Bultmann on Preaching and Divine Action

It is notorious that Bultmann concedes the whole world of nature and history to the scientist and the historian, and locates the act of God purely at the tangential point at which the word of preaching is heard and responded to by the believer. Thus when a friend of mine went to see Bultmann in Marburg some years ago, and asked him to give an example of an act of God, Bultmann replied ‘a sermon’.

Brian L. Hebblethwaite, ‘Providence and Divine Action’, Religious Studies 14:2 (1978), pp. 223–236; quotation from p. 225