Re: Greek Anthropology

From: Jeffrey Gibson (jgibson@acfsysv.roosevelt.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 02 1998 - 19:30:44 EST


On Mon, 2 Mar 1998, Jonathan Robie wrote:

> At 03:52 PM 3/2/98 -0600, Jeffrey Gibson wrote:
>
> >Two places. Try the TDNT. And also Robert Jewett's _Paul's
> >Anthropological Terms_. Bultmann's discussion is, alas, while wonderful
> >to read, biased towards Heidegger.
>
> An intriguing statement that needs to be expanded for the vast majority of
> humans, who are less educated than Jeffrey, I'm afraid, including me. Can
> you tell me what Bultmann and Heidegger have to say on this, and why you
> prefer a different approach?

 
 Jonathan

You flatter me. At least I think you do. Was there a twinkle in your eye
when you wrote the above?

In any case, there is a tendencey in Bultmann, well illustrated in his New
Testament Theology_, to force Paul to be a good existentialist of the
Heidegerrian camp, not to mention a good Lutheran. Hence B's discussion of
Pauline anthropological terms seems to ignore what they might have meant
in first century Judaism or Greco-Roman culture, which was driven by
ideals of honour/shame and was not introspective, in favour of buttresing
an anthropology which is relatively modern, highly individualistic, and
the sees the problems of guilt and what is termed "inauthentic existence" as
what limits and defines human nature.

Others on the list can define this even more precisely that I have done
here, I am sure.

A good intro to Bultmann's anthropology can be found in Normin Perrin's
little book _The Promise of Bultmann_. I really enjoyed this when I was
going through the angst of youth.

Jeffrey
jgibson@acfsysv.roosevelt.edu



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:39:08 EDT