1.6 Rebirth of OT Theology (1930-1960)

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1.6 Rebirth of OT Theology (1930-1960)

• BIB566 Old Testament Theology

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1.6.1 Catalysts for Change

• 1. "First was the general loss of faith in
  evolutionary naturalism, which resulted in a
  steadily increasing dissatisfaction with the
  religionsgeschichtlich attempt to explain
  Israel's religion as but one example of a
  universal law by which man inevitably progresses
  from animatism to ethical monotheism." Dentan

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1.6.1 Catalysts for Change

• 2. "Second, there was a reaction against
  mid-nineteenth century conviction that historical
  truth can be attained by pure scientific
  "objectivity" or indeed that such objectivity is
  itself attainable." Dentan

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1.6.1 Catalysts for Change

• 3. "Third, was the trend of continental theology
  back toward the Reformation - a trend which both
  rehabilitated the somewhat suspect term
  "theology" and gave a new impetus to biblical
  studies as being profoundly relevant to modern
  theological problems." Dentan

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Anti-Old Testament Attitude

• 1. "One root lies in the general animosity toward
  traditional religion, whether Jewish or
  Christian, which was widespread at the time.
  Prominent figures in this development were the
  earlier Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) who
  advocated atheism and depreciation of reason in
  favor of emphasis on the will Friedrich Wilhelm
  Nietzsche (1844-1900) who opposed religion's
  emphasis on and concern for the weak and thus its
  disparagement of the drive toward the superhuman.
  . . . " Hayes Prussner

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Anti-Old Testament Attitude

• 2. "A second root can be seen in reductionist
  attempts to interpret religion in purely human
  categories, generally in positivist and
  naturalistic terms. . . . Ludwig Andreas
  Feuerbach (1804-72) . . . Emile Durkheim
  (1858-1917) . . . . Karl Marx (1818-83) . . .
  Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) . . . ." Hayes
  Prussner

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Anti-Old Testament Attitude

• 3. "A further contributor to this attitude toward
  the Old Testament were approaches based on racial
  considerations and prejudices." Hayes Prussner

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Anti-Old Testament Attitude

• 4. "A particular reading of the general
  conclusions arrived at by historical critics was
  also turned against the Old Testament. The
  so-call "Pan-Babylonian" school . . . Hugo
  Winckler (1863-1913), Alfred Jeremias (1864-1935)
  . . . . Friedrich Delitzsch (1850-1922) . . . ."
  Hayes Prussner

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Anti-Old Testament Attitude

• 5. ". . . nineteenth-century Old Testament
  scholarship was widely characterized by a
  tendency to downplay the value of Old Testament
  cultic and levitical laws and to disparage the
  Judaism of the second-temple period." Hayes
  Prussner

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Anti-Old Testament Attitude

• 6. Adolf von Harnack (1851-1930) "To reject the
  Old Testament in the second century was a mistake
  the church rightly repudiated to retain it in
  the sixteenth century was a fate which the
  Reformation could not yet avoid but to continue
  to keep it as a canonical document after the
  nineteenth century is the consequence of
  religious and ecclesiastical paralysis." Hayes
  Prussner

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Collapse of the History of Religions

• "Eissfeldt . . . described this collapse in
  retrospect in 1931, not without regrets 'When
  the war came to an end, the first unrest of the
  years of revolution settled, and now science and
  theology again came more into their own, it was
  not the theology of the history of religions
  which continued a victory march interrupted only
  by war and revolution rather, a quite different
  kind of theology came into being and went from
  success to success dialectical theology, which
  was also called theology of crisis and theology
  of the Word.'" Albertz

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1.6.2 Dialectical Theology Karl Barth

• ". . . Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann . . . the
  two key figures among the dialecticians - were
  both intent on giving new value to the Reformers
  hermeneutical impulse. They did so in a
  situation in which the christological and
  kerygmatic identity of church and theology was in
  danger of being completely lost in a
  culture-synthesis, the force of which was already
  spent. But Barth and Bultmann attached
  themselves to the Reformation and its
  understanding of the gospel in a situation which
  is new in the history of theology. They do not
  aim simply at repristinating the old, but at
  giving a new and critical account of Reformation
  tradition in the present." Stuhlmacher

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1.6.2 Dialectical Theology Karl Barth

