The Revival of the Belief in a Last Judgment in the Existential Theology of Rudolf Bultmann De actualisering van het geloof in een laatste oordeel in het existentiële perspectief van Rudolf Bultmann

Abstract

In the New Testament, the belief that the last judgment would arrive soon was paired with an ethical appeal to change one’s attitude or way of life. However, with the expectation of an imminent judgment fading, this connection weakened. This paper investigates whether the existential theology of Rudolf Bultmann offers an inter-pretation that manages to actualise belief in a last judgment for the present day. Bultmann interprets the core meaning of judgment to be that God, with the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, opens the possibility for a new form of true existence for every individual who submits to it. This conception indeed implies an existential importance of the belief in an eschatological judgment for human life in the present. However, a more exact interpretation of the rather abstract notion of this form of true existence seems hard to describe and therefore leaves the question somewhat open.