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If Bultmann can say, in a short formula, that the real intention of myth is "to talk about human existence," he can also say -- in the immediately preceding paragraph -- that the real intention of myth is "to talk about human existence _as grounded in and limited by a transcendent, unworldly power, which is not visible to objectifying thinking_" (184 \[99\]; italics added). In fact, he says already in the programmatic essay itself that myth's "real intention \[is\] to speak \[not of human existence, which he does not even mention, but\] of a transcendent power to which both we and the world are subject" (23 \[10\]).

Also striking is the way in which Bultmann unhesitatingly insists that "if talk about God's act is to be meaningful it is not pictorial or 'symbolic' talk \[_sc_. designating subjective experiences\] but means to speak of an act of God in a fully real, 'objective' sense" (196 \[110\]). In a similar way, he simply takes it for granted that "faith makes sense only if it is directed to God \[N.B.: God, not simply God's act\!} who is real outside of the believer" (198 \[113\]).