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The Dialectical Theology

Rudolf Bultmann and Karl Barth

Martin Kahler's protest against the historical Jesus quest was taken up in a more developed form by two twentieth• century theologians, Rudolf Bultmann and Karl Barth. It is unfortunate that students of our own time are inclined to think of Bultmann (if they think of him at all) as a theological 'liberal', while Barth is regarded as a theological 'conserva• tive'. For a closer study of both writers demonstrates the in• adequacy of such labels. While these two great theologians would eventually part company, in the earliest stages of their careers they represented a common protest against the idea that historical research could provide a foundation for faith. Both were convinced that, while historical research could offer an understanding of Christianity as a religion, the proper subject of theology was not 'religion' but God him• self Before the revelation and the judgement of God, all human knowledge is reduced to silence.

Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976) Rudolf Bultmann was born in Wiefelstede m Northern Germany, and received his earliest education in the neigh• bouring town of Rastede before moving on to the Gymna• sium (academic high school) in the city of Oldenburg. Hav• ing completed his schooling, he studied theology in Tiibin• gen, Berlin and Marburg, where he also attended lectures in philosophy and the history of philosophy. During these years he had the good fortune to study under such leading figures 240 The Historical Jesus Quest

as the Old Testament scholar Herrnann Gunkel (1862-1932), the historian of dogma Aldolf Harnack (1851-1930), the New Testament scholar Johannes Weiss (see above) and the systematic theologian Wilhelm Herrrnann (1846-1922). It was Weiss who encouraged Bultmann to prepare for a doc• torate in New Testament studies. He gained his first theo• logical qualification in 1910 with a dissertation on a theme which Weiss had proposed: a comparison of the style of the apostle Paul's argumentation with that of the Cynic and Stoic 'diatribe'. Mter a further dissertation on the exegesis of Theodore of Mopsuestia, Bultmann began his teaching career at Marburg in 1912. In 1916 he received a call to Breslau as an Assistant Professor and worked there until 1920; it was during this time that he published his History if the Synoptic Tradition. Mter a short period as Professor at Giessen, Bult• mann returned to Marburg in 1921, where he remained for the rest of his life. It was at Marburg that he came into con• tact with the philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), who himself taught at Marburg from 1922-28, and whose analysis of human existence would offer Bultmann a set of categories within which to articulate his specifically theologi• cal insights. Bultmann's approach to the Jesus question is marked by a strong contrast between 'the Jesus of history' and the 'Christ of faith'. The Jesus of history is both historically inaccessible and-in any case--a figure of little interest for Christian ex• istence. (For Bultmann the historical Jesus is merely the 'Christ after the flesh' of 2 Cor 5:16.) The Christ of faith, on the other hand, is the figure who comes to us in the procla• mation of the Gospel. When Bultmann writes a book on J e• sus (as he did in 1926), he claims to be doing no more than uncovering the earliest level of the synoptic tradition, with a view to understanding the demands of Christian faith. He is most emphatically not attempting to create a historical por• trait ofJesus on which Christians might base their faith. From this point of view Bultmann's perspective is thoroughly and unashamedly theological. Indeed no biblical scholar of mod• em times has been more aware of the need for a critical and