Rudolf Bultmann and Martin Heidegger

This is a subject that I find to be fascinating. The following is an exerpt from one of my papers and it is somewhat scholarly (in a podunk MDiv sort of way) so some may want to skip over it. It involves integrating Christian theology with a certain form of Existentialism (in this case, Martin Heidegger is the influence on Rudolf Bultmann's theology). Christianity is ultimately existential (Rom. 7, Phil. 3, Matt. 26-27, Psalm 51, etc.) but existentialism can be both a wax nose and a boogeyman. There have been many theologians who have strained Christianity through the zeitgeist (Thomas Aquinas being one) and some come out closer than others.- DOB

The second aspect of [Martin] Heidegger’s philosophy that influenced [Rudolf] Bultmann is the “Transcendence of Being.” Macquarrie expounds on this notion:

Being is the incomparable that is wholly other to every particular being and comes before them. Being is the transcendens that is nevertheless nothing apart from the beings in which it is manifest. Being is not static but includes becoming and perhaps even has a history. Being takes the initiative in addressing man, in giving him speech, in setting him in the light and openness. Being is gracious toward man and constitutes him its guardian.

In the Heideggerian sense, Being functions as a parallel to divinity. That which transcends human existence in the mind of the pre-modern is divine. That which transcends human existence in the modern is Being. Being or “existence” occurs in every moment rather than being limited to a linear development. According to Heidegger, there is a difference between an “authentic” and an “unauthentic” existence. Authentic existence is developed when they “accept the challenge of being thrown into the world.” Unauthentic being occurs when the individual loses the “distinction between self and the world.” This always happens at the individual level which makes it existential. It is this view which drove Heidegger to throw his support to the Nazi program (one assumes that he was ignorant of the atrocities toward the Jews at that point). There is an almost Kierkegaardian idea of “defining commitment” here.

Bultmann took this idea of Being and applied it biblically. According to his understanding, the unauthentic existence is searching for security in the world and attempting to seek solace in one’s own achievements. It is seeing oneself in terms of self without God. This is “sin”. Authentic existence, however, does not attempt to meld into the world. It is renouncing self-centered life and making a personal commitment to God. This is “faith” and it allows a new self-understanding to take place. In faith, one finds himself. This “faith” is the response of the Christian Kerygma or Gospel which is proclaimed by the Christian church. Thus, in Heidegger, there is the Transcendence of Being available to an unaided individual. In Bultmann, the Transcendence of Being is made possible by the Transcendence of the Kerygma, or Gospel. It is the preaching of the cross and resurrection as a salvation event. This salvation event becomes the experience of the hearer. Proclamation gives rise to faith which is unfettered by the crippling historical-criticism of the day. Bultmann writes;

As true obedience, “faith” is freed from the suspicion of being an accomplishment, a “work”… As an accomplishment it would not be obedience, since in an accomplishment the will does not surrender but asserts itself; in it, a merely formal renunciation takes place in that the will lets the content of its accomplishment be dictated by an authority lying outside of itself, but precisely in so doing thinks it has a right to be proud of its accomplishment. “Faith” – the radical renunciation of accomplishment, the obedient submission to the God-determined way of salvation, the taking over of the cross of Christ… - is the free deed of obedience in which the new self constitutes itself in the place of the old.