New Testament Mythology and Other Basic Writings

The hermeneutic of Rudolf Bultmann, to which the Marburg theologian gave definitive expression in this collection of essays, is extraordinarily important not only for study of the New Testament but also for theory of interpretation in general.Bultmann's central thesis is that, in order for utterance to attain meaning, it has to be shareable. That a message would lend itself to being shared, then, is crucial, according to Bultmann.This shareability, Bultmann explains, works itself out practically in the sense of translatability. That is, one utterance, one set of terms, takes on meaning to the extent that we can translate it into another idiom, another set of terms. For example, the apocalyptic language of early Christianity, far from being a dead letter or an irrelevant issue, continues to be alive because we can translate it into another idiom, the idiom of our coming to the end of our mortal existence and the contraints this fact places upon us in the urgency to "redeem the time." I highly recommend this collection of essays to historians, psychologists, linguists, philosophers, theologians, and anyone concerned with the problem of interpretation.

This is a classic work of 20th century theology. It is a must read for anyone who wants to take the New Testament seriously and still remain in the modern world view.