Rudolf Karl Bultmann (1884-1976)

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Rudolf Karl Bultmann (1884-1976)

Rudolf Karl Bultmann (1884-1976) was born on August 20th in

Wiefelstede, in (what was then known as) the grand duchy of Oldenburg.

His father, Arthur Bultmann, was an Evangelical-Lutheran pastor, his

paternal grandfather a missionary to Africa, and his maternal

grandfather a pastor of the pietistic tradition. Thus, young Rudolf

came from a family line heavily invested in the theological milieu of

his time. This family's gradual move toward Protestant

liberalism-especially on the part of his father-would prove to have a

significant impact on this young theologian-to-be.

Rudolf's education began at the humanistic Gymnasium at Oldenburg;

incidentally, he studied concurrently with the philosopher-to-be, Karl

Jaspers, who was only a few grades ahead of young Bultmann. Following

his graduation, he studied theology at the Universities of Tübingen,

Berlin, and Marburg, respectively. It is important to note that all

three of these institutions were heavily committed to liberal

theology. His greatest influence came from Marburg, including the

systematic and liberal theologian Wilhelm Hermann and New Testament

scholars Johannes Weiss and Wilhelm Heitmüller of the

history-of-religions school.

Bultmann received his doctorate in 1910 from Marburg and, two years

later, qualified as an instructor at his alma mater. In 1916, he

accepted an assistant professorship at Breslau, where he married and

had two daughters. Four years later he went to Giessen for his first

full professorship. Only one year later, however, he returned to

Marburg where he accepted his last full professorship, succeeding

Heitmülle...

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... of every mythological story from the New Testament. Rather, it is a

method of interpretation that recognizes mythology and rejects any

attempts to ascribe ultimate significance to it. As such,

demythologizing is only the negative step of a more comprehensive

method of interpretation that Bultmann had been propounding for many

years before he introduced the word "demythologize", the

existentialist interpretation of scripture. For example, returning to

the example of the Jesus' eschatology described above, Bultmann

demythologizes the eschatology of Jesus so that his existentialist

analysis can uncover its real meaning and significance. For Bultmann,

the 'No' of demythologization exists only for the positive work of the

existentialist interpretation, the rendering "clear the call of the

Word of God" (Bultmann 1991, 304).

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