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Wiki MarkupBultmann allows, in replying to Karl Barth, that what he calls "the mythological" in the New Testament materially coincides with what used to be called "supernaturalism." But he avoids using this term, he says, because he would like to make clear that the salvation occurrence is precisely a "supernatural" occurrence," and that "in the radical sense" (Karl BarthRudolf Bultmann Barth-Rudolf Bultmann Briefwechsel: 183).

For at least one example in which Bultmann, in fact, uses the term "supernatural," cf. "NTM": 19 (NTM: 6) Speaking of "the common basis on which the question of decision can arise," he says, "\[T\]his is, in the first place, the world picture formed by modern natural science and, in the second place, our own self-understanding, according to which we each understand our self to be a closed inner unity that is not open to the interference of supernatural powers \ [supranaturaler Miichte\Mächte]."

5 December 2001