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August 20
Rudolf Bultmann, Paul Tillich, natural selection, and the Massacre at Ayyadieh
David Barnhart
August 20, 2025
Church of the Annunciation, 2019.
There is a statue of Mary in the courtyard, and the hand shows the wear of thousands of pilgrims reaching out to hold it — or be held by it.
On this day in 1858, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace published the theory of evolution through natural selection for the first time in a scientific journal.
Today is also the birthday of Rudolf Bultmann, in 1884, and of Paul Tillich, in 1886. One of Bultmann’s major contributions to Christian theology was the idea of “demythologizing” scripture in order to make it intelligible to modern audiences. One of Tillich’s major contributions was thinking of God not as A supreme being, but as the ground of being, or Being itself.
On this day in 1191, during the Third Crusade, King Richard I massacred around 2700 Muslim captives when prisoner-swap negotiations with Saladin stalled. In retaliation, Saladin executed about 1600 Christian prisoners. Both leaders demonstrated their flawed theology for history and the world to judge. Even during this barbaric event, Christians and Muslims on both side deplored such treatment of prisoners.
Reflection:
Some wise words from Paul Tillich:
“This is biblical ethics. It has little to do with the middle-class ethics of avoiding a few things which are supposed to be wrong and doing a few things which are supposed to be right. Biblical ethics means standing in ultimate decisions for or against God.”
and
“Sometimes I think it is my mission to bring faith to the faithless, and doubt to the faithful.”
Prayer: Holy Spirit, give us both conviction and doubt, so that our faith may become a source of humility and grace instead of arrogance. Amen.