Finding the Shards #17
Bultmann's program for interpreting the New Testament set the pace. He recognized that early Christians were influenced by the world of late antiquity in which they lived and that they expressed themselves in terms of its mythologies. He therefore proposed a program of demythologization, or a restatement of the meaning of the early Christian message in language that was not mythological. Bultmann thought that the modern philosophy of existentialism was capable of handling such a translation. According to Bultmann, the message of early Christianity was most profoundly expressed in the Pauline kerygma and the Gospel of John. Reduced to existential categories, the message was a pronouncement of freedom from one's past and a call to be radically open to one's future. In essence, the Christian message was an invitation to decide in favor of "authentic" human "existence." This unleashed an epoch of unprecedented debate about the reference of religious language in early Christianity. The question of the historical Jesus was simply sidetracked.