Deworlded within the World: Bultmann's Paradoxical Politics in an Age of Polarization

Abstract

Rudolf Bultmann has long been criticized for failing to reflect theologically on political life, and even for developing an apolitical theology that many consider to be supportive of the political status quo. This article challenges that reading by examining Bultmann's account of eschatological existence as a form of social identity set in contrast to what he regarded as the gnostic form of identity: an apocalyptic mode of existence that separates between an objectively redeemed community and an unredeemable world. The gnostic bifurcation between in-group and out-group represents a kind of social polarization that Bultmann rejects in favor of a paradoxical form of existence that is “deworlded within the world.” Bultmann's theology generates a paradoxical politics that becomes highly relevant in light of the apocalyptically polarized nature of contemporary American political life.