On Thesis I
I need only say how pleased I am that you have so clearly recognized my aims, and that you agree in principle that the mythology of the New Testament constitutes a very real problem.
On Thesis II A
I agree that my definition of "myth" is open to misunderstanding, but at the same time I am convinced that it is more satisfactory than the alternative you suggest ("By ‘mythological’ we mean the presentation of unobservable realities in terms of observable phenomena") For one thing, "observable" may prove too narrow a term and "unobservable" too broad, since all spiritual attitudes are unobservable. In mythology -- e.g. in the legends about the gods -- we constantly meet such unobservable phenomena as will, wrath, fear, etc. Hence the term
"observable" is just as misleading as "unworldly". The degree of elaboration in any given piece of mythology is irrelevant for its classification as mythology, whereas to define myth in terms of "observable" and "unobservable" tends to suggest the contrary. The New Testament pictures of heaven or of the resurrection of Jesus are, despite their reserve, just as mythological in principle as the corresponding pictures in Jewish literature or in the Gospel of Peter. It may be true that the result of modern atomic research is to convert natural phenomena into processes which are no longer accessible to observation, but those phenomena do not thereby cease to be
"worldly" in character.
You ask whether we can ever really dispense with myth. That is in my view an ambiguous question. Much of our ordinary language is based on mythology in any case, and there are certain concepts which are fundamentally mythological, and with which we shall never be able to dispense -- e.g. the idea of transcendence. In such cases, however, the original mythological meaning has been lost, and they have become mere metaphors or ciphers. As for mythology in its original sense, I maintain not only that we can dispense with it, but that it is essential to do so. You ask who would be so rash as to try and demythologize Plato. G. Krüger in his Einsicht und Leidenschaft shows that even Plato himself indulges in demythologizing.
When you say that natural science thinks in mythological terms, you are using the word "myth"
in an improper sense. After all, it is in the nature of things that the sciences should evolve a system of concepts derived from the visible world of time and space, for that is the world with which it has to deal. If any particular series of concepts subsequently proves inadequate, that does not make them "mythological" in the proper sense of the word. If science attributes natural phenomena to non-natural causes, it may degenerate into mythology, but then it will have
ceased to be science. But things have not reached that pass when it employs such concepts as
"totality" and "source". And when such terms are used in philosophy, they do not necessarily retain their original reference to the realm of time and space. I see no need whatever to say that the philosophers can speak of ultimate questions only in mythological terms, however
hypothetical their speculations must inevitably be. They may tell us that in dealing with such phenomena as "religiosity" or "humanism" it is irrelevant and out of order to inquire about the
"something" that lies behind them, and thereby protest against the conclusion that the only answer to all ultimate questions is the Nihil. If, on the other hand, they choose to postulate the existence of God in order to account for these phenomena, as Kant and Hegel did, and as Krüger has recently done, I would contend that it is really God they are talking about, not, however, in the mythological sense, but in the Greek sense of the Arché.
You appear to have been misled by Karl Heim. To point to revelation as the only solution to the dilemma is to labor from the outset under a false assumption about the answer of revelation to the question of faith, and to substitute a Weltanschauung for faith. The question which faith asks is quite different from that asked by philosophy or by the natural sciences. And conversely, the revelation of God in Christ gives no answer whatever to the questions asked by philosophy and the natural sciences. You say: "All our thinking leaves us with the question mark: has the
invisible ever been made visible, and if so, where?" That would seem to be the wrong question, at any rate if by "invisible" you mean what faith means by it. For the only invisible reality which science can seek is the Arché.
You doubt whether I am doing justice to the faith of the New Testament when I call Jesus "the agent of God’s presence and activity" (sc. towards us). Whether you are right or not will only appear from the subsequent argument. At any rate, it should be clear that I have done justice to the ephapax of the New Testament, from the fact that this characteristic is postulated precisely
of the unique, historical Jesus. The addition of "in a unique and final present" seems to me to lead to misunderstanding. But this will become clear when we deal with the thesis on
eschatology.
On Thesis II B
I deny that the Christian faith is for man intrinsically mythological. At any rate, it is not so for modern man in the sense in which I speak of the myth of the New Testament. You tell us that even when Christianity has been emancipated from myth modern man continues to reject it because it speaks of an act of God and of sin. But that is another matter altogether. Christianity is then rejected not because it is myth, but because it is skandalon.
I left the question as to whether it was mythological to speak of an act of God unanswered on, only to answer it later on. Of course a philosopher cannot in his official capacity speak of an act of God, for he never speaks of concrete events such as transactions between persons. All he can do is to show what is meant by personal event in general. But this is just the point at which he can help the theologian to find a non-mythological language in which to speak of God.
