The Old Testament and Christian Spirituality - International Voices in ...

Undervaluation of the Old Testament in Christian Spirituality 7
2.1 Textual complexity/critical scholarship/theological education
The text of the Old Testament is not a simple text. 19 The long
history of its development, which historical-critical scholarship has
indicated, yet on which there seems to be no consensus, 20 makes
the Hebrew Bible a book that is often ignored for the purposes of
spiritual enrichment. The concomitant repetitions, contradictions
and inconsistencies found in the texts of the Old Testament have
not helped to endear this part of the Scriptures to the Bible-reading
public. Important to note here is, however, that the historical
scholarship of the Old Testament does not in essence stand at odds
with Spirituality scholarship, 21 since the latter is to a great extent
historically oriented. 22 This shared focus on the past, along with
19 For a historical overview of what is meant philosophically by the “text” of
Scripture within circles concerned with spirituality, cf. D. S. Pacini, “Reading
Holy Writ: the Locus of Modern Spirituality,” in Christian Spirituality III. Post-
Reformation and Modern (ed. L. Dupré and D. E. Saliers; New York:
Crossroads, 1991), 174–210.
20 The Pentateuch theories are a case in point: cf. Wellhausen 1963 4 versus Blum
1990 versus Van Seters 1994 versus Braulik 1991 versus Otto 2000, to name
some of the main players. Jones mentions the parallel problems historicalcritical
scholarship has created regarding the New Testament (see Jones,
“Biblical Roots: The New Testament,” 60).
21 On the relationship between spirituality and theology in general, cf. e.g., P.
Sheldrake, Spirituality and Theology: Christian Living and the Doctrine of God
(London: Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd, 1998), 3–34, 183–95; Marmion,
Spirituality of Everyday Faith, 29–39; McGrath, Christian Spirituality, 27–33;
interestingly, Greshake places spirituality as the primary category over theology
(see G. Greshake, “Zum Verhältnis von Theologie und Spiritualität,” Studies in
Spirituality 10 (2000), 21–32.
22 Cf. e.g., Downey, Understanding Christian Spirituality, 54–72, 126–27;
McGrath, Christian Spirituality, 135–72; Cunningham and Egan, Christian
Spirituality, 7; M. Casey, “Bernard’s Biblical Mysticism. Approaching Sermons
on the Song of Songs 74,” Studies in Spirituality 4 (1994), 12–30; U. T. Holmes,
A History of Christian Spirituality. An Analytical Introduction (New York:
Seabury Press, 1981), 14–157.