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Even if the answer is yes, the fact remains that Bultmann rightly stresses the way in which religion as reassurance can be demonic, self-centered, idolatrous, and so on. No doubt part of the reason my own reflections on this question strike certain critics as one-sided is that I do not sufficiently stress this alongside all the positive things I have to say. I find it significant, however, that, even on Bultmann's analysis, the stilling of anxiety about life, which is the goal perversely sought by religion, remains the goal also of authentic faith -- albeit faith—albeit as transformed, in that it is not so much a goal sought as a gift received.

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