Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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himself be crucified with Christ." New Testament Theology.
1:303.)
9Bultmann, New Testament Theology. 1:294,95. (Cf.
this Bultmann statement: "To believe in the cross of Christ
. . . mean[s] . . . to make the cross of Christ our own, to
undergo crucifixion with him," to die to the world of
visible security. "New Testament and Mythology," in Kerygma
and Myth. 1:36. Also, "I can see well enough that in the
NT the cross of Christ is described as an intrinsically
significant event when then may and can become significant
for faith too. But I cannot follow this sequence, which is
possible in mythological thinking, because I cannot
understand the phrase 'intrinsically signficant'; I can
understand significance only as a relation." From Karl
Barth / Rudolf Bultmann: Letters 1922-1966. Edited by
Bernd Jaspert. Translated and edited by Geoffrey W.
Bromiley. (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1982), p. 93.)
10Reachina back across this section's spectrum,
similarities do exist between Tillich and Bultmann. Both
negate the power of historical research to give certainty to
faith. The historical Jesus, a primary focus of nineteenth
century theology, little concerned them. Salvation
(variously defined by the two) comes throu gh an existential
encounter with Jesus the Christ, or the power of God
manifest in him. Bultmann placed greater stress on th.e
signal events of Good Friday and Easter (See a section
entitled "Christ's Death and Resurrection as (the]
Salvation-occurence" in New Testament Theology. 1:292-306.
This section opens, "The deed of divine grace consists in
the faith that God gave Christ up to die on the cross
(underlining mine).") Tillich. in contrast, emphasized the
value of the broader incarnation. ("He [Jesus] proves and
confirms his character as the Christ in the sacrifice of
himself as Jesus to himself as the Christ. But it is not
Justifiable to separate this sacrificial function from his
being, of which it is actually an expression." Systematic
Theology. (London: Nisbet, 1957), 11:142. Stated
suuccinctly. "The being of the Christ is his work and . . .
his work is his being." Ibid. p. 194.) For Tillich,
Jesus' death may possess salvific power, as a central
manifestation of his being. Its greater value, however, is
the manner in which it saves the symbol of the Christ from
becoming an idol. (See Ibid. 1:149,50.) This crucial
distinction moves Tillich to the left of Bultmann on the
spectrum.
"Tillich, Systematic Theology. Volume 3. (London:
Nisbet, 1964), p. 241.
12-Tillich, Ibid. 11:176.
i Tillich leaves the door open a crack, allowing for
the possibility that the Cross had objective meaning. "It
[the death of Christ] was, and is, a divine mystery, humanly
unintelligible, divinely necessary." From "He Who Was the
Christ," in The Shaking of the Foundations. (New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948), p. 146.
l 'Tahner, Foundations of Christian Faith.
Translated by William V. Dych. (London: Darton, Longman