817. bultmann

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According to Bultmann, "das Eigentumliche der christlichen Religion ist . . . daft das Heil fur den Menschen, daft das Gottesverhaltnis vermittelt wird durch die geschichtliche Person Jesu von Nazareth und ihr Schicksal." Later in the same essay, he says, "Nicht die Verkundigung eines neuen Gottesbegriffs ... ist das Eigentumliche der Predigt Jesu, sondern die Behauptung, daft die Entscheidung ihm gegenuber die Entscheidung uber Heil oder Gericht bedeutet" ("Urchristentum und Religionsgeschichte": 9, 18).
By "das Eigentumliche" here Bultmann presumably means the same thing that is meant by the Latin word "proprium"-namely, what peculiarly, characteristically belongs to something as its own. But, then, if one takes his two statements together, he evidently means to say that what peculiarly, characteristically belongs to Christianity as its own is its having accepted the very claim that peculiarly, characteristically belongs to the preaching of Jesus as its own-namely, the claim that decision in relation to him himself means decision for either salvation or judgment. To accept this claim as valid is to affirm at least implicitly that salvation, relation to God, is indeed mediated through the historical person of Jesus and his fate.
Interestingly, Bultmann speaks in the same essay not only of "das Eigentumliche der Predigt Jesu," but also of "[dlas Entscheidende der Predigt Jesu," which he says is this -"daft das Kommen der Gottesherrschaft bevorsteht, daft man ihr Hereinbrechen spurt, daft jetzt the letzte Stunde ist, die Stunde der Entscheidung und daft er selbst gesandt ist mit dem Wort der letzten Stunde, mit dem Ruf zur Entscheidung, daft also in der Annahme oder Verwerfung seines Wortes die Entscheidung uber den Menschen fallt"
(18). Clearly, what is said to belong to Jesus' preaching as peculiarly,
characteristically its own and what is said to be decisive about it are pretty
much the same. But insofar as there is a difference between them, the first
evidently lifts up Jesus' claim that his coming means the last hour for the
world, that decision in relation to him himself means decision for either
salvation or judgment, and so on-in short, Jesus' implicit christology. Thus,
while Bultmann speaks of "eschatology," or "eschatological preaching," as
"eine Eigentumlichkeit der Verkundigung Jesu" as well as of Paul and of
early Christian faith (10); and while he insists that it is precisely this, rather
than a new concept of God that is really new in Jesus over against the Old
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Testament and Judaism as well as in Paul and the early community over against Jesus (17 f.); what he takes to be "das Eigentumliche" in Jesus' preaching is the claim he makes for himself-for the decisive significance of his own proclamation as God's last word before it is too late (18).
18 November 1997