By Schubert Ogden
1.
How faithfully Bultmann follows Luther could hardly be clearer than from a comparison of his statements about the existentialist and Luther's "Freedom of a Christian."
2.
Having distinguished man's "bodily nature," according to which he is called "a carnal, outward, or old man," and man's "spiritual nature," according to which he is called "a spiritual, inner, or new man," Luther goes on to argue that "no external thing has any influence in producing Christian righteousness or servitude" (LW 31: 344 f.). But then "to put aside all kinds of works, even contemplation, meditation, and all that the soul can do" -- in short, to make clear that not even the inner man is decisive in the matter of righteousness and freedom -- Luther is insistent that "one thing, and only one thing, is necessary for Christian life, righteousness, and freedom," namely, "the most holy Word of God, the gospel of Christ." "The soul can do without anything except the Word of God" (345).
3.
But isn't this exactly Bultmann's point when he says: "modern man also attempts to understand his existence through objectifying thinking (insofar as, not being an 'existentialist,' he has not already got beyond doing this). For him, the genuine scandal lies in his being expected not to conceive himself by objectifying thinking, which is in fact always a striving after security. The thrust of New Testament thinking, so far as it is opposed to that of modern man, lies precisely in its breaking down man's security and showing him that he can exist in a genuine way only by surrendering his own security and existing out of the grace of God. The real scandal is at bottom one given to the will, and is a scandal for thinking only insofar as the will explicates itself in thinking! (Naturally, the scandal is the same for the existentialist insofar as he secures himself, not through objectifying thinking, but through his free resolve.)" (Barth -- Bultmann Briefwechsel: 176)?
4.
In other words, just as Luther shifts the ground for man's righteousness away from the inner as well as the outer man to the word of God, so Bultmann shifts it away from a human being's resolve as well as her or his objectifying thinking, to God's grace.
n.d.; rev. 25 January 2002