Biblical Theology
- Biblical Theology
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After general reflections about the phenomenon of “(human) power,” B. briefly sketches how the biblical Books of Samuel and Kings deal with this phenomenon: How did kings like Solomon or Rehoboam use and secure their power—and how and why do they fail in doing so? According to B., the Exile was a time of crisis that inspired the biblical writers to develop a more “democratic” idea of human beings: every human being represents God as God’s image. Thus, Deut 17:14–20 paints an ideal picture of a “king” that corresponds to other texts from the Persian period that feature a utopia of peace (e.g., the Fourth Servant Song, Isa 52:13–53:12; Zech 6:13–14; 9:9–10; Isa 9:5–6; 11:1–9; Jer 30:21; Micah 5:1–3). In this utopia Yahweh alone has unquestionable authority, which he uses to support his chosen king and/or messiah. The utopia articulated by the above texts will eliminate all current injustices, but this will happen only at the eschaton.—T.H.
The notion of the immortality of the soul is widely questioned by many contemporary exegetes and theologians on the grounds that it is not in accordance with the biblical revelation concerning the human person. That notion would rather represent a deformation of Judeo-Christian thought from the side of Greek philosophy, with some scholars categorically affirming that the Bible nowhere speaks of an immortality of the human soul. A human being endowed with an immortal soul that would go on living after death (conceived as the separation of the body and the soul) would, according to these authors, in no way correspond to the human person envisaged by the Bible.
C., for his part, argues against the above thesis, which is contrary to the teaching of the Church’s magisterium. Would not, he asks, the “unthinkable” persistance of the human soul apart from body rather be a sign and manifestation of the perduring divine plan in the face of human sin? [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.]
In this paper, I want to argue the following: (1) To show that it is possible, in fact religiously responsible and even reverent, to ascertain a stance from the biblical materials on God’s action in the world—but to do so will require us to appreciate the manner in which the Torah (and the rest of the Bible, both Hebrew and Greek) speaks, and to seek to discern this in a linguistically rigorous way; (2) to articulate an observation-level metaphysics, to show how this relates to material in the Torah, and to suggest that it actually provides a helpful way to think of scientific “laws”; and (3) to show how this approach relates to some of the 20th- and 21st-century issues of scientific naturalism and evolution, and how it might relate to a true [End Page 209] account of the world. In all of this, I intend to keep track of the thematic issue, namely how my discussion relates to the question of Torah from heaven. My focus will be on what functions the Torah claims to carry out and how it speaks in order to carry out that function, and what conclusions we have the right to draw from this. [p. 20, adapted—C.T.B.]
The challenge of reconceptualizing mythological concepts like the Devil in contemporary Christian theology is well known, but some interpreters find a demythologized Devil already in the NT. To evaluate this approach exegetically, my study attempts...
