Wirkendes Wort: Bibel, Schrift und Evangelium im Leben der Kirche und im Denken der Theologie

Wieder einmal gibt es in der evangelischen Theologie und Kirche in Deutschland einen Streit um das Alte Testament und die Bedeutung von Schrift und Schriftauslegung. Das ist gut so. Ohne diesen Streit würde das, was sich in Kirche und Theologie eingebürgert hat, nur noch so verstanden, wie es gerade weithin verstanden wird: nämlich missverstanden.

Missverstehen ist leicht. Das gilt gerade für die Schrift. Im Gegensatz zur geläufigen Annahme ist die eigentliche Herausforderung nicht, wie die Schrift zu verstehen ist, sondern, was man eigentlich verstehen will. Es geht nicht primär um die Methoden, sondern um den Gegenstand der Auslegung: die Schrift, die zur Kommunikation des Evangeliums gebraucht wird, durch das sich Gottes Wort im Leben der Menschen wirksam zur Geltung bringt.

Seit Längerem neigt die Systematische Theologie dazu, den Umgang mit biblischen Texten aus der systematischen Reflexion des Glaubens auszublenden. Eine Neubesinnung auf die Aufgaben einer theologischen Lehre von der Schrift ist überfällig. Ingolf U. Dalferth bietet diese Neubesinnung in einem großen Wurf, der ein Jahrhundert nach Karl Barths Römerbrief die Theologie am Beginn des neuen Jahrtausends überall dort aufschrecken wird, wo ein theologisches Ethos überlebt hat, das sich Glauben und Kirche zugehörig weiß. Dalferth verbindet seine Ausführungen auch mit praktischen Reformüberlegungen. Das »Leben der Kirche« und das »Denken der Theologie« werden so neu aufeinander bezogen.

Discussed herein, the ‘Crisis of the Scripture Principle’; The Communication of the Gospel; The Church, Scripture, and the Bible; Holy Scripture; The Word of God; The Center of the Scripture; Scripture Interpreting Scripture; Scripture and Interpretation; and finally, the Crisis of the Culture of the Book.

A quick glance through that list of contents immediately informs potential readers that this work is aimed to help modern persons come to terms with the problem of the Scriptures.  What are we to do with the Bible and what are we to make of it in these days of ours when Scripture is not the authoritative source of faith and practice for many?

Working from the premise that the so called ‘Scripture Principle’ is in crisis (to put it mildly), Dalferth carefully and patiently, brick by brick, builds an edifice of a ‘doctrine of Scripture’ that is both relevant and reliable.  Scripture is still the source for the communication of the Gospel.  The Scripture is still appropriately described as both Holy and Word of God.  The Scripture still has a comprehensible ‘core’, and the Scripture is still best understood on its own terms and from its own context.  And, finally, Scripture is still an appropriate object of the interpretive efforts of the community of faith.

The volume concludes with a glance towards the future and how books, like the Bible, may continue to play an important role in the post-print era. He also includes a Scripture index, index of persons, and an index of subjects.

Dalferth assembles a wide range of material from the history of Christian theology and brings it to bear on the question of the continuing relevance of the Bible in an age when bibliolatry is utterly impossible for all but the most stringent fundamentalists.  He includes material from Luther and a plethora of exegetes and theologians whilst managing, somehow, to completely ignore Zwingli and Calvin; which means that this volume is Lutheran in intent and content.

Persons interested in a contemporary Lutheran understanding of Scripture will learn a great deal from this wonderful, partisan book.  Persons interested in a broader theology of Scripture will find here the building blocks of a sensible methodology and a lot of historical-theological material.

This is a remarkably interesting book.  Dalferth is a composer of succinct prose.  For instance, in his exposition of ‘God’s Word as the Content of Scripture’ he writes

Der zweite Weg, um die Bibel als Gottes Wort zu verstehen, rekurriert nicht auf Gott als den Autor der Schrift, sondern auf Gottes Wort als ihren Inhalt:  Di biblischen Texte sind Gottes Wort nicht allein deshalb, weil Gott ihr autor ist, sondern weil sie Gottes Wort zum Inhalt haben (p. 262).

