On the reason for the multivocality of the Old Testament witness:
[T]he biblical material itself ... refuses to be reduced or domesticated into a settled coherence. This refusal may not be simply a literary one but a theological one, pertaining to its central Subject. The restless character of the text that refuses excessive closure, which von Rad understood so well, is reflective of the One who is its main Character, who also refuses tameness or systemization. Thus it is the very God uttered in these texts who lies behind the problems of perspective and method
Walter Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), p. 42
4 comments:
Great quote. I picked this book up today at our local Christian bookstore. I noticed that it came with the Libronix CD as well! Hmmm, maybe with this sought of Gold I should not have returned it to the shelf!
This is an important quote. Thanks for posting it.
I wonder what came first: his vision of God or his confrontation with the text?
Great question, Phil. I still need to read your critique of his reading of Childs.
Taken as it stands, this quote is fairly innocuous. Childs could also agree with it. But their different visions of God shape their different handling of the implications of this quote. There's no easy step from looking at the Bible to thinking about God, as this quote out of context may imply and as Brueggemann's own philosophical commitments should make clear (not that I think he fully grasps this).
Post a Comment