Quest of the Spirit: From Suffering to Acceptance

74. Living a Daily Faith: Bonhoeffer,Jung, Bultmann,Schniewind, Campbell!

       Rudolf Bultmann's Kerygma and Myth: On Faith and Choice Religious symbolism and terminology enhances the notion of man's moral quest against the supernatural force of the spirit world. Rudolf Bultmann's Kerygma and Myth explores this concept through its basis in Apocalyptic and Gnostic literature. Because western man is unfamiliar with many of these themes and concepts, he is more likely to have difficulty in understanding and accepting them. For instance, the religious symbolism found in the Hebrew redemption motifs presupposes an understanding which modern man must accept by faith. This mythical view of the world conflicts with the pragmatism of the current age, and therefore compels its students to believe blindly in a symbolic system for saving a lost person or society. As Bultmann observes, "The cosmology of the New Testament is essentially mythical in character. The world is viewed as a three-storied structure, with the earth in the center, the heaven above, and the underworld beneath. Heaven is the abode of God and the celestial beings—the angels. The underworld is hell, a place of torment. Even the earth is more than the scene of natural;, everyday events, of the trivial round and common task. It is the scene of the supernatural activity of God and his angels on the one hand, and of Satan and his demons on the other. These supernatural forces intervene in the course of nature and in all that men think and will and do. Miracles are by no means rare. Man is not in control of his own life. Evil spirits may take possession of him. Satan may inspire him with evil thoughts. Alternately, God may inspire his thought and guide his purposes. He may grant him heavenly visions. He may allow him to hear his word of succor or demand. He may give him the supernatural power of his Spirit. History does not follow a smooth unbroken course: it is set in motion and controlled by these supernatural powers" (Bultmann 1). This passage clearly suggests the pervasiveness of the spiritual warfare that is constantly occurring within the human spirit, and as Dietrich Bonhoeffer suggests in The Cost of Discipleship, only through one's faith in the supernatural power of God can a person overcome the obstacles in his daily life. Bonhoeffer affirms that obedience must come both before and after faith. There is no sequence or presupposed condition. Paradoxically, faith originates from God, and is given through grace to man, who in turn exercises it for God's glory, the culmination of which results in an even greater faith. Without God, no faith or obedience is possible. Thus, the greater gift is God's grace, which predisposes man for faith itself. Bonhoeffer, like Dostoyevsky and Tillich, encourages man to practice a faith of action. In his "reply to Bultmann," Julius Schniewind holds that man's reliance upon the supernatural myths of the New Testament plays the singular, most important role in man's spiritual transformation. As Schniewind suggests, "But is the human mind really capable of dispensing with myth? After all, we can speak of the invisible only in terms of the visible . . . Spengler was not the first to observe that all our scientific concepts are really myths; Karl Helm has been saying the same thing ever since 1905. Modern science appears to be increasingly concerned with the presuppositions and assumptions. What remains when we have rigorously eliminated every trace of mythology? Schniewind further observes that it is "the Christian claim that the eternal God has come to us in an individual man with all the limitations of time and space" which is "essentially mythological in character i.e. does it not speak of the eternal as if it were involved in time and space, and of the invisible as if it were visible?" In essence, faith in the supernatural power of God Is by nature mythological because of its being "the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things unseen." The notion of a perfect God communicating with an imperfect person, or even the idea that an infallible God would choose to suffer and die for sinful man clearly transcends the limitations of rational understanding. Concepts such as the Virgin Birth, the Trinity, the Incarnation, Redemption, Atonement, and Propitiation all defy human reasoning and therefore fall under the category of the scientifically inexplicable , or myth. As Pascal observed, "There is sufficient clearness to enlighten the elect and sufficient obscurity to humble him. There is sufficient obscurity to blind the reprobate, and sufficient clearness to condemn them, and make them inexcusable."Thus, the philosopher's paradox of a perfect God loving, suffering, and forgiving an imperfect world requires an even greater faith, or belief in the mythic or irrational, component of the human spirit, for only then can we communicate the Spirit of God.