The Crisis in Modern Theology

Abstract

In talking about a crisis in modern theology the reference is, mainly, to Protestant theology — though this is not to underestimate the range of its implications. More specifically, it relates to the so-called ‘revolution’ in this discipline which saw its inception with the publication, in 1942, of Rudolf Bultmann’s manifesto, New Testament and Mythology.1 Other important theological thinkers, most notably, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Paul Tillich — as too, at a more popular level, (Bishop) John A. T. Robinson — are also intimately bound up with this challenge. More recently, again, the name of (Bishop) David Jenkins may be added to this constantly expanding list. Notwithstanding, and without underestimating, the innovativeness of these writers, the real interest of what they have to say, certainly with regard to the present discussion, still revolves around the claims of Bultmann. To this extent, what follows is centred mainly around the views of this latter with only incidental (though sometimes extensive) reference to other writers associated with his famous stand.