Assessing the Work of Rudolf Bultmann
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The Study of the Fundamentals of Martin Luther's Theology in The
The Study of the Fundamentals of Martin Luther’s Theology in the Light of Ecumenism 1 Tuomo Mannermaa Translated and edited by Kirsi Stjerna It is not unusual in the history of academic disciplines that new ideas concerning the fundamentals of a particular discipline emerge either by accident or as a result of impulses from another field of scholarship. This is the case also in today’s Luther research. Two particular fields can be named from most recent history, fields with significant impulses for new insights: ecumenism and philosophy. The philosophical impulses are connected with the task of locating Luther’s theology in regard to both scholasticism, which preceded Luther, and the philosophy of the modern times, which succeeded him. Ecumenism presents its own challenges for Luther research and Lutheran theological tradition. It is the latter issue that I wish to address here, touching upon the issues related to philosophy only as far as it is helpful in light of ecumenical questions at stake. The ecumenical impulses originate, above all, from two sources: Lutheran–Orthodox theological discussions, on the one hand, and Lutheran–Catholic theological encounters, on the other. The challenge issued to Luther research by Lutheran–Orthodox discussions lies in the theme “Luther and the doctrine of divinization,” whereas Lutheran–Catholic cooperation in Luther research has set out to clarify the theme, “Luther as a theologian of love.” Especially the late Catholic Luther specialist Peter Manns has unraveled the latter topic wit h his fruitful Luther interpretation. The first of these two topics, “Luther and theosis (divinization),” is fundamental in the sense that it gives expression to the patristic standard of comparison that all these three denominations share and that can serve as a starting point in their process toward a common understanding. -
Week 4: Jesus Christ and Human Existence • 1
Week 4: Jesus Christ and human existence • 1. Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976) • R.B., Jesus and the Word, 1926 (ET: 1952) • R.B., The Gospel of John. A Commentary, 1941 (ET: 1971) • D. Ford (ed.), Modern Theologians, ch. on Bultmann • J.F. Kay, Christus praesens. A Reconsideration of Bultmann’s Christology, Grand Rapids 1994 Bultmann II • At the same time NT scholar and systematic theologian. • Exegetically under the influence of Wrede’s ‘radical scepticism’: • Jesus existed historically, but we have no knowledge of his personality. • We do know his teaching, the kerygma. Bultmann III • ‘I never felt uncomfortable in my critical radicalism, indeed I have been quite comfortable with it. … I let it burn, for I see that what is burning are all the fanciful notions of the Life-of-Jesus theology, and that it is the Christos kata sarka himself.’ • Cf. Paul’s dichotomies: ‘according to the flesh’ – ‘according to the spirit’ etc. • Interest in ‘human’ Jesus is no more relevant than that in other human beings. Bultmann III • Important about Jesus is his Word which at once exposes the wrongness of our existence and points a way out of it (sin – forgiveness of sins). • This happens through faith which as in Kierkegaard is miraculous. • NT witnesses this faith of the early Christians → the one miracle that matters. Bultmann IV • Bultmann’ consequence from radical dichotomy God – World is radically different from Barth’s: • Theology can only study the human response to the Word of God. • For Barth this meant moving back to ‘liberal theology’. • Bultmann saw maintaining divine transcendence as central. -
Rudolf Bultmann's Demythologizing of the New Testament
RUDOLF BULTMANN'S DEMYTHOLOGIZING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT A theological debate of major importance was begun in 1941 by Rudolf Bultmann's conference "Neues Testament und Mythologie," and for almost twenty years it has been carried on by theologians, exegetes, and philosophers of the most diverse backgrounds and convictions. The five volumes edited by Hans Werner Bartsch under the title Kerygma und Mythos,1 a collection containing the conference of Bultmann, and many of the contributions to the debate from Bultmann himself and others, are evidence of the interest which has been aroused. It is gratifying that Catholic scholars have taken their part; the fifth volume of Kerygma und Mythos is made up of some of their discussions of the problem. One finds there the names of Karl Adam, R. Schnackenburg, J. de Fraine, and J. Hâmer, among others. The fullest treatments given thus far by Catholics are Leopold Malevez's Le Message Chrétien et le Mythe,2 and Rene Marlé's Bültmann et l'Interprétation du Nouveau Testament? Among the works in English which should be specially mentioned are Reginald Fuller's Kerygma and Myth? a translation of much of the first volume of Kerygma und Mythos, and a small part of the second, together with an essay by the Eng- lish theologian, Austin Farrer; also, Ian Henderson's Myth in the New Testament.B The essay of Amos Wilder, "Mythology and New Testament,"6 and that of Kendrick Grobel, "Bultmann's Problem of New Testament 'Mythology' " 7 are of interest, since both were 1 Hamburg: Vol. I, 2 ed., 19S1; II, 1952; III, 1954; IV, 1955; V, 1955. -
