hi everybody fran here at new testament explained this video is going to explore rudolf baltman and in particular what he has to say about demythologizing the bible this as always aligns with edexcel a religious studies in terms of rudolf bultmann's background he spent most of his career lecturing in germany during the second world war like carbart he was a member of the confessing church that opposed nazism after world war ii butland became internationally famous doing lecture tours and publishing influential books baltman was ultimately trying to make sense of the modern world he wanted to rescue liberal christian theology as he believed the kerygma still had meaning for christians in the modern world ultimately bultman is a deeply influential figure in liberal christian theology in terms of what baltman believes then he believes that jesus and early christians had a mythological worldview and that contained beliefs such as the following the world has three stories a belief in supernatural powers such as miracles beliefs in the devil satan and evil as the cause of disease and that the world would come to the end through an apocalypse bultman says that modern people by contrast have a scientific world view so we look for naturalistic explanations such as of disease rather than supernatural what bultmann says in relation to these different worldviews is that the bible doesn't just contain mythological material it also contains philosophical teachings that a modern audience with a scientific worldview can accept importantly rudolph baltman was influenced by existentialism which is a philosophy that sees humans thrown into the world as free agents where god does not intervene and there is no afterlife humans are self-aware of concepts such as death but this sort of existence is confusing and frightening and as a result we attach ourselves to things in life that we have not chosen such as our family our age now portman believes this sort of life is inauthentic bulkman develops this idea by saying that humanity cutting off from the mythological world has made us more distressed scientific thinking teaches us to expect control but we cannot control everything and this leaves people feeling trapped with a sense of sorrow with a sense of anxiety butman is not all doom and gloom though he believes there is an answer to this issue he believes the new testament describes a program for living authentically and therefore the word of god offers a solution to modern life our question at this point should be how do we engage with the new testament so that it offers a solution for modern living faultman would remind us at this point that early and christian writers created myths about jesus so that others could understand his kerygma his message that's a problem for us as a modern audience because we have a scientific worldview and therefore we don't understand the myths for example we might take them literally or we might dismiss them all together therefore what we need to do to engage with the new testament and to interpret the new testament is we need to de-mythologize it by focusing on the meaning behind the myths and the meaning behind the myth is the kerygma the message the kerygma is not just ethics but an entire way of life and it's once we get to that that the new testament offers a solution for modern living that ends my video on rudolph baltman and demythologizing the bible thank you for watching and as always make sure to subscribe if you haven't already