The Language of the Sacred

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The Language of the Sacred

• Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976)
• See Caputo, p. 80
• myth should not be interpreted cosmologically
• i.e., as an objective explanation of the world as
  it
  
• but anthropologically or, even better,
  existentially
  
• i.e. it explains our own lived experience of our
  world, with its possibilities and limitations.
  Mythical stories are more expressive of what is
  going on within a person than of the outside
  world as such.

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The Language of the Sacred

• Bultmann the cosmology (i.e., the conception of
  the origin and structure of the universe) that
  prevailed in biblical times is essentially
  mythical and now obsolete for modern people. No
  one any longer thinks of heaven and hell as
  spatially located above and below the earth.
  
• Many conceptions of god and the spiritual realm
  no longer adequately fit this stage either.
  
• Can we still adequately think of god as out
  there?
  

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The Language of the Sacred

• This certainly affects the understanding of
  traditional Judaeo-Christian expressions of the
  meaning of salvation.
  
• What does it mean to go to heaven?
• His basic question is How can bible readers
  retain the essential message of Judaeo-Christian
  belief without tying it to an outmoded view of
  the world.

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The Language of the Sacred

• Bultmanns answer
• We must demythologize the Bible we must cut
  through the mythical images that are used to get
  to the truth they express
  
• Hence the importance of the New Testament
  mythology lies not in its imagery but in the
  understanding of existence which it enshrines.
  The real question is whether this understanding
  of existence is true. Faith claims that it is,
  and faith ought not to be tied down to the
  imagery of the New Testament mythology .

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The Language of the Sacred

• The New Testament mythology, according to
  Bultmann, is infused with the dualistic thinking
  of Jewish apocalyptic and Gnosticism, both of
  which see the world in very black and white
  terms a present, material, evil world in need
  of redemption that can only come from the
  intervention of a divine being from another
  world.

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The Language of the Sacred

• Bultmann says that these views are no longer in
  sync with the way most people conceive of
  reality, but what remains important is what these
  images express about the human longing for
  authentic existence, not the images themselves.
  The images, in other words, need to be
  interpreted, not literally, but existentially
  that is, in terms of each human beings own
  self-understanding.

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The Language of the Sacred

• Bultmann created quite a stir he was hailed by
  many and severely criticized as well. But, while
  his solutions leave great room for debate, he was
  asking the right questions.
• In our day and age, we need to understand our
  myths for what they express. We can break
  through them factually, yet we can fully value
  what they say and how they say it as expressions
  of a more ultimate truth. This second-level
  thinking is in some sense, then, aptly termed
  re-mythologization.

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The Language of the Sacred

• Paul Tillich (1886-1965)
• A myth which is understood as a myth, but not
  removed or replaced, can be called a broken
  myth.
  
• Literalism (resistence to de-mytholgization)
  understands symbols and myths in their immediate
  meaning. The mythical is not distinguished from
  the literal. The myth remains unbroken.

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The Language of the Sacred

• Yet, there is no substitute for the use of
  symbols and myths they are the language of
  faith.
  
• They cannot be replaced or removed by scientific
  criticism they retain their power and truth as
  they are broken open.
  

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The Language of the Sacred

• Why do religious people hold on so dearly to
  sacred stories?
  
• Joseph Campbell gives us four reasons for the
  persistence and vitality of myth and story. (see
  C K, p. 68)
  
• 1. Sacred stories connect those who tell and
  preserve them with the sacred dimension of
  reality. As Campbell himself says, this first
  reason vitalizes the other three myth and story
  elicit and support a sense of awe before the
  mystery of being.
• 2. Myth and story order the cosmos they give
  coherence and meaning to the world I live in.
  
• 3. Stories shape memory and establish tradition.
  In doing this, they support the current social
  order and integrate the individual organically
  with his group. In other words, they hold a
  society together.
• 4. Finally, in connection with 3, myth and story
  have an ethical function. Individuals within the
  group (and the group as a whole) measure
  themselves behaviorally against paradigmatic
  stories.

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The Language of the Sacred

• Caputo, p. 68 see Exodus 3219-20
• Romantic Reaction (p. 72)
• The religion of Star Wars
• The Force