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The New Testament

Satisfactory Essays

For Bultmann the New Testament writings are filled with the remnants of a mythological view of the world based primarily on Jewish Apocalyptic ideas and Gnosticism. This causes the church to unreasonably demand that its converts accept this mythology, despite the fact that the advances in science have made it impossible for this viewpoint to be held any longer. Bultmann allows that the myths of the New Testament, while factually untrue, may communicate certain truths of real value. The question then for Bultmann is, is there a truth to the gospel beyond the false mythology it assumes (3)? Bultmann maintains that for the church to take the stance that a person must believe the mythology the New Testament message is couched in would be for them to change faith into works. Here he seems to make a simple error. Faith is not some amorphous feeling one has, it must have substance. You must have faith in something or else what you have is not faith. As such, to maintain one must have faith in what Bultmann considers to be mythology is not to make faith works, it is to advocate for faith in a specific thing. A more realistic concern of Bultmann 's is that such acceptance would entail a divided existence for the person so inclined, who would be unable to live in the modern world under such a primitive world view. The advances in science and technology are such that they have made nonsense of the majority of the truths contained in the creeds of the church. Our knowledge of the world

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