Rudolf Bultmann

• 1. Early Life And Education

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  Rudolf Karl Bultmann was born on the 20th of August 1884 in Wiefelstede, Oldenburg. His father Arthur Kennedy Bultmann served as a Lutheran minister. The young Rudolf completed his Abitur at the Altes Gymnasium in Oldenburg before entering university. He began theological studies at Tübingen but left after three terms. He then spent two terms at the University of Berlin and finally moved to Marburg for two more terms. In 1910 he received his degree from Marburg with a dissertation on the Epistles of St Paul. Johannes Weiss supervised this early work while Hermann Gunkel and Wilhelm Heitmüller also taught him. Two years later he submitted his habilitation and became a lecturer on the New Testament at Marburg.

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• 2. Marburg Professorship And Personal Life

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  Bultmann returned to Marburg in 1921 as a full professor and remained there until his retirement in 1951. He married Helene Feldmann on the 6th of August 1917. The couple had three daughters together. Helene died in 1973 leaving him alone for the final three years of his life. During World War II he took Uta Ranke-Heinemann into his family home from autumn 1944 until the end of the war in 1945. She had fled bombs and destruction in Essen. His doctoral students included Hans Jonas, Ernst Käsemann, Günther Bornkamm, Helmut Koester, and Ernst Fuchs. He also taught Hannah Arendt who would become a major political theorist. These relationships shaped the next generation of biblical scholars.

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• 3. Philosophical Dialogue With Heidegger

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  Martin Heidegger taught at Marburg for five years while Bultmann was establishing himself as a theologian. Their friendship created a sort of comradery grounded on an active and open dialogue between them from 1923 to 1928. Heidegger's views on existentialism influenced Bultmann's thinking significantly. This intellectual exchange led to what became known as dialectical theology within Protestant circles. Bultmann stated that his views could not simply be reduced to thinking in Heideggerian categories. He insisted that the New Testament is not a doctrine about human nature but a proclamation of God's liberating act. The philosopher Hans Jonas developed hermeneutic procedures that further refined this approach during his exile from Nazi Germany.

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• 4. Resistance Against Nazism

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  Bultmann became critical of Nazism from the beginning of its rise to power. His career between 1933 and 1941 was marked by struggles with Nazis regarding their influence upon universities and the Protestant Church. He did not directly denounce antisemitism because he held that the Church could not expect the Nazi State to be Christian. However he objected to claims that the state had authority over all aspects of German life including churches. After Martin Heidegger gave his pro-Nazi rectorial address in 1933 Bultmann preached that such actions were unChristian. He particularly rejected the Aryan paragraph which disenfranchised racially Jewish people from civic organizations and clergy positions. He joined the Confessing Church movement that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to unify all Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi Reich Church.

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• 5. Form Criticism Methodology

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  His History of the Synoptic Tradition published in 1921 remains highly influential as a tool for biblical research today. Bultmann defined form criticism as the process to determine the original form of narrative units or dominical sayings. This method allows scholars to distinguish secondary additions and forms within texts. In 1941 he applied this technique to the Gospel of John distinguishing a lost Signs Gospel on which John depended. His monograph Das Evangelium des Johannes became a milestone in research into the historical Jesus despite being controversial at the time. The approach called attention to how early Christian literature showed little interest in specific locations. It shifted focus away from traditional rhetorical pericopes toward understanding the history of tradition itself.

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• 6. Demythologization Strategy

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  In 1941 his lecture New Testament and Mythology: The Problem of Demythologizing the New Testament Message called on interpreters to demythologize the text. He argued for replacing supernatural biblical interpretations with temporal and existential categorizations. Bultmann believed it was impossible to repristinate a past world picture by sheer resolve especially now that all thinking is formed by science. A blind acceptance of New Testament mythology would be arbitrary and reduce faith to a work. He sought to make the significance of Jesus' teachings accessible to modern audiences already immersed in science and technology. Faith must become a present-day reality rather than an ancient proof. He stated that salvation occurs only through an act of God freeing people from factual fallenness in the world.

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• 7. Legacy And Scholarly Criticism

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  Bultmann died on the 30th of July 1976 in Marburg after living quietly there following his retirement. His students developed two major movements within what became known as the Bultmann school. Ernst Käsemann raised the question of the historical Jesus in 1954 while others like Ernst Fuchs and Gerhard Ebeling created new hermeneutics. Posthumously his approach has faced increasing criticism from theologians including Larry Hurtado and John P. Meier. Bart D. Ehrman noted that no more form critics agree with Bultmann's theories today. Werner H. Kelber claimed that main assumptions underlying Synoptic Tradition must be considered suspect. Conservative scholars like Klaus Berger and Craig Blomberg challenged his skeptical approach to the New Testament. Martin Hengel Richard Bauckham and Brant J. Pitre reasserted traditional theory that Gospels were written by eyewitnesses.

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