A Philosophical Audacity
A Philosophical Audacity Barth’s Notion of Experience Between Neo-Kantianism and Nietzsche1 Anthony Feneuil [email protected] This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: “A Philosophical Audacity: Barth’s Notion of Experience Between Neo-Kantianism and Nietzsche“, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ijst.12077/full. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving Abstract: This article addresses Barth’s dialectical notion of experience in the 1920s. I argue that the theoretical problem raised by recent studies on Barth’s notion of experience after his break with liberalism (i.e., the apparent inconsistency between Barth’s move towards an increasingly neo-Kantian understanding of experience and his emphasis on the existential and psychological dimensions of experience) can be solved by the hypothesis of a Nietzschean influence on Barth's epistemology in the 1920s. I defend not only the historical plausibility but also the conceptual fecundity of such a hypothesis, which casts a new light on Barth’s relation to philosophy and the notion of experience, and lays the basis for a consistent Barthian theology of experience. *** Theology is not a discreet slice of knowledge you could simply add to one philosophy or other. It exists nowhere but through philosophy, and that is why Barth’s theological innovation cannot manifest itself apart from philosophical innovation. Barth is not a philosopher, and he does not explicitly develop his concepts in a philosophical way. But Barth repeatedly claims we cannot grant theology an extraordinary status among human discourses. -
Theological Criticism of the Bible
Currents FOCUS Reformation Heritage and the Question of Sachkritik: Theological Criticism of the Bible Paul E. Capetz Professor of Historical Theology United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities New Brighton, Minnesota new era in Protestant theology was inaugurated with the publication of Karl Barth’s ground-breaking commentary ince Bultmann was a Lutheran on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (1919, 1922).1 This his- Atorical judgment is in keeping with the impact that Barth himself Swhereas Barth was a Calvinist, their hoped the book would have on his contemporaries. Negatively, debate in the matter of Sachkritik can he intended it to signal a break with the regnant historical-critical method of biblical exegesis (“historicism”) that had characterized be viewed as a modern reprise of the liberal Protestant theology in the nineteenth century. Positively, he aspired to recover the sort of “theological exegesis” of Scrip- earlier difference between Luther and ture exemplified by Luther and Calvin in the sixteenth century. Calvin. Distinctively twentieth-century Protestant theology thus began with Barth’s critique of one approach to biblical exegesis coupled with his call for retrieval of another approach. Both critique and mann perceived an inconsistency in Barth’s practice, since Barth retrieval stood in the service of his overriding concern to make had opened the door to Sachkritik in his Romans commentary the Bible central again to the preaching and theology of his own (even if he himself refused to walk through it, a point to which day much as it had been to that of the Reformers. Bultmann drew attention in his review). -
Luther and Beauty MARK MATTES
Word & World Volume 39, Number 1 Winter 2019 Luther and Beauty MARK MATTES heological aesthetics is not a pressing concern for most working pastors. But given that theological aesthetics is the theory of beauty in relation to God and howT the senses contribute to matters of faith, we see that working pastors, in their decisions about worship, do aesthetics far more than they may realize. Choices about music, images, worship space, and other artistic and liturgical matters quickly involve worship leaders in matters of beauty. Such decisions are important. Many who come to faith do so because faith is often something that is more caught than taught. That is, many find themselves attracted to the Christian faith, at least initially, less because it rings true to the intellect or fosters just social relations, and more because it grabs one’s attention, puzzles or strikes one with awe and wonder, and even leaves one speechless with how its story is presented in music, architec- ture, and passionate worship and preaching. Luther as Resource for Aesthetics? Most Lutherans are aware that they have a rich heritage in music and architecture. But it would seem that this heritage has developed almost in spite of Lutheran theologians, many of whom often assume that Protestantism has little to offer for a theory of beauty. This is because Protestants seem to favor words but not images, Following some twentieth-century scholars, it is often held that Martin Luther’s theology eliminates concerns about aesthetics and beauty from the Christian life and theology. But a detailed reading of Luther’s writings suggest that this is certainly not true, and that he in fact has a robust appreciation for how these elements are crucial to the Christian faith. -
Christianity and Liberalism
