Existential Eschatology Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976) in his Theology of the New Testament (1951) champions the existentialistic eschatological construct. Advancing the notion that any moment of personal, crucial decision is “eschatological,” Bultmann argues that the Eschaton is the kairos in which the individual human existent is given opportunity to decide for authentic existence. Eschatology is “realized” then, not as Dodd contended, in the ministry of the historical Jesus who (says Bultmann) was