Demythologizing

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Demythologizing , even demystification is generally the attempt to in a myth traditional or mythical language intuition to investigate on their reality content back and work out the actual statement intention.

Historically, Christianity saw itself as overcoming myth by substituting monotheism for myth. The ancient gods sank to mere allegories ; so was Mars (mythology) for war, Venus (mythology) for love, etc. But the stories and the language of the Bible was under the influence of humanistic education, on a entmythisierten and rationalized antiques understanding demythologised was based, in modern times gradually . They too were flattened into allegories and thus suffered a fate similar to that of the ancient tales of the gods, while at the same time spiritual powers were remythed, e. B. through the systematic thinking of scholasticism , through the ecclesiastical recognition of miracles in modern times or the periodic performance of repentance and penance at certain times such as Easter . Demythization and remythization enter into a complex interplay in history: old myths were fought in the name of reason, but replaced by new ones.

Enlightenment and counter-movements

The Enlightenment of the 18th century saw itself as the final overcoming of myth; according to its claim it replaced it with scientific rationality. The positivism of the 19th century seemed to have destroyed the last myths. In particular, the rational-demythicizing thinking was directed against the metaphysically interpreted system formations of idealism, whose representative Schelling interpreted his own terms as myths. But rational thinking was also assumed to be remythologized in Horkheimer's and Adorno's “ Dialectic of Enlightenment ” or in Michel Foucault's critique of power. In the 20th century the myth u. a. recognized by Ernst Cassirer and Claude Lévi-Strauss as an independent way of thinking; Its cognitive function in connection with all symbolic events has been honored in many cases, whereby his followers like CG Jung exposed themselves to the accusation of going back to the time before the Enlightenment. In literature and the fine arts of the late 19th and 20th centuries, in the course of a counter-movement against realism and naturalism, which was poor in symbols, myth was rediscovered as a source of inspiration (e.g. through Nietzsche , James Joyce , Albert Camus or surrealism ), whereby the protagonists of an aesthetic program of remythization also expose themselves to the criticism of the Enlightenment.

The dispute about who is actually the demythizer or the creator of new irrational myths also concerns political-manipulative programs of artificially created collective ideas such as Alfred Rosenberg's work “ The Myth of the 20th Century ”, which pretends to overcome Catholic and Protestant myths and, first and foremost, criticism the churches closed.

Demythologizing the Bible

In the religious context, the term goes back to the Protestant theologian Rudolf Bultmann . Bultmann presented his program of demythologizing in his essay “New Testament and Mythology” from 1941. He saw a problem in the mythical form of thought and language of antiquity , since the people of modern times no longer understood this mythical way of speaking. Faith can therefore only result from an existential interpretation of the Bible. The non-mythological meaning of a mythological-sounding statement should be worked out in the demythologization. Since in myth no distinction is made between the levels of reality immanence and transcendence , demythologizing tries to preserve the difference between God and the world. In demythologizing, Bultmann is not concerned with eliminating the mythical from the texts, but rather with interpreting the texts in such a way that the understanding of existence on which they are based becomes clear with the aim that people feel struck by the biblical kerygma and face a " existential “decision is made. Bultmann assumes that the scientific worldview is superior to the myth. For him, it is therefore a matter of formulating the theological statements of the Bible in such a way that they are compatible with the modern worldview. "He's pursuing a modernization project."

For Joseph Ratzinger and other theologians, demythologizing already took place in the Bible. The talk of the creation of the world by God contains the difference between God and the world and is thus a "conscious rejection of myth". Ratzinger also sees in the theological development of the early church, in the decision “for the logos against any kind of myth”, a “definitive demythologization of the world and religion”. He considers this decision to be the decisive factor that saved Christianity from the fate of the ancient religion, the "inner breakdown". Ratzinger uses the example of “ Höllenfahrt ” and “ Himmelfahrt ” to make clear that it is not about “cosmographic” circumstances, but about dimensions of human existence.

