Jesus And The Word - SABDA

Jesus and the Wordreturn to religion-onlineJesus and the Word by Rudolf BultmannRudolf Bultmann was an outstanding scholar in the field of New Testament study. He was born in Germany in1884 and studied at Tubingen, Berlin and Marburg. During the Nazi domination, he took an active part in thestrong opposition which the churches built up. After the war he spent much time lecturing in Europe and theUnited States. This book was published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York in 1934 and 1958. It was firstpublished in Germany in 1926. This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted & Winnie Brock.Introduction: View Point and MethodIn strict accuracy, I should not write "viewpoint"; for a fundamental presupposition of this bookis that the essence of history cannot be grasped by "viewing" it, as we view our naturalenvironment in order to orient ourselves in it. Our relationship to history is wholly differentfrom our relationship to nature. Man, if he rightly understands himself, differentiates himselffrom nature. When he observes nature, he perceives there something objective which is nothimself. When he turns his attention to history, however, he must admit himself to be a part ofhistory; he is considering a living complex of events in which he is essentially involved. Hecannot observe this complex objectively as he can observe natural phenomena; for in everyword which he says about history he is saying at the same time something about himself. Hencethere cannot be impersonal observation of history in the same sense that there can beimpersonal observation of nature. Therefore, if this book is to be anything more thaninformation on interesting occurrences in the past, more than a walk through a museum ofantiquities, if it is really to lead to our seeing Jesus as a part of the history in which we have ourbeing, or in which by critical conflict we achieve being, then this book must be in the nature ofa continuous dialogue with history.Further, it should be understood that the dialogue does not come as a conclusion, as a kind ofevaluation of history after one has first learned the objective facts. On the contrary, the actualencounter with history takes place only in the dialogue. We do not stand outside historicalforces as neutral observers; we are ourselves moved by them; and only when we are ready tolisten to the demand which history makes on us do we understand at all what history is about.This dialogue is no clever exercise of subjectivity on the observer's part, but a real interrogatingof history, in the course of which the historian puts this subjectivity of his in question, and isready to listen to history as an authority. Further, such an interrogation of history does not endin complete relativism, as if history were a spectacle wholly dependent on the individualstandpoint of the observer. Precisely the contrary is true: whatever is relative to the observer -namely all the presuppositions which he brings with him out of his own epoch and training andfile:///D:/rb/relsearchd.dll-action showitem&gotochapter 2&id 429.htm (1 of 6) [2/4/03 12:30:42 PM]

Jesus and the Wordhis individual position within them -- must be given up, that history may actually speak.History, however, does not speak when a man stops his ears, that is, when he assumesneutrality, but speaks only when he comes seeking answers to the questions which agitate him.Only by this attitude can we discover whether an objective element is really present in historyand whether history has something to say to us.There is an approach to history which seeks by its method to achieve objectivity; that is, it seeshistory only in a perspective determined by the particular epoch or school to which the studentbelongs. It succeeds indeed, at its best, in escaping the subjectivity of the individualinvestigator, but still remains completely bound by the subjectivity of the method and is thushighly relative. Such an approach is extremely successful in dealing with that part of historywhich can be grasped by objective method, for example in determining the correctchronological sequence of events, and in so far forth is always indispensable. But an approachso limited misses the true significance of history. It must always question history solely on thebasis of particular presuppositions, of its own method, and thus quantitatively it collects manynew facts out of history, but learns nothing genuinely new about history and man. It sees inhistory only as little or as much of man and of humanity as it already explicitly or implicitlyknows; the correctness or incorrectness of vision is always dependent on this previousknowledge.An example may make this clear. A historian sets himself the aim of making a historicalphenomenon or personality "psychologically comprehensible." Now this expression implies thatsuch a writer has at his disposal complete knowledge of the psychological possibilities of life.He is therefore concerned with reducing every component of the event or of the personality tosuch possibilities. For that is what making anything "comprehensible" means: the reduction of itto what our previous knowledge includes. All individual facts are understood as specific casesof general laws, and these laws are assumed to be already known. On this assumption thecriticism of the tradition is based, so that everything which cannot be understood on that basis iseliminated as unhistorical.So far as purely psychological facts of the past are the objects of investigation, such a method is(for the psychological expert) quite correct. There remains, however, the question whether sucha method reveals the essential of history, really brings us face to face with history. Whoever isof the belief that only through history can he find enlightenment on the contingencies of hisown existence, will necessarily reject the psychological approach, however justified thatmethod is in its own sphere. He must reject it if he is in earnest in his attempt to understandhistory. In such a belief this book is written. Hence no attempt is here made to render Jesus as ahistorical phenomenon psychologically explicable, and nothing really biographical, apart from abrief introductory section, is included.Thus I would lead the reader not to any "view" of history, but to a highly personal encounterwith history. But because the book cannot in itself be for the reader his encounter with history,file:///D:/rb/relsearchd.dll-action showitem&gotochapter 2&id 429.htm (2 of 6) [2/4/03 12:30:42 PM]

