Page 65 - Pure Life 30
P. 65
/
64 International Multi. J. of PURE LIFE. 9 (30): 51-89, Spring 2022
(
Bultmann’s main idea was that being, and therefore to
much of the “New Testament” that extent a mythical
Christianity is mythical rather figure. But he is also a
than historical. In other words, concrete figure of history-
what has been narrated as the Jesus of Nazareth. His
life of Jesus should indeed be life is more than a
seen as a nonfactual story mythical event, it is a
that was fabricated using the human life which ended
elements that mainly belonged in the tragedy of the
to the pre-scientific cosmologies crucifixion. (Ibid 2000: 34)
of the ancient Jewish and This quotation shows the line
Greek world. (Bultmann, 1984) of Bultmann’s main project,
Hence, in his “Jesus and the i.e., demythologization, whose
Word”, Butlmann is seriously aim is to distinguish the
skeptic as to whether the historical Jesus and the Christian
“New Testament” could be message from its ancient
viewed as a reliable source mythical trappings and the
for Jesus’s life story. (Ibid, 1934) christological descriptions and
However, this does not mean legends. Bultmann argues
that the main figures of the that the modern scientific view
“New Testament”, in particular does not accept such a pre-
Jesus, are merely unreal beings scientific mythical worldview
fabricated by narrators. and so, “there is nothing to
He insists that do but to demythologize it”.
Jesus Christ is certainly (Ibid, 1984: 9).
presented as the Son of This means that instead of
God, a pre-existent divine
rejecting the Christian message,