F O R U Mthird series 3,2 fall 2014

Foundationsand Facets

lane c. mcgaughy Preface 5

schubert m. ogden The Legacy of Rudolf Bultmann and the Ideal of a Fully Critical Theology 9

philip devenish Reflections on Konrad Hammanns

Biography of Rudolf Bultmannwith Implications for Christology 21

william o. walker, jr. Demythologizing and Christology 31

gerd ldemann Krygma and History in the Thought of Rudolf Bultmann 45

jon f. dechow The Gospel and the Emperor Cult From Bultmann to Crossan 63

Assessing the work of Rudolf Bultmann

publisher Polebridge Press

editors Nina E. Livesey

University of OklahomaClayton N. Jefford

Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology

editorial board Arthur J. Dewey

Xavier UniversityRobert T. Fortna

Vassar College, Emeritus

Julian V. Hills Marquette University

Roy W. Hoover Whitman College, Emeritus

Lane C. McGaughy Willamette University, Emeritus

Chris Shea Ball State University

James Veitch Victoria University

issn 08834970

Forum, a biannual journal first published in 1985, contains current research in biblical and cognate studies. The journal features articles on the historical Jesus, Christian origins, and related fields.Manuscripts may be submitted to the publisher, Polebridge Press, Willamette University, Salem Oregon 97301; 503-375-5323; fax 503-375-5324; westar@westarinstitute.org. A style guide is available from Polebridge Press. Please note that all manuscripts must be double-spaced, and accompanied by a matching electronic copy.Subscription Information: The annual Forum subscription rate is $30. Back issues may be ordered from the publisher. Direct all inquiries concerning subscriptions, memberships, and permissions to Polebridge Press, Willamette University, Salem Oregon 97301; 503-375-5323; fax 503-375-5324.Copyright 2014 by Polebridge Press, Inc.All rights reserved. The contents of this publication cannot be reproduced either in whole or in part, except for brief quotations in scholarly reviews and publications. Permission requests should be directed to the publisher.

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Contributors

Philip E. Devenish is the translator of Konrad Hammann, Rudolf Bultmann: A Biography (Polebridge, 2012). Having formerly taught at the University of Notre Dame and The Divinity School of the University of Chicago, he is at present the owner of Devenish Wines.

Jon F. Dechow, retired (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania), is a specialist in the historical foundations of early Christian dogma and spirituality. An update of his Dogma and Mysticism in Early Christianity: Epiphanius of Cyprus and the Legacy of Origen (1988) appears this year in the annual journal, Adamantius: Origen and the Alexandrian Tradition, sponsored by six Italian universities. He has been a Westar Fellow since 1985.

Gerd Ldemann is Professor Emeritus of the Theological Faculty of Georg-August-University in Gttingen (Germany) and Visiting Scholar at Vanderbilt Divinity School, Nashville, Tennessee. He is a Fellow of Westar Institute and has authored numerous books in the field of New Testament and Christian origins.

Schubert M. Ogden is University Distinguished Professor of Theology Emeritus at Southern Methodist University. A friend and supporter as well as a student of Rudolf Bultmann, he projected his own theologi-cal program in Christ without Myth: A Study Based on the Theology of Rudolf Bultmann (1961). He has also selected, edited and translated two volumes of Bultmanns writings: Existence and Faith: Shorter Writings of Rudolf Bultmann (1960) and New Testament and Mythology and Other Basic Writings (1984). His continuing critical appropriation of Bultmanns work is evident in all of his subsequent books, including, more recently, Doing Theology Today (1996) and The Understanding of Christian Faith (2010), which is to be published in German translation in 2014.

William O. Walker, Jr. is Jennie Farris Railey King Professor Emeritus of Religion at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He is the author of Interpolations in the New Testament, the general editor of HarperCollins Bible Pronunciation Guide, an associate editor of HarperCollins Bible Dictionary, and the author of numerous articles in the area of New Testament studies and early Christianity.

FORUMthird series 3,2 fall 2014

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Preface

The articles in this issue are based on papers presented at a special Westar seminar on the legacy of the renowned German New Testament scholar and theologian Rudolf Bultmann on November 16, 2012 in connection with the an-nual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Chicago. One of the many remarkable features of Bultmanns career is the fact that he envisioned a com-prehensive research agenda for the radical updating of Christian theology early in his career and systematically pursued this agenda through his monographs, articles, entries, and reviews for over sixty years. His groundbreaking research on Christian origins formulated most of the major issues that scholars have been addressing for the past generation. When asked how one might become engaged in the academic study of the New Testament, I usually reply that one could either enroll in a good introductory course on the subject or read through Bultmanns collected works.