Brilliantly stated and expertly expanded upon and illustrated in the pages which follow.

This is a worthwhile work.  I commend it heartily.

I’m Reading Lincoln Harvey’s Book…

I shall be informing you about my feelings towards it in the not too awfully distant future.

I just hope it’s better than some stuff is on the topic.

A Free Book from DeGruyter- “We Were All in Adam The Unity of Mankind in Adam in the Teaching of the Church Fathers”

Available for download, again, for free, here.

Contrary to a common conviction, original sin is one of the fundamental Patristic issues, because it is the starting point of Patristic anthropology and sets the stage for the need for salvation.  The Church Fathers before Augustine did not used the term “original sin”, but described its reality, having the greatest possible feeling for the mystical unity of mankind with its first ancestor. As regards the issue of the unity of human nature in Adam, the East and the West speak with one voice, which is first to be found in Irenaeus’ works.

Christian Origins and the Establishment of the Early Jesus Movement

Christian Origins and the Establishment of the Early Jesus Movement explores the events, people, and writings surrounding the founding of the early Jesus movement in the mid to late first century. The essays are divided into four parts, focused upon the movement’s formation, the production of its early Gospels, description of the Jesus movement itself, and the Jewish mission and its literature. This collection of essays includes chapters by a global cast of scholars from a variety of methodological and critical viewpoints, and continues the important Early Christianity in its Hellenistic Context series.

Christoph Heilig has an essay in it.  That’s reason enough to read it.  The publisher has graciously sent along a review copy.  More anon.

Peter Williams Has a New Book on the Reliability of the Gospels

The Gospels―Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John―tell the story of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ while he was on earth. But how do Christians know if they are true? What evidence is there that the events actually happened? This accessible introduction to the historical and theological reliability of the four Gospels, written by New Testament scholar Peter J. Williams, presents evidence from a variety of non-Christian sources, assesses how accurately the 4 accounts reflect the cultural context of their time, compares different accounts of crucial events, and considers how these texts were handed down throughout the centuries. Written for the skeptic, the scholar, and everyone in between, this book answers common objections raised against the historicity of the Gospels in order to foster trust in God’s Word.

I’ll let you know what I think of it.  Peter has invited me to review it, which I’m happy to do because Peter Williams is reliable.  Now we’ll see if he makes the case that the Gospels are.

500 Jahre Reformation: Rückblicke und Ausblicke aus interdisziplinärer Perspektive

Luther’s theses on the power of indulgences (1517) became the impetus for a vast movement. Essentially inspired by Christian religious concerns, the Reformation helped shape and transform the entire political and sociocultural landscape of large portions of the “Western” world, in both the short and long term. The multidisciplinary essays in this volume consider this history from the perspective of the Reformation city of Zurich.

The volume is edited by none less than Peter Opitz.

There’s a Book About the ‘Ark Encounter’

And it sounds right interesting.  The book, not the theme park.  The review concludes

Throughout the book, Bielo engages with many contemporary debates in both anthropology and religious studies, such as the discussion on public religion; the social life of things; the enchantment of science, play and conversion; history-making and historicity; symbolic power; and the poetics of faith. He uses these and other theories to paint a picture of the cultural patterns that orchestrate present-day American public religious life. As such, the book is a much needed contribution to studies of American fundamentalist Christianity, and to the anthropology of fundamentalism. At the same time, it gives a good insight into the place of Christianity in our contemporary Western society, its relation to popular culture and commerce, and the power of “religious entertainment.” Reading the ethnography gives the reader a sense of being immersed and entertained, much as a visit to the park promises that we will be.

Give it a look.

Dogmatik

Dogmatik als gedankliche Rechenschaft des christlichen Glaubens ist eine soteriologische Interpretation der Wirklichkeit. Sie analysiert ihre Erlösungsbedürftigkeit unter der Voraussetzung der biblisch bezeugten Erlösungswirklichkeit. Das ist der Grundgedanke des renommierten Wiener Systematikers Ulrich H. J. Körtner in seinem umfassenden Lehrbuch, das fünf Hauptteile ­umfasst.

