It seems my last post on Bultmann got Jim West all riled up. However, to calm nerves I thought it best to simply qualify my point in the last post. I wasn't simply trying to say that there is something similar about Bultmann and popular Evangelical approaches to Scripture.
Not at all!
Calm down!
Besides, the historical Bultmann is now a figure covered in layers of myth. So rather than 'do the liberal thing', i.e. strip away the myth to reveal the historical kernel of the true Bultmann, I thought it best to demythologise, i.e. reinterpret those mythical categories for today's person. All we need to know is that Bultmann existed, and all these claims about him being an exegete are probably the construction of later communities as communities sought to express their faith through myths. So I need to find one who may approximate to the spirit evidenced in Bultmann, someone who handles the bible in a way that some may consider in some respects comparable. I need to find modern categories to express the pre-scientific myths that have built around the man, Bultmann.
Ergo, and all I wanted to say, is that Bultmann is Joel Osteen. That's all.
6 comments:
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That's me being speechless. I don't know what to say... I'm aghast.
One day when you begin writing books and articles I hope you are able keep this humor in it.
Blessings,
Bryan L
Chris,
You are more on target with this comparison between Bultmann and the existentializing tendencies of many of today's charismatic bigshots than you may realize. In the Oral Roberts University library, one of their Bultmann books (I don't remember which one) was donated to the school from Oral's personal library. The book was replete, on almost every page, with marginal notes written by Oral himself, mostly amen-ing Bultmann's existentialist appeals. (In fact, one of Oral's favorite phrases, when he preached, was "in the now".)
Bryan, Thanks! I'll try!
John, that is an astonishing story. I never imagined Oral reading Bultmann!
I got my audio Joel Osteen book! And this is the new one. Jealous, anyone?
Besides, the historical Bultmann is now a figure covered in layers of myth. So rather than 'do the liberal thing', i.e. strip away the myth to reveal the historical kernel of the true Bultmann, I thought it best to demythologise, i.e. reinterpret those mythical categories for today's person.
/Rolls on floor, laughs, dies.
Brilliant. **golf clap**
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