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Assessing the Work of Rudolf Bultmann Foundations and Facets FORUM third series 3,2 fall 2014 Assessing the work of Rudolf Bultmann lane c. mcgaughy Preface 5 schubert m. ogden The Legacy of Rudolf Bultmann and the Ideal of a Fully Critical Theology 9 philip devenish Reflections on Konrad Hammann’s Biography of Rudolf Bultmann—with Implications for Christology 21 william o. walker, jr. Demythologizing and Christology 31 gerd lüdemann Kêrygma and History in the Thought of Rudolf Bultmann 45 jon f. dechow The ‘Gospel’ and the Emperor Cult From Bultmann to Crossan 63 publisher Forum, a biannual journal first published in Polebridge Press 1985, contains current research in biblical and cognate studies. The journal features articles on editors the historical Jesus, Christian origins, and Nina E. Livesey related fields. University of Oklahoma Manuscripts may be submitted to the publisher, Polebridge Press, Willamette University, Salem Clayton N. Jefford Oregon 97301; 503-375-5323; fax 503-375-5324; Saint Meinrad Seminary and [email protected]. A style guide is School of Theology available from Polebridge Press. Please note that all manuscripts must be double-spaced, and editorial board accompanied by a matching electronic copy. Arthur J. Dewey Subscription Information: The annual Forum Xavier University subscription rate is $30. Back issues may be Robert T. Fortna ordered from the publisher. Direct all inquiries Vassar College, Emeritus concerning subscriptions, memberships, and permissions to Polebridge Press, Willamette Julian V. Hills University, Salem Oregon 97301; 503-375-5323; Marquette University fax 503-375-5324. Roy W. Hoover Copyright © 2014 by Polebridge Press, Inc. Whitman College, Emeritus All rights reserved. The contents of this publication cannot be reproduced either in Lane C. McGaughy whole or in part, except for brief quotations in Willamette University, Emeritus scholarly reviews and publications. Permission requests should be directed to the publisher. Chris Shea Ball State University James Veitch Victoria University issn 0883–4970 Contributors Philip E. Devenish is the translator of Konrad Hammann, Rudolf Bultmann: A Biography (Polebridge, 2012). Having formerly taught at the University of Notre Dame and The Divinity School of the University of Chicago, he is at present the owner of Devenish Wines. Jon F. Dechow, retired (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania), is a specialist in the historical foundations of early Christian dogma and spirituality. An update of his Dogma and Mysticism in Early Christianity: Epiphanius of Cyprus and the Legacy of Origen (1988) appears this year in the annual journal, Adamantius: Origen and the Alexandrian Tradition, sponsored by six Italian universities. He has been a Westar Fellow since 1985. Gerd Lüdemann is Professor Emeritus of the Theological Faculty of Georg-August-University in Göttingen (Germany) and Visiting Scholar at Vanderbilt Divinity School, Nashville, Tennessee. He is a Fellow of Westar Institute and has authored numerous books in the field of New Testament and Christian origins. Schubert M. Ogden is University Distinguished Professor of Theology Emeritus at Southern Methodist University. A friend and supporter as well as a student of Rudolf Bultmann, he projected his own theologi- cal program in Christ without Myth: A Study Based on the Theology of Rudolf Bultmann (1961). He has also selected, edited and translated two volumes of Bultmann’s writings: Existence and Faith: Shorter Writings of Rudolf Bultmann (1960) and New Testament and Mythology and Other Basic Writings (1984). His continuing critical appropriation of Bultmann’s work is evident in all of his subsequent books, including, more recently, Doing Theology Today (1996) and The Understanding of Christian Faith (2010), which is to be published in German translation in 2014. William O. Walker, Jr. is Jennie Farris Railey King Professor Emeritus of Religion at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He is the author of Interpolations in the New Testament, the general editor of HarperCollins Bible Pronunciation Guide, an associate editor of HarperCollins Bible Dictionary, and the author of numerous articles in the area of New Testament studies and early Christianity. 3 Preface The articles in this issue are based on papers presented at a special Westar seminar on the legacy of the renowned German New Testament scholar and theologian Rudolf Bultmann on November 16, 2012 in connection with the an- nual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Chicago. One of the many remarkable features of Bultmann’s career is the fact that he envisioned a com- prehensive research agenda for the radical updating of Christian theology early in his career and systematically pursued this agenda through his monographs, articles, entries, and reviews for over sixty years. His groundbreaking research on Christian origins formulated most of the major issues that scholars have been addressing for the past generation. When asked how one might become engaged in the academic study of the New