Anhand der Leitbegriffe Gott, Welt und Mensch bietet es eine kompakte Darstellung aller Hauptthemen christlicher Dogmatik, ihrer problemgeschichtlichen Zusammenhänge und der gegenwärtigen Diskussion. Leitsätze bündeln den Gedankengang. Das dem lutherischen und dem reformierten Erbe reformatorischer Theologie verpflichtete Lehrbuch berücksichtigt in besonderer Weise die Leuenberger Konkordie (1973) und die Lehrgespräche der Gemeinschaft Evangelischer Kirchen in Europa (GEKE).

A review copy has been graciously provided by the publisher.  It’s now on my to do list, so look for it soon (because procrastination is of the Devil).

“Introducing the Old Testament”

In this up-to-date, student-friendly text, Robert Hubbard and J. Andrew Dearman bring decades of scholarly study and classroom experience to bear as they introduce readers to the context, composition, and message of the Old Testament.

Each chapter orients readers to the Old Testament book or books under consideration, outlining historical and cultural back­ground, literary features, main characters, and structure. Throughout these discussions—of the Torah, the historical books, the prophets, and the poetry—Hubbard and Dearman also identify and trace key theological themes.

Replete with maps, illustrations, sidebars, discussion questions, and suggestions for further reading, Introducing the Old Testament will equip students to read, wrestle with, and personally engage these ancient sacred texts.

Read the Eerdword blog post “10 Reasons You Need Introducing the Old Testament in Your Classroom”

Thanks to Eerdmans for the review copy.

The volume is comprised of 6 parts: Getting Started; The Torah; The Historical Books; The Prophets; The Poetry; Conclusion.  It also contains a glossary, table of Hebrew transliterations, subject index, and a Scripture and other ancient sources index.  Festooning the chapters are additional tables, diagrams, maps, and timelines.  In sum, it is a textbook.  A textbook suited for undergrad courses on the Old Testament and graduate courses as one of several texts that should be assigned reading.  To say that another way, if you are teaching a college intro course on OT, you should consider using it as the primary text (along with the Bible, of course).  But if you are teaching a graduate course on the Old Testament you should use it in conjunction with other textbooks (along with the Bible, of course).

I say that because the present volume is very accessible and though it covers everything, it doesn’t cover anything in depth.  And to be fair to it, it doesn’t intend to.  Graduate courses, on the other hand, should be more intensive and more thorough than undergrad courses.  There is, it seems to me, no point in making graduate courses too simple.  Students at the graduate level should be challenged and they should be reading a lot of material.  A lot.

With that said, this is a wonderfully written and illustrated textbook.  It discusses all the key questions and offers instructors specific questions to ask their students at the end of each chapter.  Bibliographies too are very up to date.

I do have to ‘brag’ a bit about Chapter 20.  Here our authors discuss the very complex subject of Hebrew Poetry and they do it in a sensible and clear way.  It is, I have to suggest, the best brief coverage of the topic I’ve yet read.  From asking ‘what is poetry’ to discussing the differences between English and Hebrew poetry, to a description of parallelism and on to the use of Poetry in the Hebrew Bible, our authors are precise and genuinely instructive.  This chapter is a model of handling the subject.

When it comes to historical discussions the authors come out on the relatively conservative side of things; but they are clearly not fundamentalists.  They make use of the likes of Finkelstein and Grabbe and Knauf but they also make use of the likes of Kitchen and Provan and Ussher (!).  This will displease both Minimalists and Maximalists.

The book will hold the attention of students and it will introduce them to the subject in a fair and helpful way.  I can happily recommend it.  And I will be using it in my own Intro course when next I teach it.

Chalamet Reviews ‘The Early Karl Barth’

Over at ‘Reading Religion‘.  Give it a read.   My own review is posted here.

The Magdalene in the Reformation

Prostitute, apostle, evangelist—the conversion of Mary Magdalene from sinner to saint is one of the Christian tradition’s most compelling stories, and one of the most controversial. The identity of the woman—or, more likely, women—represented by this iconic figure has been the subject of dispute since the Church’s earliest days. Much less appreciated is the critical role the Magdalene played in remaking modern Christianity.