Similarly the philosopher can help the theologian to give a sound definition of aversio a deo. Of course he cannot identify his "Verfallenheit" with the theologian’s aversio a deo: only faith can do that. For it is only by faith that God is encountered as Person. Yet the only way to rescue aversio a deo from mythology is to show that it corresponds to a real experience in human life -- that in fact it is equivalent to the " Verfallenheit" of which the existentialists speak. This is
where I part company with Thielicke.( Deutsches Pfarrerblatt, 1943.) When we preach that life before faith is sin, we must show what life before faith is like, otherwise it is just a piece of mythology.
This is one of the crucial points in my restatement of the kerygma. Hence I am bound to say that to speak of faith in the living God and in his presence in Christ is pure myth unless these things are given an existentialist (N.B., Not "Existential".) interpretation. This explains why I deny that Christianity is intrinsically mythological. It would be true to say that natural man finds it to be pure skandalon precisely when it is made intellectually intelligible to him. The Christian
preacher can demand faith only when he has demonstrated sin and grace to be real possibilities of human life, and their denial and repudiation to be unbelief and guilt. It is the great merit of the existentialist interpretation that it makes this clear. Or perhaps it would be more modest to claim that such is my conviction, unless someone can show me a better interpretation.
On Thesis III
If we are to arrive at a satisfactory definition of forgiveness and freedom, the need for an existentialist interpretation again becomes vital. True, freedom, in the New Testament sense of the word, means facultas standi extra se coram deo, freedom from condemnation, freedom from
the bondage of the law, etc. But all this requires interpretation; these things must be shown to be real experiences in human life. The same applies to the judgment of God and to Christ as our freedom from the curse and condemnation. Otherwise all this is simply unintelligible
mythology. I am seeking to elucidate this freedom by interpreting it as the freedom of man from himself and his past for himself and his future. And it is quite legitimate to look for parallels in the other religions or in mysticism or in Goethe’s Stirb und Werde in order to show that man as man can know that the trouble with man is himself, and that in order to achieve authentic Being he must be delivered from self. Apart from such an interpretation the New Testament message of freedom remains utterly unintelligible. At the same time, by defining freedom as freedom from my own particular past for my own particular future, I have made my difference from Goethe and the mystics self-evident. For they speak not of freedom from the past for the future, but of escape from history into non-history.
This notion of freedom from the past does not in my opinion lack a qualitative reference, for it is concerned with my own particular past, with what I have made of my self under the illusion that self-hood is something to be achieved by my own efforts. Here we have your primal sin of rebellion against God. Similarly, the future I speak of is my own particular future in which true self-hood is received as a gift. The future is thus always extra me, and my past, my "old" self, is always present as a state of being forgiven. Deliverance is not therefore a vague kind of new ego. That is why I may rightly claim that faith means to open ourselves to the future.
I do not see why the terms of the argument should be reversed. If faith (and, after all, I did say so) is possible only as faith in the love of God, then "it is because and in so far as we have become the objects of God’s love that we are free from our past and open to God’s future". But there is no need to stress the contrast between our past and God’s future. After all, God’s future is our future too, and unless it is shown to be so it remains a myth. I agree with your remarks..
That is just what I am trying to put into effect by my restatement of the kerygma.
I would interpret eschatology and the day of judgment along similar lines. It is not enough merely to abandon the elaborate mythological symbolism, nor to define eschatology as that which lies "beyond the bounds of time and space". The only true interpretation of eschatology is one which makes it a real experience of human life. You say: "Our acquittal is Christ himself.
He is the embodiment of the righteousness of God. " But surely that requires interpretation. And such a metaphorical statement as "He incorporates his own in himself as a king includes his people" serves only to darken counsel.
Again, I asserted that eschatological existence has become a possibility because human life has been refashioned by the act of God. You say I should reverse this, but again I cannot see why. I do not deny that God and his impending judgment ("impending" in the sense that it confronts us already here and now) is the primary consideration. Nor do I deny that we can know the true nature of eschatological existence only through God’s revelation of himself in Christ. Our previous knowledge of it was but ignorance or error, but it was not purely negative, otherwise
the revelation could not convey any real knowledge. That revelation would not be a life- shattering event, but merely the imparting of information on the subject. It would be better to call it "suppressed knowledge" such as blossoms forth in a perverted form in mysticism and idealism.
