821. If Bultmann can say, in a short formula ...

scanned pdf

If Bultmann can say, in a short formula, that the real intention of myth is "to talk about human existence," he can also say -- in the immediately preceding paragraph -- that the real intention of myth is "to talk about human existence as grounded in and limited by a transcendent, unworldly power, which is not visible to objectifying thinking" (184 [99]; italics added). In fact, he says already in the programmatic essay itself that myth's "real intention [is] to speak [not of human existence, which he does not even mention, but] of a transcendent power to which both we and the world are subject" (23 [10]).

Also striking is the way in which Bultmann unhesitatingly insists that "if talk about God's act is to be meaningful it is not pictorial or 'symbolic' talk [sc. designating subjective experiences] but means to speak of an act of God in a fully real, 'objective' sense" (196 [110]). In a similar way, he simply takes it for granted that "faith makes sense only if it is directed to God [N.B.: God, not simply God's act!} who is real outside of the believer" (198 [113]).

5 May 1997