In a vivid recreation of the Catholic and Protestant cultures that emerged in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, The Magdalene in the Reformationreveals that the Magdalene inspired a devoted following among those eager to find new ways to relate to God and the Church. In popular piety, liturgy, and preaching, as well as in education and the arts, the Magdalene tradition provided both Catholics and Protestants with the flexibility to address the growing need for reform. Margaret Arnold shows that as the medieval separation between clergy and laity weakened, the Magdalene represented a new kind of discipleship for men and women and offered alternative paths for practicing a Christian life.

Where many have seen two separate religious groups with conflicting preoccupations, Arnold sees Christians who were often engaged in a common dialogue about vocation, framed by the life of Mary Magdalene. Arnold disproves the idea that Protestants removed saints from their theology and teaching under reform. Rather, devotion to Mary Magdalene laid the foundation within Protestantism for the public ministry of women.

Reading Religion sent along a pre-publication proof back in August and I’ve mailed off my review today, so when they post it over there I’ll link here and update the timestamp.

Righteous Gentiles: Religion, Identity, and Myth in John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel

In Righteous Gentiles: Religion, Identity, and Myth in John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel, Sean Durbin offers a critical analysis of America’s largest Pro-Israel organization, Christians United for Israel, along with its critics and collaborators. Although many observers focus Christian Zionism’s influence on American foreign policy, or whether or not Christian Zionism is ‘truly’ religious, Righteous Gentiles takes a different approach. 

Through his creative and critical analysis of Christian Zionists’ rhetoric and mythmaking strategies, Durbin demonstrates how they represent their identities and political activities as authentically religious. At the same time, Durbin examines the role that Jews and the state of Israel have as vehicles or empty signifiers through which Christian Zionist truth claims are represented as manifestly real.

Sounds fun, doesn’t it.

Did You Grow Up in A Home With Books?

Eisenbrauns posted a thing on the facebook about books in homes… and it provoked me to respond.  And that provoked me to wonder about other folks and their childhoods and the books in their homes back then.

In my home my parents spent all their money, which wasn’t much anyway, on cigarettes, bowling, and pet food.  So we didn’t have more than half a dozen books in the house and a very old set of Britannica’s that my mother was given by her brother (my uncle).

Half a dozen books was the family library of my childhood.  I guess that’s why I have over 5000 in print and double that in electronic format thanks to Logos and BibleWorks.

So, how many books did you have in your childhood home?

The Tentative Title is ‘Jeremiah in History and Tradition’ And It Will Be Published by Taylor and Francis in the Copenhagen International Seminar Series

And, I’m very pleased to report, that the contract has been signed this very day.

The contributors for the volume are a star studded who’s who of Jeremiah scholars whilst I myself serve as but the lowly editor (with an introductory chapter and a concluding look forward).  I am super excited about this work, especially given the fact that the external reviewers (or at least 2 of the 3) were very, very positive in their assessments (and curse you, reviewer #2… ).

I hope that you’ll have it in your warm little hands by the Spring of 2019.  Stay tuned.

Der »Kritisch-exegetische Kommentar« in seiner Geschichte

Der Kritisch-exegetische Kommentar zum Neuen Testament (KEK) wurde von Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer im Jahr 1829 begründet. Bis heute wird dieser Kommentar noch unter dessen Namen als »Meyers Kommentar« geführt. Das Kommentarwerk bietet zunächst ausschließlich von Meyer, später dann von seinen Mitarbeitern, bald dann von Mitgliedern der Religionsgeschichtlichen Schule und der Dialektischen Theologie bis heute in 16 Abteilungen grundlegende Kommentare zur Auslegung der neutestamentlichen Schriften. Theologisch bewegt sich das Kommentarwerk in Korrespondenz zur jeweiligen Theologiegeschichte (Rationalismus, Philologie, Religionsgeschichte, Kerygmatheologie). Kennzeichen des Kommentarwerks ist jedoch eine sich durchhaltende philologische und religionsgeschichtliche Akzentuierung. Unter den Kommentaren, die stets nur auf einen einzigen Band zu einer Schrift festgelegt waren, befinden sich theologische Meisterwerke wie Rudolf Bultmanns Kommentar zum Johannesevangelium oder wie Wilhelm Boussets Kommentar zur Johannesoffenbarung. Das vorliegende Werk zeichnet die Geschichte des KEK, seiner Autoren und seiner Beziehung zum Verlagshaus Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht von seinen Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart nach und bespricht die wechselvolle Auslegung der neutestamentlichen Schriften.