The legacy of Rudolf Bultmann includes the work of the Jesus Seminar. Robert Funk and many of the Fellows can be characterized as Bultmannians. The historical critical method and criteria for distinguishing authentic units of Jesus tradition employed by the Jesus Seminar can be traced to Bultmann and his teachers. I was asked by Funk to respond to the criticism that the Jesus Seminar should have started with the deeds of Jesus, not his words, at a ses-sion of the Jesus Seminars on the Road in New Orleans on November 23, 1996 in connection with the SBL annual meeting. I started my paper, entitled Why Start with the Sayings?, by quipping: The quick answer as to why the Jesus Seminar started with the sayings is, because Bultmann did. The outline of his History of the Synoptic Tradition provided the ten-year agenda of the Jesus Seminar: I. The Tradition of the Sayings of Jesus...; II. The Tradition of the Narrative Material.1 Recent efforts to discredit Bultmanns critical conclusions about the Jesus tradition are thus also aimed at the work of the Jesus Seminar. My hope is that the 2012 Westar seminar on Bultmanns legacy will be followed with future sessions on the basic elements of his historical critical approach, for example, his form critical approach to analyzing the transmission of indepen-dent units of tradition during the oral period between Jesus and the Gospels.

1. Similar versions of this paper have appeared in four publications: The Fourth R 9,5/6 (SeptDec 1996): 1726; Forum new series 1,2 (Fall 1998): 38798; Roy W. Hoover, ed., Profiles of Jesus (Santa Rosa CA: Polebridge, 2002): 11727; and Bernard Brandon Scott, ed., Finding the Historical Jesus: Rules of Evidence (Santa Rosa CA: Polebridge, 2008): 7187.

The lead entry in this volume is by Schubert M. Ogden, the preeminent American interpreter of Bultmanns theological program. Ogden engaged in extensive correspondence with Bultmann and published an assessment of Bultmanns theology, Christ without Myth, already in 1961. Ogden is the University Distinguished Professor of Theology Emeritus at Southern Methodist University, where he taught from 19561969 and 19721993. Between 19691972 he was the University Professor of Theology at his alma mater, the University of Chicago. Ogden was a Fulbright Scholar and a Guggenheim Fellow in Marburg, Germany and is a past president of the American Academy of Religion. He has been an active member since 1984 of the International Buddhist-Christian Theological Encounter Group. In 1985 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ogden reports that Bultmann told Ogden that he and Van Harvey were the two American theologians who best understood Bultmanns work. Ogden agreed to present his paper on the ideal of a fully critical theology both to describe Bultmanns program and to sum up his own understanding of systematic theologyin this sense Ogdens article defines his own legacy as it contributes to Bultmanns.

A second reason for the Bultmann seminar in Chicago was to celebrate the release on November 12, 2012 of Konrad Hammanns Rudolf Bultmann: A Biography, translated into English by Philip E. Devenish and published by Polebridge Press. This comprehensive intellectual biography introduces a new generation to Bultmanns influence on Christian theology, and Devenishs article elaborates on the implications of Bultmanns program for Christology. Devenish frames his article with a note of irony: Bultmann argued that an interest in the person of Jesus or Paulor Bultmann himselfborders on idolatry, since all three were focused on their work or cause. Both the author of the Bultmann biography (Hamman) and the translator (Devenish) are systematic theologians and thus are fully competent to address Bultmanns intellectual formation and work. In addition, Devenish was a doctoral student of Schubert Ogdens and co-editor of a Festschrift in his honor, Witness and Existence, in 1986.

The article by William O. Walker is an updated version of an earlier one published in Religion in Life in 19651966 that assesses Ogdens critique of Bultmanns demythologizing program. It offers a clear and concise summary of the debate that flourished in the 1950s and 60s after Bultmanns writings became more widely accessible in English translation, and thus is also helpful in de-scribing Bultmanns intellectual legacy. Walker is the Jennie Farris Railey King Professor Emeritus of Religion at Trinity University in San Antonio, T