Rudolf Bultmann is known not only as the most significant New Testament, and especially Johannine, scholar of the twentieth century, but also as an outspoken critic of apocalyptic. In contrast to what he saw as a mythical emphasis on the imminent future in ancient apocalyptic, Bultmann argued for a present (or realized) eschatology, and central to his argument was the Gospel of John. This emphasis on the present encounter with Christ manifested itself especially in his Advent sermons. Bultmann

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... as fond of preaching on the theme of Christmas (thirteen of his published sermons are during the Advent and Christmas seasons), which afforded him the opportunity to speak on the coming of Christ—simultaneously there and then and here and now. Bultmann presents what we might call a theology of perpetual advent: the eschatological Christ of the kerygma comes to the world ever anew, and we must live in constant expectation of his coming.This paper proposes an apocalyptic hearing of Bultmann's theology of perpetual advent. Thanks to the work of the later Käsemann, Martyn, and others, the category of apocalyptic is no longer associated strictly with the "imminent expectation" of the original apostolic community. Instead, the imminent expectation has been existentialized: we expect Christ's arrival in each new moment. Once we see that Bultmann's present eschatology is marked by a constant expectation of Christ's arrival on the scene, it becomes clear that his theology of perpetual advent is a distinctively apocalyptic theology.