“Christ-line”: time and history in the theology of Oscar Cullmann

Oscar Сullman (1902-1999) occupies a special place among the Western authors of the 20th century who dealt with theology of history. On the basis of the “salvation history”, he built a holistic theological concept, the central components of which are: linear biblical understanding of time, universal Christocentrism, tension between the experience of the “already fulfilled” and “not yet completed” salvation, the unity of history and kerygma, understanding of eternity as infinite time. Cullmann considers the biblical evidences of the God’s action in history not as mythology or a pre- scientific way of proclaiming existential truths (R. Bultmann), but asserts the fundamental historicity of the economy of salvation, emphasizing the need to interpret events taking place in time from the point of view of faith. The history of salvation becomes tangible in the worship of the Christian community, primarily in the Eucharist, and it is the community of believers that is a living and visible hermeneutic key for its understanding. The theology of history for him is not just a separate area, but a thematic center and a fundamental principle of all theological thinking.