By Schubert Ogden
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At the heart of Bultmann's response to the question about the reform of theological studies is an understanding that converges closely with my own of (1) the relation between life and science; and (2) the proper office of the ministry that converges closely with my own. I find this convergence particularly clear in the following passage on the first point.
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"What should actually occur in the praxis for which the science of theology is the preparation? The minister as minister is not there for all sorts of loving activity, for Christian education, for counsel and consolation in all possible situations. In all such matters, if things are right, every person and Christian should be ready to be of help to the other. And if a claim to perform them is also often made on the minister, and if he does not wish to decline his service, he still ought to know that this is not his proper office. His proper office is the proclamation of Christian doctrine, preaching, even if, in modern life, this office can be discharged not only from the pulpit but in many different forms. And, in fact, this is also what people basically want from the minister: not a practical service in the usual sense, but instruction, theology. They want to know how it is with a man and his soul, with God and the world, with life and death -- not in order to be able to do something practical rightly, but in order to gain clarity about themselves, about the meaning of their life. Basically, they want to understand themselves. And in truth this is not at all a theoretical need in the usual sense, but a genuinely practical one. For without understanding oneself, one cannot live in a genuine sense, and one's life becomes a pointless busyness.
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(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 every one 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.)
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