Yes, indeed. Forgiveness shows itself in freedom from sin, and that in turn in obedience to the imperative. Of course, I do not mean that ethical renewal is the real end and forgiveness merely the means, for that would exalt the imperative above the indicative. There can never be a second moment parallel with or additional to justification. The whole gift of God is comprised in the forgiveness of sins. But I am quite sure that we will not understand this aright unless we insist that forgiveness is freedom from sin, not only from past guilt, but also from sinful behavior in the future. It is "access to God", certainly, but what do we mean by that? What does it mean in actual experience? Human life continues to be "historic" even when it is eschatological -- for that I take it is what you mean by "the eschatological judgment still lies in the future" -- and it issues forth in a new life. It is therefore controlled by the imperative. Through the gift of God
"Thou shalt" becomes "I will". We are "led by the Spirit". The peculiar quality of the indicative is manifested in its inseparable unity with the imperative, and vice versa. It was Karl Barth, I believe, who first charged me with substituting anthropology for theology. This is an easy misunderstanding of the existentialist position. Anthropology is here being used rather as Feuerbach used it, and existence is identified with subjectivity. Using "anthropology"
differently, I would heartily agree: I am trying to substitute anthropology for theology, for I am interpreting theological affirmations as assertions about human life. What I mean is that the God of the Christian revelation is the answer to the vital questions, the existential questions. But he is not the answer to the theoretical questions raised by the existentialist philosophers. That is why, in my opinion, you cannot write off existentialism as atheistic for not taking God into account. Such an objection is wholly irrelevant. After all, why should you take God into account? Are the existentialists raising the wrong questions? Is it impossible to analyze the meaning of existence in the abstract? I do not think so. They would be wrong if they tried to discover what gives meaning to my own particular existence. This question they rightly leave for the individual to answer for himself, and they do so just because they are concerned with the meaning of existence in the abstract.
Thesis IV A
First let me repeat that I do not mean that to be free from sin is something more than the forgiveness of sins. That would be a one-sided interpretation, as if it were no more than the blotting out of past sins. It may be that I have laid too much stress on the future reference of forgiveness, but I did not forget to insist that there can only be freedom for the future where there has been deliverance from my own particular past. All I need do is to elucidate what I said.
I agree with what you say.
I still maintain that the underlying assumptions of sacrifice as practiced in the primitive cults
and in the religions of classical antiquity (including the Old Testament) are incurably mythological. There may of course be nothing mythological in the belief that man must be
ready to sacrifice to the deity what is dearest to him. But such a belief becomes mythological the moment it ceases to be controlled by a true conception of God. Take for instance the case of a child being sacrificed in order to insure the success of an enterprise or to avert misfortune. Such a practice implies a crude mythological conception of God. It cannot be denied that a similar belief underlies the practice of sacrifice in the Old Testament -- the belief that God will accept the life of a substitute when the offerer’s own life is forfeit. The modern use of sacrifice in connection with the mother or the soldier is entirely different. In these cases the offerer is
himself the victim. He is not seeking to insure his own safety by offering a substitute, or to gain anything for himself.
The idea of atonement is juridical, and when applied to God mythological; so is the doctrine of satisfaction, which is at least echoed in the teaching of St. Paul. I cannot see how Isa. 53 and Dan. 7 make St. Paul’s assertions about the sinlessness and pre-existence of Jesus any less mythological. And to say that "Jesus entered into our deprivation from God" is in my view undeniably mythological, unless indeed you are prepared to interpret it. It makes no difference that the New Testament avoids all pictorial elaboration. The fact itself is still mythological, and still requires interpretation. And if that is the meaning of every pericope of the gospels and epistles, it is even more imperative to interpret it.
You say that no attempt is made to elaborate the picture of Christ’s enthronement and heavenly intercession. But that again does not make them any less mythological. It is true that the
variations in the formulae and the vagueness of the terminology is a warning that when we have stigmatized them as mythological we have not pronounced the last word on the subject: all the more need then for an interpretation in non-mythological terms. But you have not gone far enough to give us that. Above all, I cannot discover the hermeneutical principle behind your interpretation.
I must now confess -- and here perhaps the gulf between us is most obvious -- that the language of personal relationship with Christ is just as mythological as the other imagery you favor; that is, unless it is strictly conceived on the lines of John 14: 9 or of Herrmann’s "God is in Christ".
You ask: "What do we mean when we say that Jesus has entered into our deprivation from God?
What do we mean by a personal relation with the exalted Christ?" Your questions only go to show how mythological in form is the New Testament theology of the cross. It is highly significant that these questions come not from one committed to agnosticism, but from a Christian exegete. Surely you are confounding the stumbling-block of the mythological
language with the real skandalon of the cross, and the exegetical problem with that of faith. It seems that you are afraid to abandon mythology lest you should surrender the real skandalon with the preliminary stumbling-block.
You say "That sentence is intelligible and tolerable only because God has changed it into an