The Young Bultmann: Context for His Understanding of God, 1884-1925During his early life (1884-1925), Rudolf Bultmann passionately attempted to unite scholar and laity through his understanding of God, which developed in the context of his home and its love for the common people of the church; the legacy of Schleiermacher; Marburg Lutheran neo-Kantianism; the eschatological perspective of the History of Religion School; dialectical theology; and Heidegger's philosophy of existence. Bultmann always insisted that God reflected the inner forces of life within each human being. Over the years, however, Bultmann came to hold that Lutheran neo-Kantianism provided the basic structure by which to analyze, critique, and strengthen his understanding of God. In light of this neo-Kantian structure, Bultmann insisted that God could not be the formulation of any scientific, ethical, or artistic construction. In other words God could not be the object or manifestation of human reason in any form since God transcended human reason. Hence in 1925, through the assistance of the dialectical theologians and Heidegger, Bultmann presented his purest formulation of a neo-Kantian understanding of God: God as the spontaneous moment of encountering the dialectical forces within our existential being. |
Contents
The Marburg Experience | 43 |
A Bridge between a Popular and Scholarly | 71 |
Consistency in Bultmanns Thought 1920 | 101 |
Can We Meaningfully Speak of God? 1925 | 141 |
Epilogue | 157 |
| 205 | |
| 227 | |
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academic agrarian Berlin biblical Bousset Bultmann believed Bultmann Briefe Bultmann found Bultmann to Walther Bultmann's estimation Christ church conception concerning congregation critical dialectic theology empirical encounter epistemology Erfahrung eschatological ethical Evang existential experience Erlebnis faith Frühzeit God's gospel Gott Heidegger Heidegger's Hellenistic Hermann Cohen History of Religion human consciousness human existence ibid industrial J. C. B. Mohr Jesus Jülicher Junkers Karl Barth kingdom laity lecture Lemke letter from Rudolf liberal theology Lutheran neo-Kantian Marburg neo-Kantian Marburg University modern moral Moreover Nachlassverzeichnis Natorp neo-Kantian dualism neo-Kantian philosophy nineteenth century northwest Germany objectification Oldenburg pastor Paul Paul's Pentecost person political position preaching primitive Christianity Protestant reality relationship Religion School religious experience revelation Ritschlian Rudolf Bultmann Schleiermacher Schleiermacher's scholarship scientific semester social spirit student studies synoptic gospels tension Testament theologians tion traditional trans true religion Tübingen University understanding Universitätsbibliothek University Press Verlag Walther Fischer Weiss Wilhelm Herrmann young Bultmann