Abstract

Fritz Buri has been known to the English speaking world primarily as an existentialist theologian who took Bultmann’s program of demythologizing or existential interpretation to its radical conclusions and as a critic of Heidegger’s so-called meditative thinking of Being which, says Buri, provides no basis for critical theological reflection. The problem raised by demythologizing and by radical theology, says Hardwick, is finally one of language and meaning, a problem which he expresses in terms of the objective status of theological language. Hardwick argues that while most contemporary theological options ignore or fail to come to grips with the dialectic between non-objectivity and objectivity, Buri’s position provides a dialectic in which he intends that the objectivity of theological discourse take account directly of the non-objectivity of religious faith. The question is whether Buri can accomplish his intention in such a way as to give content to the non-objectivity of the Christian faith. Buri attempts to assign positive meaning to the Christian message by talking of concrete possibilities for existing which can be revelatory to the extent that they are divested of their objectivity and understood as expressions of self-understanding.