Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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While the basic message thus remains constant
and invariable, our presentation of it must
take account of, and be largely conditioned by,
the actual world on which our eyes look out
to-day. The Gospel is not for an age, but for
all time: yet it is precisely the particular
age--this historic hour and none other--to
which we are commissioned by God to speak. It
is against the background of the contemporary
situation that we have to reinterpret the
Gospel.'5'
Coming across the spectrum, Rudolf Bultmann and Karl
Rahner appear just over the midpoint to the left. They,
like the first three, gave priority to the historic
events of Christ, but were much more ready to 'translate'
those facts from their 'mythological' form to one
twentieth century man could more easily receive.
The call for demythologization, of course,
distinguishes Bultmann. Throughout his seminal essay,
"New Testament and Mythology," he set the standard for
contemporary New Testament interpretation (and preaching)
In terms of the modern mindset. 1 ° The church could
not expect its people to accept both the message and the
obsolete world view. 11 To do so would be senseless
and "impossible."1'
Translation must take place. Even so, the preacher
translates; he does not create his message. Behind the
translation, there is an unchangeable core. The
eschatological event . • •
does not mean the datable uniqueness and
finality of an event of past history, but
teaches us in a high decree of paradox to
believe that just such an event of the past is
the once-and-for-all eschatological event,
which is continually re-enacted in the word of
proclamation. 15