This volume is available in North America from ISD.

I love this book. I love everything about it. I love the introductory section, with its important and engaging biography of Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer, the founder and grand designer of the commentary series which is here celebrated in a glorious historical survey. I love the chapter by Arndt Ruprecht, of the famous V&R publishing house, and his description of how this series came to life and the Publisher’s part in that process.

The second segment of the book, the largest part, is a historical survey of the various volumes which have appeared in KEK NT edited by Meyer.

The third segment of the volume is an ‘appendix’ – though much more than merely that – which provides readers with what can best be characterized as a Reception-History of the series and its manifestation in both German and English editions.

The final segment of the ‘appendix’ is a series of plates which feature both leading persons and facsimiles of pages from the various commentaries which have appeared in the series. Two of those plates are especially noteworthy:

So much for the format of the volume- but what of the substance of the work? It is a historical study as implied above. Moreover, it is a historical examination of one of the most important commentaries in the history of New Testament exegesis.

Allow me to illustrate the method of the volume by making reference to the Romans Commentary. Michael Theobold is the scholar assigned the task of surveying the various incarnations and editions of the examination of Paul’s letter to the Romans. To do so he surveys the chief viewpoints of the Commentary’s authors, he surveys the various interpretations of the ‘Gattung und Aufbau, Veranlassung und Zweck’ of the letter to the Romans as those are made plain in the various editions. And then he turns to how the various editions have dealt with the more difficult questions raised by crux passages in Romans and the interpretation of Romans through the decades of the commentary’s life. And finally, he looks forward to potential issues that future editions will need to address.

Mind you, however, that this approach is not applied ‘cookie cutter’ style to each of the New Testament commentaries discussed in this volume. Rather, the subject matter and issues of each volume are the starting point for the historical analysis of each work.

The chief accomplishment, then, of this book is that it provides in one handy place a well reasoned ‘history of New Testament scholarship’ or how New Testament scholars have addressed different issues that have arisen in the examination and exposition of the New Testament texts since the beginning of critical scholarship.

I love this book not only because it’s interesting, but because it’s informative. It is well written. It is glorious. It is, as a consequence, highly recommended.

‘Jesus in Jerusalem’: The Last Days

Take a look for yourself.  It really does look good, and its author is a solid scholar.

The four Gospels devote a significant portion of their accounts to Jesus’s last week in Jerusalem leading to his arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection. This observation reflects that fact that the early Christians agreed that the death and resurrection of Jesus have foundational significance for the faith and life of the church.

Jesus in Jerusalem follows the simple but essential approach that helps readers understand narrative texts around Jesus’s final days—identifying and analyzing people, places, time, events, and significance. While there are other matters that can be discussed with great benefit when analyzing the accounts of Jesus’s last week, I focus on these four areas…

Etc.  I’ve been sent a review copy, so look for more in the not too distant future.

The Struggle is Real

New from TVZ

Ein Dutzend «normale» Frauen und Männer, jüngere und ältere, kirchennahe und kirchenferne, Katholik/-innen und Protestant/-innen, haben zusammen mit dem bekannten Schweizer Neutestamentler Ulrich Luz das Neue Testament gelesen und ihre kritischen Fragen und Einwände an seine Textentwürfe gestellt.

Entstanden ist ein originelles, «leser-geprüftes» Büchlein: Es informiert Nicht-Theologinnen und Nicht-Theologen in verständlicher Sprache über Jesus, das frühe Christentum und die Schriften des Neuen Testaments.