Testament, I usually reply that one could either enroll in a good introductory course on the subject or read through Bultmann’s collected works. The legacy of Rudolf Bultmann includes the work of the Jesus Seminar. Robert Funk and many of the Fellows can be characterized as “Bultmannians.” The historical critical method and criteria for distinguishing authentic units of Jesus tradition employed by the Jesus Seminar can be traced to Bultmann and his teachers. I was asked by Funk to respond to the criticism that the Jesus Seminar should have started with the deeds of Jesus, not his words, at a ses- sion of the Jesus Seminars on the Road in New Orleans on November 23, 1996 in connection with the SBL annual meeting. I started my paper, entitled “Why Start with the Sayings?”, by quipping: “The quick answer as to why the Jesus Seminar started with the sayings is, because Bultmann did. The outline of his History of the Synoptic Tradition provided the ten-year agenda of the Jesus Seminar: I. The Tradition of the Sayings of Jesus . .; II. The Tradition of the Narrative Material.”1 Recent efforts to discredit Bultmann’s critical conclusions about the Jesus tradition are thus also aimed at the work of the Jesus Seminar. My hope is that the 2012 Westar seminar on Bultmann’s legacy will be followed with future sessions on the basic elements of his historical critical approach, for example, his form critical approach to analyzing the transmission of indepen- dent units of tradition during the oral period between Jesus and the Gospels. 1. Similar versions of this paper have appeared in four publications: The Fourth R 9,5/6 (Sept–Dec 1996): 17–26; Forum new series 1,2 (Fall 1998): 387–98; Roy W. Hoover, ed., Profiles of Jesus (Santa Rosa CA: Polebridge, 2002): 117–27; and Bernard Brandon Scott, ed., Finding the Historical Jesus: Rules of Evidence (Santa Rosa CA: Polebridge, 2008): 71–87. FORUM third series 3,2 fall 2014 5 6 Preface The lead entry in this volume is by Schubert M. Ogden, the preeminent American interpreter of Bultmann’s theological program. Ogden engaged in extensive correspondence with Bultmann and published an assessment of Bultmann’s theology, Christ without Myth, already in 1961. Ogden is the University Distinguished Professor of Theology Emeritus at Southern Methodist University, where he taught from 1956–1969 and 1972–1993. Between 1969–1972 he was the University Professor of Theology at his alma mater, the University of Chicago. Ogden was a Fulbright Scholar and a Guggenheim Fellow in Marburg, Germany and is a past president of the American Academy of Religion. He has been an active member since 1984 of the International Buddhist-Christian Theological Encounter Group. In 1985 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ogden reports that Bultmann told Ogden that he and Van Harvey were the two American theologians who best understood Bultmann’s work. Ogden agreed to present his paper on “the ideal of a fully critical theology” both to describe Bultmann’s program and to sum up his own understanding of systematic theology—in this sense Ogden’s article defines his own legacy as it contributes to Bultmann’s. A second reason for the Bultmann seminar in Chicago was to celebrate the release on November 12, 2012 of Konrad Hammann’s Rudolf Bultmann: A Biography, translated into English by Philip E. Devenish and published by Polebridge Press. This comprehensive intellectual biography introduces a new generation to Bultmann’s influence on Christian theology, and Devenish’s article elaborates on the implications of Bultmann’s program for Christology. Devenish frames his article with a note of irony: Bultmann argued that an interest in the person of Jesus or Paul—or Bultmann himself—borders on idolatry, since all three were focused on their work or cause. Both the author of the Bultmann biography (Hamman) and the translator (Devenish) are systematic theologians and thus are fully competent to address Bultmann’s intellectual formation and work. In addition, Devenish was a doctoral student of Schubert Ogden’s and co-editor of a Festschrift in his honor, Witness and Existence, in 1986. The article by William O. Walker is an updated version of an earlier one published in Religion in Life in 1965–1966 that assesses Ogden’s critique of Bultmann’s demythologizing program. It offers a clear and concise summary of the debate that flourished in the 1950s and 60s after Bultmann’s writings became more widely accessible in English translation, and thus is also helpful in de- scribing Bultmann’s intellectual legacy. Walker is the Jennie Farris Railey King Professor Emeritus of Religion at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He was a member of the Westar Acts Seminar and contributed to Acts and Christian Beginnings: The Acts Seminar Report (2013). Walker is also a specialist on the let- ters of Paul. Gerd Lüdemann is Professor Emeritus of the History and Literature of Early Christianity and founder of the archive of the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule at the University of Göttingen in Germany.
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