Assensus fiduciae

Abstract

At least among Lutheran theologians, it is a common move to characterize faith (fides) as trust (fiducia). Rudolf Bultmann is a Lutheran - and his theology benefits and suffers from this line of thought at the same time. On the one hand a trust-based faith suggests one prominent option to circumvent what Bultmann critically refers to as 'orthodoxy'; on the other hand, trust has connotations that are at odds with other features of religious faith, that also play a major role in Bultmann's approach. - After introducing some crucial grammatical distinctions and their theological impact this article works out in more detail the different notions of trust in Bultmann's theology, his reason(s) for being interested in trust in the first place, and the concrete pitfalls he runs into by not relating very divergent aspects of faith. Moreover, the article gives a survey of this ramified theological scenery, alluding to the advantages of trust as faith's prior facet.