Rudolf Bultmann

Rudolf Bultmann (born August 20, 1884, Wiefelstede, Germany—died July 30, 1976, Marburg, West Germany [now in Germany]) was a leading 20th-century New Testament scholar known for his program to “demythologize” the New Testament—i.e., to interpret, according to the concepts of existentialist philosophy, the essential message of the New Testament that was expressed in mythical terms. Bultmann, the son of a Lutheran pastor and the grandson of a missionary, always intended to follow an academic theological...