demythologization

Demythologization as a hermeneutic approach to religious texts seeks to separate or recover cosmological, sociological and historic claims from philosophical, ethical and theological teachings. Mostly applied to biblical texts, demythologization often overlaps with philology, biblical criticism and form criticism. The term demythologization (in German: Entmythologisierung) was introduced by Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976) in existential context, but the concept has earlier precedents.

== Spinoza's hermeneutic approach to scripture == thumb|right|142px|Baruch Spinoza In his 1677 Theologico-Political Treatise, Spinoza argues that any event in scripture which is inconsistent with natural laws must be interpreted either as unreliable testimony or as a metaphorical or allegorical representation of a moral teaching. Because the masses are "wholly ignorant of the workings of nature", they are prone to interpret any natural event they cannot explain as a miracle, and this "ridiculous way of expressing ignorance" often finds its way into scripture. Scripture aims not at narrating things in terms of their natural causes, but rather at exciting the "popular imagination" to "impress the minds of the masses with devotion."Therefore it speaks inaccurately of God and of events, seeing that its object is not to convince the reason, but to attract and lay hold of the imagination. If the Bible were to describe the destruction of an empire in the style of political historians, the masses would remain unstirred.To correctly interpret scripture we must understand the opinions and judgments of the ancients and learn common "Jewish phrases and metaphors." Otherwise we will be prone to "confound actual events with symbolical and imaginary ones."Many things are narrated in Scripture as real, and were believed to be real, which were in fact only symbolical and imaginary.