730. in interpreting bultman

scanned pdf

In interpreting BuJtmann, I have argued that, even on his own use, "selfunderstanding,
II or "understanding of existence," includes indefinitely more than an
understanding merely ofmyself, in abstraction from others, the world, and God. Thus I say, for example, that, in his view, "the reality ofour own existence precisely as selves or persons," which is "the reality always already disclosed to each ofus nonsensuously, in our own unique self-understanding," ... comprises vastly more than simply our own individual existence as ofany particular moment. It also includes not only our own individual past and future and all the other persons and things that encounter us, but also the transcendent reality that we experience as being ofultimate significance for us.
A few pages later, then, I adduce Bultmann's strong protest against a common
misunderstanding of "existence" as Ita merely anthropological, even psychological
concept." On the contrary,
... the existence ofwhich he speaks 'is in no way "the inner life ofa human being," which can be understood apart from all that is other than it and encounters it (whether the environment, fellow human beings, or God).' For 'human beings exist only in a context oflife with "others," only in encounters: and 'existentialist analysis endeavors to develop an appropriate conceptuality in which this can be grasped and understood as such.' This means that to exist as a human being is to be related understandingly not only to oneself and to the world of other persons and things, but also to what Bultmann usually speaks ofin such contexts simply as 'a transcendent reality' (eine transzendente Wirklichkeit), or, somewhat more fully, as 'an other, unworldly power that is not visible to objectifYing thinking' (eine jenseitige, unweltliche Macht, die dem objektivierenden Denken nicht sichtbar wird) ("Toward Interpreting the Language of Spirit: The Legacy ofRudolf Bultmann," in Language and Spirit: 94, 100).
Just how right this interpretation is, however, even I did not fully realize until I
recently reread what Bultmann has to say on the matter in the always instructive
Epilegomena to his Theologie des Neuen Testaments. So, just for the record, I quote his
statement here:
The most important thing, however, is that basic insight that the theological ideas ofthe New Testament are the unfolding offaith itself, growing out ofthe new understanding of God, world, and man---or, as it can also be formulated, out a/the new self-understanding-given in faith. For what is meant by the new self-understanding of the believer is not understanding in the sense of a scientific anthropology that objectifies man to a phenomenon ofthe world, but rather an existential understanding ofmyselfin unity with my understanding of God and the world. For I am myselfnot as an isolatable and objectifiable world
2
phenomenon, but in my own unique existence that is inseparable from God and the world (587).
16 January 2008