Jesus and the Wordbut only information about any encounter with history, it does of course as a whole appear tohim as a view, and I must define for him the point of observation. Whether he afterwardremains a mere spectator is his affair.If the following presentation cannot in the ordinary sense claim objectivity, in another sense it isall the more objective; for it refrains from pronouncing value judgments. The "objective"historians are often very lavish with such pronouncements, and they thus introduce a subjectiveelement which seems to me unjustified. Purely formal evaluations of the meaning of an event ora person in the immediate historical sequence are of course necessary; but a judgment of valuedepends upon a point of view which the writer imports into the history and by which hemeasures the historica1 phenomena. Obviously the criticisms which many historians deliver,favorable or unfavorable, are given from a standpoint beyond history. As against this I haveespecially aimed to avoid everything beyond history and to find a position for myself withinhistory. Therefore evaluations which depend on the distinction between the historical and thesuper-historical find no place here.Indeed, if one understands by the historical process only phenomena and incidents determinablein time -- "what happened" -- then he has occasion to look for something beyond the historicalfact which can motivate the interest in history. But then the suspicion becomes most insistentthat the essential of history has been missed; for the essential of history is in reality nothingsuper-historical, but is event in time. Accordingly this book lacks all the phraseology whichspeaks of Jesus as great man, genius, or hero; he appears neither as inspired nor as inspiring,(Literally, "neither as dæmonic nor as fascinating.") his sayings are not called profound, nor hisfaith mighty, nor his nature child-like. There is also no consideration of the eternal values of hismessage, of his discovery of the infinite depths of the human soul, or the like. Attention isentirely limited to what he purposed, and hence to what in his purpose as a part of historymakes a present demand on us.For the same reason, interest in the personality of Jesus is excluded -- and not merely because,in the absence of information, I am making a virtue of necessity. I do indeed think that we cannow know almost nothing concerning the life and personality of Jesus, since the early Christiansources show no interest in either, are moreover fragmentary and often legendary; and othersources about Jesus do not exist. Except for the purely critical research, what has been writtenin the last hundred and fifty years on the life of Jesus, his personality and the development ofhis inner life, is fantastic and romantic. Whoever reads Albert Schweitzer's brilliantly writtenQuest of the Historical Jesus (Translated by W. Montgomery. London, 1910.) must vividlyrealize this. The same impression is made by a survey of the differing contemporary judgmentson the question of the Messianic consciousness of Jesus, the varying opinions as to whetherJesus believed himself to be the Messiah or not, and if so, in what sense, and at what point inhis life. Considering that it was really no trifle to believe oneself Messiah, that, further, whoeverso believed must have regulated his whole life in accordance

Jesus and the Word return to religion-online Jesus and the Word by Rudolf Bultmann Rudolf Bultmann was an outstanding scholar in the field of New Testament study. He was born in Germany in 1884 and studied at Tubingen, Berlin and Marburg. During the Nazi domination, he took an active part in the strong opposition which the churches built up.