Color profile: Disabled Composite Default screen Christianity and Liberalism EERDMANS -- Christianity and Liberalism New Edition (Machen) final text Tuesday, March 31, 2009 12:33:19 PM 1 Color profile: Disabled Composite Default screen EERDMANS -- Christianity and Liberalism New Edition (Machen) final text Tuesday, March 31, 2009 12:33:19 PM 2 Color profile: Disabled Composite Default screen Christianity and Liberalism J. Gresham Machen, D.D. New Edition William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K. EERDMANS -- Christianity and Liberalism New Edition (Machen) final text Tuesday, March 31, 2009 12:33:19 PM 3 Color profile: Disabled Composite Default screen First published 1923 New edition published 2009 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. All rights reserved Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 / P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K. Printed in the United States of America 15141312111009 7654321 ISBN 978-0-8028-6499-4 ISBN 978-0-8028-6488-8 (Westminster Edition) www.eerdmans.com EERDMANS -- Christianity and Liberalism New Edition (Machen) final text Tuesday, March 31, 2009 12:33:20 PM 4 Color profile: Disabled Composite Default screen To My Mother EERDMANS -- Christianity and Liberalism New Edition (Machen) final text Tuesday, March 31, 2009 12:33:20 PM 5 Color profile: Disabled Composite Default screen EERDMANS -- Christianity and Liberalism New Edition (Machen) final text Tuesday, March 31, 2009 12:33:20 PM 6 Color profile: Disabled Composite Default screen Contents - Foreword, by Carl R. Trueman ix Acknowledgments xvi Preface xvii I. Introduction 1 II. Doctrine 15 III. -
65.Third Space
0IKVERHForeign Law in the Third Space *SVIMKR0E[MRXLI8LMVH7TEGI Pierre Legrand In this text, I explore a central protocol governing the articulation of knowledge within the field of comparative legal studies. Specifically, I focus on the fabrication of the ‘in- terface’ allowing the comparatist to structure his interaction with the foreign laws with which he desires to engage after having forged the view (readily stigmatized by formal- ists) that they could hold a significant and indeed crucial measure of intellectual and normative relevance for academics, lawyers, and judges operating locally – not, to be sure, as binding law, but either as apposite information or persuasive authority.1 I find it important to mention that the perpetration of the ‘interface’ by the comparatist inter- venes against his constant appreciation that no law can be re-presented except through the mediation of indicative signifiers and therefore against his ‘construction’ or, more accurately, his ‘invention’ of foreign law. (Etymologically, ‘invention’ helpfully attests to the fact that the comparatist at once finds and creates foreign law, that he simultane- ously discovers and configures it. In effect, what the comparatist names ‘foreign law’ in his report is what he inscribes as such, in words that he himself chooses and sentences that he himself crafts, having garnered ‘data’ from his necessarily selective aggregation out of the published information, his inevitably partial apprehension out of the amassed documentation, and his inescapably differential understanding out of the analyzed pas- sages.2 In the process, the comparatist readily depends on the views of individuals whom he is willing to regard as local experts – although it is far from clear how he judges a local author to be a reliable repository of knowledge in an area in which he himself, being from elsewhere, often cannot act as an authoritative source. -
German Protestant Theology Edited by Jon Stewart, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Now available from Ashgate Publishing… Volume 10, Tome I: Kierkegaard’s Influence on Theology – German Protestant Theology Edited by Jon Stewart, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources Tome I is dedicated to the reception of Kierkegaard among German Contents: Preface; Karl Barth: the dialectic of attraction and Protestant theologians and religious thinkers. The writings of some repulsion, Lee C. Barrett; Dietrich Bonhoeffer: standing ‘in the of these figures turned out to be instrumental for Kierkegaard’s tradition of Paul, Luther, Kierkegaard, in the tradition of genuine breakthrough internationally shortly after the turn of the twentieth Christian thinking’, Christiane Tietz; Emil Brunner: polemically century. Leading figures of the movement of “dialectical promoting Kierkegaard’s Christian philosophy of encounter, theology” such as Karl Barth, Emil Brunner, Paul Tillich and Rudolf Curtis L. Thompson; Rudolf Bultmann: faith, love and self- Bultmann spawned a steadily growing awareness of and interest understanding, Heiko Schulz; Gerhard Ebeling: appreciation and in Kierkegaard’s thought among generations of German theology critical appropriation of Kierkegaard, Derek R. Nelson; Emanuel students. Emanuel Hirsch was greatly influenced by Kierkegaard Hirsch: a Germanic dialogue with ‘Saint Søren’, Matthias Wilke; and proved instrumental in disseminating his thought by producing Jurgen Moltmann: taking a moment for Trinitarian eschatology, the first complete German edition of Kierkegaard’s published works. Curtis L. Thompson; Franz Overbeck: Kierkegaard and the decay Both Barth and Hirsch established unique ways of reading and of Christianity, David R. Law; Wolfhart Pannenberg: Kierkegaard’s appropriating Kierkegaard, which to a certain degree determined the anthropology tantalizing public theology’s reasoning hope, direction and course of Kierkegaard studies right up to our own times. -
