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

76 The Old Testament and Christian Spirituality
hermeneutically, 117 is well established. Equally, the spirituality of
the modern Bible reader is situated within an involved, complex
contextuality. 118 The fact remains that the way in which Scripture
is read, directly affects the lives of faith of those readers. 119 This is
one of the reasons that Biblical Spirituality is such an important
field of study, combining as it does scholarly exegesis with the
“more” (cf. the opening paragraph of this essay) of critical faith
interaction.
It is a little strange, though, that when reference is made to
Spirituality and the Old Testament, it is almost by definition the
Psalms that are mentioned. 120 This is nothing new, as the following
statement by Sorg, drawing on St. Basil, already shows: “While the
whole of the Bible is inspired, yet it may truly be said that the
subject-matter of the psalms excels in spirituality.” 121 The question
must be asked: why would this be so? Has, perhaps, liturgical
tradition, often based on christological Psalm exposition, along
with the relative brevity of the Psalm texts determined this? The
rest of the Old Testament certainly offers much more than is, for a
117 Cf. foundationally, Thiselton, New Horizons in Hermeneutics, and as a case
study, F. E. Deist, Ervaring, Rede en Metode in Skrifuitleg. ‘n Wetenskapshistoriese
Ondersoek na Skrifuitleg in die Ned. Geref. Kerk 1840–1990
(Pretoria: Raad vir Geesteswetenskaplike Navorsing, 1994).
118 Cf. W. Dantine, “Phantasie zum Aufbruch aus dem Gewohnten. Spiritualität
und geschichtliches Handeln,” Evangelische Kommentare 9/10 (1976), 591–93;
Claassen, “Christelike Spiritualiteit as Kommunikatiewe Handeling,” 137–45.
119 Cf. e.g. Claassen, “Christelike Spiritualiteit as Kommunikatiewe Handeling,”
57–63, 115–27; Adam, Hearing God’s Words, 19.
120 Cf. J. S. Custer, The Old Testament. A Byzantine Perspective (Pittsburgh:
God With Us Publications, 1994), 160; De Villiers, “The Psalms and
Spirituality,” 419–22; E. Sipkema and K. Lelyveld, “De Regel van de H.
Benedictus en het Gebruik van de Psalmen. Een Spiritualiteit van de Psalmen,”
Amsterdamse cahiers voor exegese van de Bijbel en zijn tradities 18 (2000),
132,
121 See Sorg, “The Spirituality of the Psalms,” 535, cf. 537.