Demythologizing science? : A contemporary review of Castelli and Bultmann’s confrontation on demythization

Abstract

The essay poses the question of the demythization of science starting from the confrontation between Castelli and Bultmann in the early 1960s at the start of the Roman Colloquia on Demythization. Bultmann argues that modern science has demythologized the facts narrated in the Bible and imposes a new interpretation of the meaning of the kerygma. Castelli opposes the idea of the connection between kerygma and historicity of the facts narrated and interprets demythization as a conditioning by science on the rhythms of life. It is on this latter aspect that future demythization must be realized. In the second part of the essay, the question of the demythization of science is posed from the phenomenon of science denialism: the existential dimension as an identity factor that conditions the acceptance of scientific truths, conspiracy as a surrogate for lost narrative identities, and the recovery of trust as an antidote to denialism repropose elements of that confrontation.