• "Central to dialectical theology was revelation
  rather than religion The former was viewed
  positively, the latter negatively. This parallels
  the very positive view of theology, contrasted
  with the negative placing of religion in
  comparison with it" Barr
• "In the new theology the thesis is God, the
  original given entity. The antithesis is God is
  unapproachable."Kraeling

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1.6.2 Karl Barth

• . . . the well-known dogmatic principle that the
  Bible is the Word of God. True, human beings have
  spoken in the Bible, but also, 'refracted in the
  prism of their word, God himself'. . . . Barth
  strictly maintains the historicity of the word of
  God, preserving the Reformation insight into the
  'in, with and under'. Any attempt to demonstrate
  the Word of God directly in the Bible is
  pseudo-science' 'Knowledge of the Bible as the
  Word of God is an event, a breakthrough, which
  takes place again and again. The barrier which
  has to be broken through is the historical
  conditioning of the biblical testimony which must
  be recognized without remainder." Reventlow

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1.6.2 Karl Barth

• "What we have in Barth's thought is not a
  repetition of Orthodoxy's "plenary inspiration"
  but an interpretation of revelation which in some
  ways reminds one of Luther's but which also takes
  account of a century and a half of biblical
  criticism. The Word of God assumes with him a
  threefold form. . . . For Barth . . . it is not
  even this historical Jesus but only the crucified
  and resurrected Christ . . . who may occupy the
  center of the Christian revelation." Hayes
  Prussner

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1.6.2 Karl Barth

• "Barth's direct influence on Old Testament
  theology was not overwhelming, in fact it was
  rather nominal in the early years of his career.
  In the second place, the first major discussion
  of the Old Testament to come from this school was
  concerned with pointing out the Old Testament
  testimony to Christ (Vischer)." Hayes Prussner

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1.6.3 OT Theologians

• 1. Eduard Köning (1846-?)?
• "The first work of Old Testament theology which
  appeared after the War, E. König's Theologie des
  Alten Testaments (1922) . . . . It is . . . the
  last burst of an old fire than the kindling of a
  new. He declared himself opposed to any method
  which exalts the evolutionary principle to a
  dogma and which carries the comparison of
  religions so far that vergleichen (to compare)
  becomes the equivalent of ausgleichen (to ignore
  differences)." Dentan

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1.6.3 OT Theologians

• 2. C. Steuernagel ?
• "The real beginning of the renaissance of Old
  Testament theology is marked by an article
  published by C. Steuernagel in 1925 . . . . He
  pleaded for a renewed cultivation of the older
  discipline on these simple and practical grounds
  First, scholars in other fields of study need
  some place to which they may turn in order to
  discover easily what the Old Testament has to say
  about the great topics with which all religions
  are concerned second, the student of New
  Testament, or of dogmatic theology, has similar
  need of some place where he may learn the chief
  results of Old Testament studies as they bear
  upon religious doctrines and, finally, there are
  elements in Old Testament religion which are
  essentially timeless and which can be more
  clearly presented by the method of topical
  discussion than by chronological arrangement."
  Dentan

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1.6.3 OT Theologians

• 3. Otto Eissfeldt (1887-1973)?
• "Eissfeldt dealt with the problem of the
  relationship between a "history of Israel's
  religion" and a "theology of the Old Testament."
  He viewed this problem in light of the more
  general problem presented by the tension between
  history and revelation, between immanence and
  transcendence, between the relative and the
  absolute. But instead of attempting to reduce
  that tension, he allowed it to stand and, as a
  matter of fact, even magnified it." Hayes
  Prussner

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Otto Eissfeldt

• "The history of Israel's ongoing religious
  experience with its social conditioning and its
  development from lower to higher belonged . . .
  to the domain of Religionsgeschichte, or to use
  Gabler's terminology, to the area of "true
  biblical theology." . . . the concern of Old
  Testament theology was only with God's
  revelation, the true and absolute religion,
  insofar as it could be found in Israel's
  Scripture. . . . corresponds somewhat to Gabler's
  interest in a "pure biblical theology" although
  with some differences." Hayes Prussner

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Otto Eissfeldt

• "The reason that historical analysis and
  theological formulation cannot be harmonized is
  that they represent two separate activities of
  the human mind, intellectual understanding and
  religious faith." Hayes Prussner
• "Eissfeldt . . . method . . . . It would need to
  be systematic, not in the sense of developing a
  system on the basis of some general principle,
  but in terms of a stringing together of
  statements about the nature of Yahweh, humanity,
  sin, and salvation . . . ." Hayes Prussner

