Demythologization

Definition and Meaning

Demythologization (German Entmythologisierung) is a method of interpreting the New Testament. It is generally credited to the German New Testament scholar Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976), who proposed it in his 1941 essay "New Testament and Mythology."

Bultmann held that the New Testament was written against the background of an ancient picture of the world divided into heaven, earth, and the underworld. Within this framework, supernatural beings intervene directly in the affairs of the world. He called this worldview "myth." Rather than requiring people to accept this framework as it stands, he argued, interpreters should read the kerygma (the core of the proclaimed gospel) contained within it in terms of human existence, that is, as a matter of life and decision. This approach is commonly called "existential interpretation." According to Bultmann and his defenders, demythologization does not mean eliminating myth but interpreting it.

Biblical and Historical Background

The word "myth" also appears in the New Testament. The New Korean Revised Version renders it as "myths" in 1 Timothy 1:4 (KJV: "Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies"). In 2 Peter 1:16 it renders the same word as "cleverly devised stories"; this verse states that the apostles did not follow such stories (KJV: "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables"). Critics of demythologization cite such passages as evidence that the biblical writers themselves distinguished between myth and fact.

Bultmann's proposal provoked considerable controversy. Karl Barth criticized the method for reducing the gospel to anthropology. The philosopher Karl Jaspers debated Bultmann directly. Even among Bultmann's own students, a movement emerged calling for a renewed quest for the historical Jesus. The central issue in the debate was the resurrection. Rather than seeking to establish the resurrection as an objective event, Bultmann understood it as an event of faith in which the meaning of the cross is grasped. Opponents held that this undermines the historicity of the resurrection affirmed in passages such as 1 Corinthians 15:14.

Reception in the Korean Church

In Korea, demythologization is chiefly a topic discussed in seminaries and academic circles. The term rarely appears in congregational preaching, and when it does, it is usually presented as a prime example of liberal theology.

Denominations differ in their attitudes toward it.

• The Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea and some Methodist theological circles: These tend to be open to historical-critical scholarship. Within them there is reportedly a tendency to study Bultmann's concerns academically and to appropriate them critically.
• Conservative Presbyterian bodies such as the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Hapdong), the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Kosin), and the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Hapshin), along with many evangelical theologians: These criticize the method from the standpoint of biblical inerrancy. They regard demythologization as denying the historicity of supernatural events such as the Incarnation, miracles, the resurrection, and the Second Coming.
• Pentecostal and Holiness churches: These place divine healing and the work of the Holy Spirit at the center of faith and therefore stand in tension with the presuppositions of demythologization.