Bultmann: Towards a Critical Theology

Heidegger is concerned, in his writings on early Greek thinking, with the gradual deterioration of the understanding of aletheia in terms of logos, language, towards its understanding in terms of glossa, discourse or objectifying speech. This, for Heidegger, is a movement away from understanding, towards misunderstanding. It is this development that is at the heart of Bultmann's interpretation of the 'mythology' which came, in his estimation, to surround humanity's eschatological expectation. In other words, 'language' and 'discourse' in Heidegger's writings mean the same as 'language' and 'myth' in Bultmann's writings. When Heidegger moves beyond his transcendental analysis of Dasein in Being and Time, and bagins to speak of the event (Ereignis) of the ontological difference, he has a masive and lasting influence upon Bultmann's understanding of the event (Ereignis) of God's eschatological action in Jesus Christ, as the decisive moment of ontological importance for the individual.y