By Schubert Ogden
The Notebooks of Schubert Ogden
Having realized that Bultmann understands "the true scandal" to have two distinguishable aspects, I have become sensitive to his in effect expressing such an understanding even where the true scandal explicitly as such is not even referred to.
Thus, for example, he can say, "Everything, possessions and family, education and law, nation and state, can become sin at man's hands, i.e., it can become a means for [1] pursuing his own interests [sc. contrary to God's commandment(s)] and [2] disposing of his existence [sc. so as to secure himself, instead of obediently accepting the security that God alone can provide]" (Existence and Faith: 160; cf. also 162, where Bultmann refers to "that sinful self-understanding in which man wills [1] to pursue his own interests and [2] to dispose of his existence").
25 November 2001
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