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

172 The Old Testament and Christian Spirituality
between these two. For instance, in Old Testament studies much
research has focussed on the internal debate within and between
the different books of the Hebrew Bible, which reflect diverse and
competing theological strands within ancient Israel. Thus, within
the Hebrew Bible itself, rival notions stand at odds with one
another. 3 The same may be said of the New Testament, even
though it had a much shorter gestation period and consists of a
more limited literary scope. 4 Not surprisingly, therefore, attempts
at writing a biblical theology comprising both Testaments have
shown quite clearly the difficulties in tracing consistencies within
all the dissimilarities both within and between the Semitic and
Hellenistic parts of the Bible. 5
The complications involved with interpreting such a diffusion
of textual deposits within Scripture have given rise to many of the
dogmatological controversies and even to ecclesial schisms
throughout two millennia of church history. 6 In the wake of the
modern period’s almost instinctive drive towards specialisation
and compartmentalisation, these same interpretative problems are
evidenced in the varied ways in which the different disciplines of
3 Cf. R. Albertz, Religionsgeschichte Israels in alttestamentlicher Zeit (vols. 1
and 2; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1992).
4 Cf. e.g. P. Balla, Challenges to New Testament Theology. An Attempt to Justify
the Enterprise (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997), 147–209.
5 Cf. e.g. the essays collected in S. E. Porter, ed., Hearing the Old Testament in
the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006); Old Testament theologies
such as those by Preuβ and Brueggemann try to solve the diversity by playing
concepts off against one another, as the central approach to their work; see H. D.
Preuβ, Theologie des Alten Testaments, Band 1: JHWHs erwählendes und
verpflichtendes Handeln (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1991), and W. Brueggemann,
Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute, Advocacy (Minneapolis:
Fortress, 1997). K. Nürnberger proposes an evolutionary approach (in Theology
of the Biblical Witness. An Evolutionary Approach [Theologie: Forschung und
Wissenschaft, Band 5; Münster: LIT Verlag, 2002]).
6 Cf. F. L. Canale, Understanding Revelation-Inspiration in a Postmodern World
(Berrien Springs: Andrews University Lithotech, 2001), 25.