Chapter 4 - Existential ethics

Summary

And this burden is just what Jesus puts upon human beings; he teaches them to see themselves as called to decision – decision between good and evil, decision for God's will or for their own will.

(Rudolf Bultmann)

DIALECTICAL THEOLOGY

Rudolf Bultmann was a many-sided figure. His adherence to consistent eschatology indicated an affinity with Schweitzer. His emphasis on the religio-historical context of primitive Christianity denoted sympathy with the ‘history of religions’ school. In his concern to communicate the gospel to ‘modern man’, he evinced similarities to the liberal concerns of such as Harnack, whom he admired. His programme of existential interpretation and his hermeneutical understanding were indebted to Heidegger and others, while his ‘dialectical’ approach to scripture (as well as his emphasis on form criticism) made common cause with Barth, whose philosophical progenitor – among others – was Kierkegaard.

Barth's dialectical method operated on the basis that we can never speak of God except in terms of statement and counterstatement. All human language about God is inadequate. Every positive must be balanced by a negative. If we are under God's grace, we are also under his judgment. Indeed, as far as humans are concerned, the negative has leading force. There is no way forward from human ideals or the religious experience of humankind.‘Nothing in my hand I bring…’ Ethics is viewed in a similar light. There is no human goodness except in submission to God, no endorsement of Christian civilisation, no unqualified recognition of human achievement.