, in essential agreement with Martin Kähler, the hypothesis that ‘alle geschichtliche Wirklichkeit, die wir erfahren, hat bildhaften Charakter’ (24), and therefore that: ‘Der wirkliche historische Jesus (nicht der aus “Tatsachen” zusammengesetzte sogcnannte “historische Jesus” der Leben-Jesu-Forschung) gehört damit grundsätzlich derselben ontologischen Ordnung an wie das biblische Christusbild’ (31).

page 406 note 1 Ebeling, Gerhard, ‘Hermeneutik’, Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 3rd ed., III, 242262Google Scholar; Kümmel's, W. G. review of Robinson's New Quest in Encounter, XXI (1960), 232234Google Scholar; Piper's, Otto review of Bornkamm's Jesus of Nazareth in Interpretation, XV (1961), 473484Google Scholar; Robinson, James M., ‘Basic Shifts in German Theology’, Interpretation, XVI (1962), 7697CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Robinson, J. M., A New Quest of the Historical Jesus (Studies in Biblical Theology, XXV, S.C.M. Press, London, 1959)Google Scholar; Robinson's, J. M. review of Ebeling's Das Wesen des christlichen Glaubens in Interpretation, XV (1961), 484491Google Scholar; Jeremias, J., ‘The Present Position in the Controversy concerning the Problem of the Historical Jesus’, The Expository Times, LXIX (1958), 333338; etc.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 406 note 2 Käsemann, Ernst, ‘Das Problem des historischen Jesus’, Exegetische Versuche und Besinnungen, Erster Band (Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1960), pp. 188213.Google Scholar

page 407 note 1 Bartsch, (ed.), Kerygma and Myth, II, 60.Google Scholar

page 407 note 2 Robinson, , A New Quest, p. 88.Google Scholar

page 407 note 3 Bultmann, R., Jesus and the Word (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1958)Google Scholar; Bornkamm, Günther, Jesus of Nazareth (Harper and Row, London, 1960).Google Scholar

page 407 note 4 Bornkamm, op. cit., p. 21.

page 407 note 5 ibid., p. 23.

page 407 note 6 ibid., pp. 51, 67.

page 407 note 7 Anderson, Hugh, ‘Existential Hermeneutics: Features of the New Quest’, Interpretation, XVI (1962), 152.Google Scholar

page 407 note 8 Fuchs, Ernst, zur hermeneutischen Problem in der Theologie (J. C. B. Mohr, Tübingen, 1959)Google Scholar, and zur Frage nach dem historischen Jesus (J. C. B. Mohr, Tübingen, 1960)Google Scholar; Ebeling, Gerhard, The Nature of Faith (1959)Google Scholar, and Theologie und Verkündigung: ein Gespräch mit Rudolf Bultmann (J. C. B. Mohr, Tübingen, 1962).Google Scholar

page 408 note 1 An introduction to the later Heidegger is available from Ott, H., Denken und Sein (Evangelischer Verlag, Zollikon, 1959)Google Scholar, and Robinson, James M. and Cobb, J. B. Jr., editors, The Later Heidegger and Theology, New Frontiers in Theology (Discussions among German and American Theologians) (Harper and Row, New York, 1963).Google Scholar

page 408 note 2 Cf. Robinson, , ‘Basic Shifts’, pp. 8788.Google Scholar

page 408 note 3 Cf. Kümmel, op. cit., p. 333.

page 408 note 4 Reicke, Bo, ‘Incarnation and Exaltation: the Historic Jesus and the Kerygmatic Christ’, Interpretation, XVI (1962), 161165.Google Scholar

page 408 note 5 Cf. Robinson, ‘Basic Shifts’, p. 96, footnote 79.

page 409 note 1 Cf. Piper, Otto A., ‘The Origin of the Gospel Pattern’, Journal of Biblical Literature, LXXVIII (1959), 115124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 409 note 2 Bornkamm, Jesus of Nazareth, p. 170, etc.

page 409 note 3 ibid., p. 180.

page 409 note 4 Ernst Fuchs, ‘Glaube und Geschichte im Blick auf die Frage nach dam historischen Jesus, eine Auseinandersetzung mit Buch über, G. BornkammsJesus von Nazareth“’, Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche, LIV (1957), 117156Google Scholar, agrees with Kähler that faith and history belong very close together (120), and contends: ‘Bornkamms These ist ein Rückfall in den Positivismus’ (153).

page 409 note 1 The phrase comes from Macquarrie, John, The Scope of Demythologizing (Harper and Brothers, New York, 1960), pp. 93ff, 245–8Google Scholar, who thinks that such a minimal core of factuality, which would be ‘ascertainable by a rational inference which can be tested by anyone’ (247), is needed as a supplement to the existential interpretation of sacred history.