The Book of Jeremiah: Composition, Reception, and Interpretation

New from Brill, and sent for review:

Written by leading experts in the field, The Book of Jeremiah: Composition, Reception, and Interpretation offers a wide-ranging treatment of the main aspects of Jeremiah. Its twenty-four essays fall under four main sections. The first section contains studies of a more general nature, and helps situate Jeremiah in the scribal culture of the ancient world, as well as in relation to the Torah and the Hebrew Prophets. The second section contains commentary on and interpretation of specific passages (or sections) of Jeremiah, as well as essays on its genres and themes. The third section contains essays on the textual history and reception of Jeremiah in Judaism and Christianity. The final section explores various theological aspects of the book of Jeremiah.

The link above allows potential readers to access the front matter of the volume.  Having done so, readers will see straightaway that the volume is occupied by some of the leading scholars of the Book of Jeremiah have taken part.  Of note are the contributions of  Wing So, Lundbom (all of his), Lange, and Fretheim.  Shead’s on the text of Jeremiah in the LXX is quite a brave work since the topic he chose is so incredibly difficult.  Especially to discuss in so narrow a format as difficult a subject.

But the best contribution of the lot is that of Leuchter, which with the volume commences.  He starts out

In 1970, James Muilenburg penned an influential article entitled “Baruch the Scribe.”  In that article, Muilenburg emphasized the paramount role played by Baruch b. Neriah in the production of the book of Jeremiah, noting that Baruch lived in what he termed a “scribal age.”  That is, the book of Jeremiah (and Baruch’s great contribution to it) emerged from an era when scribes had emerged as figures of tremendous prestige and numinous power. To refer to the late seventh–mid sixth centuries BCE as a “scribal age,” however, is somewhat misleading. Surely it was, but so too was every era among the centers of power in the ancient near east from roughly the mid-third millennium BCE down to the rise of Hellenism in the fourth century BCE and beyond.  Archaeology enables the scholar to recover some sense of an ancient society’s economy, population density, and even their ritual world to some degree, but is only through the written artifacts of scribes surviving from these periods that we are privy to the intricacies of their intellectual and social worlds, value systems, religious beliefs, concepts of history, and other traditions enshrined in the textual record. We know what we know of these ages because they were all, in a way, scribal ages.

After setting the stage for his argument to follow, as one must do in such times, Leuchter closely and carefully examines a few relevant texts from the Book of Jeremiah and comes to the conclusion that

The book of Jeremiah itself therefore transforms the scribal artifacts it preserves by reproducing them and calling attention to their place within its own textual boundaries. A scroll submerged in the Euphrates river is also submerged within the text through the process of redaction; the colophon to a transaction document-turned prophetic sign itself becomes a portent for written prophecy; and the Urrolle read in the ears of the scribes and the king in Jerusalem is reproduced within the rhetorical expanse of the written Jeremiah tradition (e.g., the דברי ירמיהו of Jer 1:1/51:64b that must have opened and closed an early version of the book similar to the MT).

And then

While there is little doubt that a robust oral tradition persisted during the era of the Babylonian exile, textual works like the book of Jeremiah became the only material objects that Jewish audiences in exile could approach to encounter the sort of writings that were once so vital to Israelite sanctuary spaces. Entering sacred sanctuary space was replaced by an entry into the texts, where the sources once used by priests to empower their own revelatory proclamations were now embedded in texts that modelled how revelation could be facilitated in the absence of temple structures and faculties.

The book as a whole is technical and demanding, as one would expect from an academically aimed collection of essays.  But it is not so technical that graduate students and their Professors will find it incomprehensible.  With a little effort, the volume can be absorbed and digested (much like Ezekiel’s famous scroll) but rather than being tasty in the mouth and bitter in the gut, this volume is satisfying throughout.  Your research library should obtain a copy for its reference section.

Stop What You’re Doing RIGHT NOW and Go Get The Calvin Handbook e-book for $3.99

Offer appears to be good through the end of October.  And get Julie’s book while you’re at it.