A Critical Review of Some Contemporary Existentialists in the Issue of Relationship Between Religion and Science
ISSN 2039-2117 (online) Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences Vol 7 No 3 S1 ISSN 2039-9340 (print) MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy May 2016 A Critical Review of Some Contemporary Existentialists in the Issue of Relationship between Religion and Science Ali Almasi1 Seyyed Mohammad Musavi Moqaddam2,* Shima Mahmudpur Qamsar3 1Ph. D. of Islamic Studies Course, International Institute of Islamic Studies of Qom, Iran 2Hadith and Qur’anic Sciences Department, University of Tehran, Iran. * Corresponding author 3M. A. Student of Hadith and Qur’anic Sciences Course, University of Tehran, Iran Doi:10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n3s1p516 Abstract In the issue of relationship between religion and science, there are some different approaches that –according to the view of Ian Barbour- include: 1.conflict, 2. Independence, 3. Integration, and 4. Dialogue. Also the approach of independence contains some points of views such as the view of Galileo, Kant and Wittgenstein. In this regard, we can count the view of existentialists -who believe in distinguish of the method and goal of religion and science, as one of the views of independence. In current study, we are trying to introduce the view of three main theist existentialists about their vantage point in the relationship between religion and science and also to explain what is the mechanism that they reach to the distinction in the method and goal of religion and science? In that case, here are mentioned Soren Kierkegaard, Martin Buber and Rudolf Bultmann. But this is not the end of the story and finally there will be present some criticisms about their view. Also it is mentionable that one of the advantages of these critiques is relates to the combination of Muslim philosophers and the westerns. -
Why Resurrection?
Why Resurrection? Why Resurrection? An Introduction to the Belief in the Afterlife in Judaism and Christianity Carlos Blanco WHY RESURRECTION? An Introduction to the Belief in the Afterlife in Judaism and Christianity Copyright © 2011 Carlos Blanco. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any man- ner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Pickwick Publications An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3 Eugene, OR 97401 www.wipfandstock.com isbn 13: 978-1-60899-772-5 Cataloging-in-Publication data: Blanco, Carlos. Why resurrection? : an introduction to the belief in the afterlife in Judaism and Christianity / Carlos Blanco. xvi + 226 p. ; 23 cm. Including bibliographical references and index. isbn 13: 978-1-60899-772-5 1. Resurrection (Jewish Theology). 2. Resurrection—History of Doctrines—Early Church, ca. 30–600. I. Title. bt872 .b66 2011 Manufactured in the U.S.A. Contents Acknowledgments • vii List of Abbreviations • viii Introduction • ix 1 Theodicy: Philosophy of Religion and the Problem of Evil • 1 2 History and Meaning • 45 3 The Apocalyptic Conception of History, Evil, and Eschatology • 76 4 Death • 137 5 The Kingdom of God • 182 Bibliography • 217 Acknowledgments his book would not have been possible without the help of Tmany people from whose teaching and direct advice I have greatly profited. -
Introduction to the Writings of Søren Kierkegaard
UNIVERSITY OF COPENH AGEN FACULTY OF THEOLOGY Religion in Crisis University of Copenhagen Department of Theology / DIS Fall Semester 2017 3 credits Class Meetings: Tuesdays 12:00-14:30. Room: University of Copenhagen South Campus, room TBA Course Instructor: K. Brian Söderquist DIS Contact: Jakob Lorentzen, Program Director, European Humanities Department. Computer policy: No computers in class. No net, no texting during class. Course Content: In this upper division / graduate level course at the University of Copenhagen, we will explore the evolution of religious thinking in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, much of which was a response to the Enlightenment demand that religion justify itself in terms of rationality. Our goal is to gain a critical appreciation of the development of religious thought based on a careful study of a handful of highly influential texts by authors such as Kant, Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard, James, Bultmann, Jaspers, and Ricoeur. Questions like these are central: In a contemporary world in which religious myths can no longer pretend to be history or natural scientific explanation, how can religious narrative, doctrine, and experience be understood? How can the modern religious attitude be described? How can religious narratives play an existentially significant role once they have been abandoned as historically true? Readings: Completion of reading assignments as scheduled is required and is a prerequisite for participating in class discussions. Lectures and Discussion: In general, class will be a combination of lecture and class discussion. Class participation includes attendance and the quality of contributions that students make in class. Short Papers: Three small papers (4-5 double spaced pages) will be assigned during the course of the semester.