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

60 The Old Testament and Christian Spirituality
disorientation, and new orientation. 28 He relates this to the work of
God in Christ (“crucifixion and resurrection”) in a paradigmatic
way, as a Christian—though not a christological—interpretative
strategy. 29 In the church this crucifixion-resurrection pattern is
reflected in the ritual of baptism, and in the Old Testament in the
history of Jerusalem and the exile, as a pattern of “loss” and
“gift.” 30 In modern life, Brueggemann seeks in this way to counter
the relentless optimism that Western/American popular culture
demands of its subjects. 31 What is more, the orientationdisorientation-new
orientation interpretative matrix Brueggemann
adopts is a dialogical exegetical approach, that is: sensitive to the
internal debate of the Psalms; and dynamic, that is: sensitive to
the movement in people’s lives from one circumstance to the other.
The value of the Psalms, reflects Brueggemann, lies in the
breadth of experience that they give voice to, both in ancient Israel
and for later believers. 32 The problems of modern writings on the
Psalms are that devotionals are often pious but naïve, whereas
scholarship frequently offers academic understanding without
being “belief-full” perception. 33 Rather, Brueggemann would have
it, scholarship and discipleship should enrich one another. 34
Gunkel, 35 Mowinckel, 36 and Westermann 37 must meet the soul. 38
28
Brueggemann, Spirituality of the Psalms, viii, x, 8–13
29
Ibid., x, 12–13.
30
Ibid., xi.
31
Ibid., xii–xiii, 14–15, 26.
32
Ibid., 1–2.
33
Ibid., 7.
34
Ibid., 2–5.
35
See G. Gunkel, Die Psalmen (Göttinger Handkommentar zum Alten
Testament, II.2; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1926 4 ); G. Gunkel and J.
Begrich, Einleitung in die Psalmen: Die Gattungen der religiosen Lyrik Israels
(Göttinger Handkommentar zum Alten Testament, 2; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck
& Ruprecht, 1933).
36
See S. Mowinckel, Psalmenstudien, I–VI (Kristiania: J. Dybwad, 1922–1924);
and S. Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel’s Worship (Oxford: Blackwell, 1962).