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1.6.3 OT Theologians

• 4. Walther Eichrodt (1890-1978)?
• "By far the most outstanding and enduring
  representative of the new era in OT theology is
  Eichrodt's Theologie des Alten Testaments,
  originally published in three parts between
  1933-39 (Eng 1961-67). In spite of legitimate
  criticisms and acknowledged shortcomings,
  Eichrodt's work so far remains unsurpassed in
  comprehensiveness, methodological thoroughness,
  and theological acumen." Lemke

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Walther Eichrodt

• "Eichrodt, the theologian, answered that
  Eissfeldts view, while preserving the integrity
  of history of religion, compromises that of Old
  Testament theology by removing it from the
  framework of Old Testament and historical inquiry
  generally (1929). In opposition to Eissfeldt,
  Eichrodt claimed that historical investigation
  can get to the essence of Old Testament religion.
  But Eichrodt redefined the essence of the Old
  Testament as the deepest meaning of its
  religious thought world that historical
  investigation can recover through an analysis
  that cuts across the various historical levels in
  the Old Testament." Ollenburger

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Walther Eichrodt

• ". . . W. Eichrodt wished to see the two fields .
  . . as a unity. One could certainly press toward
  the nature of Old Testament religion by
  proceeding only along the pathway of historical
  inquiry. This would mean that the questions of
  truth and value would belong to the field of
  dogmatics but not to biblical theology." Preuss

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Walter Eichrodt

• ". . . Eichrodt defined the task of OT theology
  as constructing a complete picture of the realm
  of OT belief in its structural unity. Such an
  exposition was to be done with constant reference
  to two contextual realities the world of ANE
  religion on the one hand, and the realm of NT
  belief on the other. It should be observed,
  however, that in actual execution, Eichrodt paid
  far more attention to the former than the
  latter." Anderson

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Walter Eichrodt

• The biblical concept of "covenant" was chosen by
  him as an overarching category or unifying center
  of OT theology, and the material was presented in
  accordance with the following tripartite scheme
  God and the People, God and the World, God and
  Man. A look at the full table of contents reveals
  that the organizational principle operative in
  Eichrodt's theology was systematic or
  conceptual." Anderson

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Walter Eichrodt

• ". . . Eichrodt maintained that the theologian
  can take a "cross-section" (Querschnitt) of this
  dynamic development at any point in the
  historical process in order to explore the Old
  Testament's structure of belief and to perceive
  its integrity vis-à-vis the religions of the
  environment. . . . The faith of Israel is not a
  miscellaneous assortment of beliefs, nor is it
  only a process of growth and development. Rather,
  it manifests a structural unity or theological
  integrity that is fundamentally the same in all
  historical stages." Anderson

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Walter Eichrodt

• ". . . Eichrodt's approach is synchronic
  ("happening together," like notes struck
  simultaneously in a musical chord), though he
  also attempted to do justice to the diachronic
  dimension ("happening through time," like the
  successive notes of a scale). In his view Old
  Testament theology does not concentrate on growth
  or evolution (e.g., the growth of the idea of
  God) but on "structural" features that remain the
  same in all historical periods. Anderson

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1.6.3 OT Theologians

• 5. Wilhelm Vischer (1895-?)?
• "The two most significant voices advancing
  christological exegesis were Wilhelm Vischer and
  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945). Even for Barth
  the Hebrew Scriptures witnessed primarily to
  Christ or at least to the "primal history" or the
  centrality of the pre-existence of Christ. For
  most Christians, and especially for Barth, it was
  difficulty to speak of the message and value of
  the Old Testament without reference to Christ and
  Christianity." Hayes Prussner

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Wilhem Vischer

• "The Old Testament is like a arch, where the
  whole is understood in light of the parts and the
  parts in the light of the whole, and that arch is
  the Christ. All of this . . . requires a degree
  of christianization of the Old Testament in a
  form similar to that of the Reformers . . . ."
  Hayes Prussner
• "Vischer's interpretation came very close to
  allegorical reading." Hayes Prussner