Criticism of Bultmann's demythologizing program

Rahner / Vorgrimler recognize that the New Testament kerygma aims at an existential decision, but accuse Bultmann of having reduced it to that. They insist that it is also a matter of communicating "objective" events like the resurrection .

Leo Scheffczyk sees the decisive flaw in Bultmann's program “in a wrong definition of the myth”. For Bultmann everything is to be called mythical that does not correspond to the scientific worldview, but takes the world as three-tiered. And then all religious statements that move within the ancient worldview are to be described as mythological. According to Bultmann, only if God's actions and the world are not mixed up can it be guaranteed that the scientific worldview will not be violated. In this way of thinking - according to Scheffczyk - the Christian faith is missed because it means that no “objective statements about God and about divine action in Jesus Christ” are no longer possible.

Theologians, religious scholars and philosophers object to Bultmann that the human experience of transcendence can only be appropriately expressed using the form of myth.

"However, a historical event can only develop into a source of religious inspiration if it is mythologized."

- Karen Armstrong

literature

  • Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno: Dialectic of the Enlightenment. S. Fischer, Frankfurt 1969. Reprinted as paperback in 1988.
  • Rudolf Bultmann: New Testament and Mythology. The problem of demythologizing the New Testament proclamation. (1941), In: H.-W. Bartsch (Ed.): Kerygma and Mythos. Volume 1, 4th edition. Reich, Hamburg 1960, DNB 457196386 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Expertise Religion , ed. by Gert Otto, Furche / Patmos, Hamburg / Düsseldorf 1970 (2), p. 251
  2. ^ Paul Tillich: Frankfurter Vorlesungen (1930–1933) , ed. by Erdmann Sturm. Berlin, New York 2013, p. 163.
  3. ↑ Udo Friedrich : Mythos , in: Lexikon Literaturwissenschaft . Reclam, Stuttgart 2011, p. 239.
  4. ^ Raimund Baumgärtner: Weltanschauungskampf in the Third Reich: The dispute between the churches and Alfred Rosenberg. Mainz 1977.
  5. ↑ Ernst Cassirer: Philosophy of symbolic forms. Second part. The Mythical Thinking , Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1973, pp. 59–77
  6. ↑ Peter Knauer : Faith comes from hearing. Ecumenical Fundamental Theology , Styria, Graz - Vienna - Cologne 1978, p. 94
  7. ↑ Hans Waldenfels: Contextual Fundamental Theology , Schöningh, Paderborn 1985, p. 164
  8. ^ Karl Rahner / Herbert Vorgrimler: Small theological dictionary , Herder, Freiburg 1961, p. 89ff
  9. ↑ Peter Hardt: Demythologization of Knowledge Archive link ( Memento from March 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on February 15, 2020
  10. ↑ so Heinrich Fries: Basic considerations on demythologization in general, in the article “Demythologization”, in: Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, Herder, Freiburg 1986, vol. 3, p. 902
  11. ^ Joseph Ratzinger: Introduction to Christianity . dtv Wissenschaftliche Reihe, 1971, (first edition: Kösel 1968) pp. 90–92
  12. ↑ Joseph Ratzinger: Introduction to Christianity , dtv Wissenschaftliche Reihe, Munich 1971, (first edition: Kösel 1968) pp. 215 ff and 228 ff
  13. ^ Karl Rahner / Herbert Vorgrimler: Small theological dictionary , Herder, Freiburg 1961, p. 90ff
  14. ↑ Leo Scheffczyk: Demythologization and Faith Truth in a Mythless Time [1] accessed on September 11, 2013
  15. ^ David Fergusson: Demythologisierung , in: Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 4th edition, Mohr - Siebeck, Tübingen 1999, Volume 2, Sp. 1328-1330
  16. ↑ Karen Armstrong: A Brief History of Myth , dtv 13610, p. 97