By Schubert Ogden
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Unless I'm mistaken, it is substantially the same distinction that comes to expression in HRN's typology of "forms of faith," in the case of the two forms alternative to radical monotheism, i.e., (1) pluralism or polytheism; and (2) social faith or henotheism. Underlying the first, clearly, are the same selfishness and presumption, the same desires for happiness and security, usefulness and profit, that Bultmann has in mind in distinguishing the first way of living according to the flesh. But it is just as clear that what underlies the second is the striving for security by means of some collective representation that Bultmann understands to characterize the second way. This becomes particularly clear from his interpretation of the criticism of religion in the Fourth Gospel, where religion is understood as precisely what HRN means by "henotheism," with its confusion of the "objective principle \[_sc_. of being\], or "the objective One," with "its image in the church," or with "that which makes them \[_sc_. a people of faith\] one and makes them different" (_RM:_ 59., 61). |
5 December 2006