Bultmann thus argued that Christianity arose almost completely within those Hellenistic confines and should be read against that background as opposed to a more traditional ( Palestinian ) Jewish background.

Jaspers also entered public debates with Rudolf Bultmann, wherein Jaspers roundly criticized Bultmann's " demythologizing " of Christianity.

Barth and Bultmann accepted that little could be said with certainty about the historical Jesus, and concentrated instead on the kerygma, or message, of the New Testament.

* Rudolf Karl Bultmann ( 1884 – 1976 ): a New Testament scholar who defined an almost complete split between history and faith, called demythology.

Rudolf Karl Bultmann ( August 20, 1884, Wiefelstede – July 30, 1976, Marburg ) was a German Lutheran theologian and New Testament scholar who was one of the major figures of 20th century biblical studies and a prominent voice in liberal Christianity.

Bultmann was for three decades professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Marburg.

Bultmann contended that only faith in the kerygma, or proclamation, of the New Testament was necessary for Christian faith, not any particular facts regarding the historical Jesus.

While Bultmann reinterpreted theological language in existential terms, he nonetheless maintained that the New Testament proclaimed a message more radical than any modern existentialism.

** Kerygma and Myth by Rudolf Bultmann and Five Critics ( 1953 ) London: S. P. C. K., HarperCollins 2000 edition: ISBN 0-06-130080-2, online edition ( contains the essay " The New Testament and Mythology " with critical analyses and Bultmann's response )

* The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, edited by Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmeyer, and Roland E. Murphy, Prentice Hall 1990, update of 1968 edition, see John S. Kselman and Ronald D. Witherup, " Modern New Testament Criticism ," sections II & III on Bultmann and reactions, pp. 1137 – 1142.

* R. Bultmann, New Testament and Mythology and Other Writings, edited and translated by S. M. Ogden, London, 1984.

Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann repudiated the quest for historical Jesus, and although the introduction of The Five Gospels asserts this it suppressed any real interest in the topic from c 1920 to c 1970, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church says there was a brief New Quest movement in the 50s conducted by Bultmann's students, and the search continued without break outside of the Bultmann school.

* Ernst Fuchs ( theologian ), German New Testament scholar and student of Rudolf Bultmann

Among others, Rudolf Bultmann suggested that the text of the gospel is partially out of order ; for instance, chapter 6 should follow chapter 4:

Some scholars criticized Bultmann and other critics for excessive skepticism regarding the historical reliability of the gospel narratives.

We may show, first, that there cannot possibly be an alternative other than the three typically represented by Bultmann, Barth, and Buri.

Therefore, the only conceivable alternatives are those represented, on the one hand, by the two at least apparently self-consistent but mutually exclusive positions of Buri and Barth and, on the other hand, by the third but really pseudo position ( analogous to a round square ) of Bultmann.

While this theory, first propounded by Ernst von Dobschütz and Rudolf Bultmann, is not universally accepted, Amos Wilder writes that, " it is at least clear that there are considerable and sometimes continuous elements in the epistle whose style distinguishes them from that of the author both with respect to poetic structure and syntactic usage.

A former student of Bultmann, Eta Linnemann, followed by F. David Farnell, is the best known proponent of a simultaneous priority of Matthew and Mark under the Mosaic requirement that " on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed " ( Deuteronomy 19: 5 ).

A variant of the Augustinian hypothesis, attempting to synchronise Matthew and Mark on the basis of the Mosaic " two witnesses " requirement of Deuteronomy 19: 5 ( Matthew + Mark, → Luke ), was proposed by Eta Linnemann, following rejection of the view of her teacher Rudolf Bultmann.

A return to the traditional view is found in the hypothesis of Eta Linnemann, formerly a pupil of Bultmann, that Matthew and Mark were written together as " two witnesses " required by Mosaic law.

His History of the Synoptic Tradition ( 1921 ) remains highly influential as a tool for biblical research, even by scholars who reject his analyses of the conventional rhetorical pericopes or narrative units of which the Gospels are assembled, and the historically-oriented principles called " form criticism " of which Bultmann has been the most influential exponent:

Shorter Writings of Rudolf Bultmann, edited and translated by S. M. Ogden, London, 1961, ( Meridian Books in USA )

* R. Bultmann, Jesus and the Word, translated by L. P. Smith and E. H. Lantero, London, 1952.

History of Religions interpretations of the rise of early Christianity ( applied most famously by Rudolf Bultmann ) were wont to see Palestinian Judaism as largely unaffected by Hellenism, while the Judaism of the diaspora was thought to have succumbed thoroughly to its influences.

Rudolf Bultmann ( who was associated with Barth and Brunner in the 1920s in particular ) was strongly influenced by his former colleague at Marburg, the German existentialist philosopher Martin Heidegger.

This view is represented by Rudolf Bultmann and Burton Mack.

As developed by Rudolf Bultmann and others, form criticism might be seen as a form of literary deconstruction in an attempt to rediscover the original kernel of meaning.

It later came to be applied to the Gospels by Karl Ludwig Schmidt, Martin Dibelius, Rudolf Bultmann, and Robert M. Price among others.

Bultmann held to a conservative dating of the Gospel of John: late first-century prior to the second century.

To Bultmann, the people of the world appeared to be always in disappointment and turmoil.

During the mid-twentieth century, when the literary genre of the NT gospels was under debate, scholars like C. H. Dodd and Rudolf Bultmann suggested that the gospels were of a genre totally unique in the ancient world.

The hypothesis of the Gospel being composed in layers over a period of time had its start with Rudolf Bultmann in 1941.

In 1926 Heinemann married Hilda Ordemann, who had been a student of Rudolf Bultmann, the famous Protestant theologian.

By the first half of the 20th century a new generation of scholars including Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann, in Germany, Roy Harrisville and others in North America had decided that the quest for the Jesus of history had reached a dead end.

Though he had planned to write his dissertation on Bultmann, his supervisor, Peter Brunner, advised him to work on Karl Barth's doctrine of election.

Bultmann believes that Peter had already realized what had happened, and in this passage the Beloved Disciple merely joins Peter in this understanding.

Bultmann believed this endeavor would make accessible to modern audiences-already immersed in science and technology-the reality of Jesus ' teachings.

Bultmann responds that modern scientific analysis of the text is required to separate the genuine from the miraculous claims, thereby revealing the true message.

Bultmonn said, “ As from now on there are only believers and unbelievers, so there are also now only saved and lost, those who have life and those who are in death ” – Rudolf Bultmann, The Gospel of John, p. 155

Rudolf Bultmonn said about salvation and eternity-“ As from now on there are only believers and unbelievers, so there are also now only saved and lost, those who have life and those who are in death ” – Rudolf Bultmann, The Gospel of John, p. 155

Koester studied under Rudolf Bultmann at the Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany, after being released from a POW camp there in 1945.

Rudolf Bultmann developed existencial biblical hermeneutics, or the idea that each individual can only read and understand the bible from his or her personal existential condition and the biblical text acquires life only if it can awaken an experience of faith in the reader.

The most prominent figure from the period of " no quest " was Rudolf Bultmann.

Others theologians, however, like Rudolph Bultmann, ventured to remove any myths from the Bible, a hermeneutical approach they called demythology.