Myth and interpretation: Bultmann revisited

Abstract

The work of Rudolf Bultmann has, since its beginnings/ exercised a wide ranging and many sided influence on contemporary theologizing. But perhaps the most important of his influences in contemporary theology and philosophy is found in that aspect of his work for which he is almost popularly known, his programmatic concept of interpretation, demythologizing. Implicit in Bultmann's discussions of demythologizing are important arguments regarding the nature of religious language and theological statements,1 responses to problems in hermeneutical theory,2 and contributions to hermeneutics bearing not simply on scripture interpretation, but more widely on the development of a general theory of interpretation.3 Appropriating Bultmann's notion of demythologizing is a necessity for any contemporary theory of the interpretation of religious language. But such an appropriation need not be uncritical. In this essay, I will attempt a critical retrieve of one aspect of Bultmann's notion of demythologizing, namely, his beliefs about the status of religious-mythic language as interpreted in relation to a successful interpretation of its meaning. To discuss these beliefs is to discuss only one issue in Bultmann's notion of demythologizing, not the whole of that notion. Nor do I intend my criticisms of Bultmann's treatment of this issue to imply that some retreat from his general program of demythologizing is needed. Indeed, I believe that Bultmann's notion of demythologizing offers at least certain basics of a theory of religious language and the interpretation thereof from which no retreat is possible on the contemporary scene.4 But I shall argue that Bultmann's position on the issue mentioned requires critical redevelopment, and that this requirement is seen immanently in his development of that position itself. The data which Bultmann, as a theologian, focuses on as needing interpretation are the literature of received Scripture, particularly the New Testament This literature calls for interpretation radically be-