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1.6.3 OT Theologians

• 6. Ernst Sellin (1867-1945)?
• ". . . divided his theology into two volumes, the
  first dealing with the history of
  Israelite-Judean religion and the second with Old
  Testament theology proper. . . . His
  justification for allowing history and theology
  to go their own separate ways was contained in
  the two definitions of the function he ascribed
  to each." Hayes Prussner
• "The history of the religion, he though, had as
  its purpose to picture "the development and
  growth of the religion of the Israelite-Jewish
  nation both in terms of the divine revelation
  which pulsated and found expression here and of
  the multiform, natural-human influence,
  development, shaping and piety from the
  beginnings to the coming of Jesus Christ." Hayes
  Prussner

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Ernst Sellin

• "The objective of a theology of the Old Testament
  . . . was to describe "systematically the
  religious teachings and the faith which were
  fashioned in the Jewish community on the basis of
  the sacred writings during the fifth to the
  second pre-Christian centuries, but only in so
  far as they were recognized by Jesus Christ and
  his apostles as the presupposition and the
  foundation of their gospel . . . ." Hayes
  Prussner
• "For Sellin . . . Old Testament theology thus
  required a peculiarly Christian orientation. "We
  are interested . . . only in the long line which
  found its fulfillment in the Gospel." Hayes
  Prussner

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1.6.3 OT Theologians

• 7. Ludwig Köhler (1880-1956)?
• "It consisted of a simple and straightforward
  enumeration with a strong philological
  orientation of the statements made in the Old
  Testament about God, Man, and Judgment and
  Salvation. . . . " Hayes Prussner
• "On the whole . . . Köhler's practice was to
  leave historical considerations, such as
  development, social influences, and the impact of
  various historic personalities, out of the
  picture." Hayes Prussner

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1.6.3 OT Theologians

• 8. Otto Procksch (1874-1947)?
• Eichrodt was his student and von Rad aided in
  publishing his posthumous work on OT Theology.
• "Proskch divided his work into two parts. The
  first - the world of history - was concerned with
  the history of Israelite religion from
  patriarchal times until the late postexilic
  period. The second part - the world of thought -
  presented his systematic account or theology.
  Three main headings - God and World, God and
  People, and God and Man - served as organizing
  principles." Hayes Prussner

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1.6.3 OT Theologians

• 9. Millar Burrows (1889-1980)?
• In his An Outline of Biblical Theology

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1.6.6 Gerhard von Rad

• While there were differences in the choice of
  organizational schemas and overarching concepts,
  nearly all OT theologies were written from such a
  systematic-conceptual perspective. This
  methodological consensus was shaken during the
  late 1950s by G. von Rad with the publication of
  his immensely stimulating Theologie des Alten
  Testaments in two volumes (Eng 1961-65). Against
  the systematic-conceptual approach to the OT, von
  Rad insisted that the theological task proper to
  the OT is not the spiritual or religious world of
  Israel, nor the belief system of the OT, but
  simply Israel's own explicit assertions about
  Yahweh as reflected in the major tradition
  complexes of the OT. The latter,

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1.6.6 Gerhard von Rad

• however, presented Yahweh's relationship to
  Israel as a continuing divine activity in
  history. Consequently, it was this picture of
  Yahweh's activity in the history of Israel as
  reflected in the traditions of the OT which, for
  von Pad, constituted the proper subject of OT
  theology.
• Methodologically, this meant for him that the
  retelling of this confessional story of the OT
  traditions was the most legitimate form of
  theological discourse on the OT. This conviction
  is reflected in the manner in which von Rad
  organized and presented his material. Vol. I
  consists of two parts a concise survey of the
  history of Israelite religion, followed by a
  theology of Israel's historical traditions.

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1.6.6 Gerhard von Rad

• After a brief chapter on methodology, the latter
  are treated under the following three headings
  "The Theology of the Hexateuch," "Israel's
  Anointed" (covering the Deuteronomistic and the
  Chronicler's history), and "Israel Before Yahweh
  (Israel's Answer),"which covers the Psalms and
  the Wisdom Literature. Vol. II is divided into
  three parts as follows "General Considerations
  in Prophecy," "Classical Prophecy"(which treats
  the OT prophets from Amos on in their sequential
  appearance down to and including apocalyptic
  literature), and "The Old Testament and the New"
  (in which the author sets forth his understanding
  of the relationship between the testaments).

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1.6.6 Gerhard von Rad