Luther, Barth, and Movements of Theological Renewal (1918-1933) by Heinrich Assel Bruce L. McCormack

Author:Heinrich Assel, Bruce L. McCormack
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: De Gruyter
Published: 2020-08-10T02:13:37.891000+00:00

The What

The How

Empirical Form

Christ

word

Existential Effect

life

faith

Schematizing Bultmann’s interpretation of revelation this way does not mean we can cleanly separate these concepts. Indeed, the point of this analysis is that each term necessarily implies all of the others. Christ is a historical fact, but this fact is only revelation insofar as it gives life; and one only receives eternal life insofar as revelation evokes faith, which takes place in response to the word of proclamation; and this word only grants faith insofar as Christ is present in it, and so on. Bultmann thus treats Christ, life, word, and faith as virtual synonyms, since each is an aspect or mode of the singular event of revelation.42

The dual or dialectical character of revelation as simultaneously objective and subjective leads Bultmann to Luther. If both the empirical forms and existential effects are ontologically located in the singular event of revelation itself, then not only are the forms-as-revelation hidden from the eyes of the world, but the effects-as-revelation do not subsist in themselves outside of the event. Life and faith do not become properties of the person who encounters revelation. For this reason “the understanding of the Reformers is correct: righteousness is ‘imputed’ to us as iustitia aliena.” Bultmann clarifies that this does not mean “justified sinners are ‘seen only as if’ they were righteous. No! They are righteous.”43 But this righteousness or life, like the revelatory significance of Christ, is actual only in the event itself, and thus only for faith. Revelation, like justification, is present and real (the what), but hidden and eschatological (the how). The hiddenness of revelation means that revelation is always existential, and the only way to speak of God’s revelation is, as Bultmann said two years earlier, by speaking of ourselves in our encounter with God. Bultmann finds support for this in Luther’s understanding of the knowledge of God as a going-into-ourselves:

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