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

Genealogies and Spiritualities in Genesis 85
Davies, with which to analyse the faith of ancient Israel, as
reflected in the Hebrew Bible. To be sure, the tone set by Albertz
and Davies and others—despite differences in where they set the
bar for accepting material as historically useful—should in my
opinion be adhered to: that a fundamentally historical approach is
the key to studying the spiritualities we encounter in the Bible. The
concern that an approach which takes Spirituality as its express
point of departure may gloss over exegetical and historical
minutiae, is not unfounded. 6 However, I remain convinced 7 that
working with precisely these minutiae will lead Old Testament
scholarship to productive insights on the ways in which Israel
related to Yahweh, and on how this faith was then related to later
generations (be it orally, in writing, or through editing). After all,
given, with the subject matter of Spirituality being the cognitive, emotional,
behavioural, and other results springing forth in certain particular ways, both
conditioned and creative, from this existential orientation. For fuller descriptions
of the concept of spirituality, cf. C. Kourie, “What Is Christian Spirituality?” in
Christian Spirituality in South Africa (ed. C. Kourie and L. Kretzschmar;
Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2000), 9–33; J. W. Oostenbrink,
“Gereformeerde Spiritualiteit as Korporatiewe Spiritualiteit,” In die Skriflig 33,
no. 3 (1999): 367–83; D. Marmion, A Spirituality of Everyday Faith: A
Theological Investigation of the Notion of Spirituality in Karl Rahner (Louvain
Theological and Pastoral Monographs 23; Louvain: Peeters Press, 1998), 3–40;
M. Downey, Understanding Christian Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press,
1997), 5–29; K. Waaijman, “Toward a Phenomenological Definition of
Spirituality,” Studies in Spirituality 3 (1993): 5–57; D. J. Smit, “Kan
Spiritualiteit Beskryf Word?” Ned. Geref. Teologiese Tydskrif 30, no. 1 (1989):
85–92.
6 Cf. Lombaard, “The Old Testament in Christian Spirituality,” 439–40; W.
Brueggemann, Spirituality of the Psalms (Augsburg: Fortress, 2002), 59; J. L.
Houlden, “Bible, Spirituality of the,” in Westminster Dictionary of Spirituality
(ed. G. S. Wakefield; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1983), 48. Albertz has for
related reasons expressed similar reservations about Old Testament Theologies
(see R. Albertz, Religionsgeschichte Israels in alttestamentlicher Zeit [Teil 1;
Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1992], 20–32).
7 Cf. Lombaard, “The Old Testament in Christian Spirituality,” 440