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Part of Demythologization: 1. General 2. Existential Interpretation 1. Nature. The idea of existential interpretation corresponds to the positive aspect of Bultmann’s hermeneutical project, just as demythologization expresses its negative side. “Myth”, he explains, “does not call for a cosmological interpretation, but an anthropological or rather an existential one . . . In the mythology of the New Testament, it is not the objective content of the representations in itself that must be studied, but the u…

Part of Demythologization: 1. General 2. Existential Interpretation 1. The problem. Bultmann was not the first to affirm the existence of myths in the NT. It was he, however, who centred the theological and exegetical problem on the question of the necessity of a demythologization. And it is because of what he sought to do that the problem of demythologization occupies many theologians and exegetes at the present time. The idea of the necessity of demythologization is already found several times in Bultmann's early works. It was in 1941, however, that he gave it systematic exposition under the title New Testament and Mythology. This lecture-manifesto was to have considerable repercussions. The discussions that it provoked are not yet over. The problem of demythologization still remains extremely topical. Bultmann’s fundamental idea was that of the abyss which separates the world in which the NT was conceived and expressed, from our own. The world-view to which the NT…