833. According to Bultmann, faith ...

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According to Bultmann, faith is not a "worldview" (= Weltanschauung), although its contents can be explicated as such. In my terms, then, Bultmann's "worldview" may be said to refer to the system of beliefs that faith necessarily implies, even though it itself is always other and more than the believing of these beliefs, or the holding of these beliefs to be true, however sincerely.

But Bultmann also distinguishes faith from a "political program" (= politisches Programm) in something like the same way in which he distinguishes it from a "worldview" (see, e.g., GV 3: 190-196). Thus in his analysis and interpretation of the Greek understanding of man and the world, for example, επιστημή and πολιτική τέχνεη are treated parallel to one another, as the two ways in which the Greeks did in an exemplary way what all human beings seek to do -- namely, to overcome their anxiety in face of the enigma and uncanniness of life and to make the world a home in which to live (GV 2: 59-78). This is only appropriate, in my view, for faith not only necessarily implies certain beliefs that can become explicit through how one thinks and what one says, but faith also necessarily implies certain actions that can become specified through how one acts and what one does.

Of course, "moral program," or, simply, "program," would be the more appropriate parallel term to "worldview," since "political" properly used unnecessarily restricts the action, or type of action, involved. But the essential point remains that faith can be confused with, and therefore must be distinguished (although never separated) from, both worldview and program, both systems of belief and courses of action.

Rev. 22 February 1996