Inspired by R. Bultmann=s program of demythologization, this text inquires into the truth of mythical images in the Bible. It examines the various ways in which the Bible talks about God: narratively, dialogically, and doxologically, as well as ethically, mystically, and metaphysically. The Bible interprets Christological imagery as a kerygmatic message that leads to confrontation with God, as poetic imagination that seeks existential fulfilment, as a world of social symbols that creates sacred communal spaces. The ?demythologization= of this symbolic world starts with faith in the Holy Spirit: the cross reveals our distance from God, and the mystery of Easter renews God=s nearness to us as a resonance in human beings through the Spirit. After 80 years, Bultmann=s programme of demythologization is in this way renewed and continued kerygmatically and poetically, existentially and socially, cosmically and mystically. The concern remains the same: to decipher the message of the Bible through its mythical images.

Emeritus Prof. Gerd Theissen was Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Heidelberg.