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(1) Bultmann quite fails to distinguish clearly and sharply, as one must, between the indirect form of Christian witness properly called "Christian teaching," on the one hand, and "Christian theology," properly so-called, on the other. (I might add that, in this response, at least, he also fails to distinguish sufficiently clearly between the direct and the indirect forms of Christian witness itself. It's one thing to proclaim "Christian doctrine," as he says, it's something else to proclaim "Jesus Christ," as he more typically says elsewhere. And it is not the first thing, but one of the two forms of the second that is rightly called "preaching"!)

Wiki Markup(2) Bultmann quite fails to recognize, as one must, that the task of theology, as much as any of the other tasks he assigns to "every Christian," also belongs to the church as such, and so to each and everyone of its members. (True as it may be that what people look to the minister for is "theology" \ -\- hopefully, as something distinct from, not simply the same as "teaching \ [_Belehrung_\]"\! \ -\- what they want, or, at any rate _should_ want, is leadership in doing what they themselves must already be engaged in doing in direct proportion to the understanding and seriousness with which they are pursuing their calling as Christians.)

1 December 2001