A Royal Isaianic Servant of YHWH?

In this article I argue that the Isaianic Servant of YHWH is a non-royal figure. The main arguments are as follows. The form of Isa 42,1-4, the motifs of 42,1 and the projected role of the servant in relation to justice do not support the idea that the servant is a royal figure. Likewise, in Isa 61,1-3, the portrait drawn is that of a prophetic figure with a speaking ministry. The servant of Isaiah 40-55 and the Davidic ruler of Isaiah 9, 11 and 16 cannot be equated, for the servant’s proclamatory role precedes the founding of God’s kingdom, whereas the role of the Davidic ruler is as enforcer of justice within the consummated kingdom. The focus in Isaiah 40-66 is on God as the King who liberates his people and redeems Zion and this leaves to the servant the prophetic roles of speaking and suffering as agent of the Divine King.     

Jerusalem 720-705 BCE. No Flood of Israelite Refugees

ABSTRACT

Beside the use of ???? in the priestly and poetic material of the Hebrew Bible the term appears several times in First Isaiah. While priestly authors used (verb and noun) only in reference to God as elementary part of his revelation, the meaning in Isa 1-10 and 13-23 differs frequently. ???? ap-pears with regard to God, persons and objects. in Isa 6; 8 and 10,5-34 the term names a phenomenon which is equivalent to the Mesopotamian melammu ?arruti. In Isa 5 and 10,1-4 it is used as expression for the visible image of a person or a nation. Finally in Isa 4,2-6 and 11,10-16 it represents mount Zion as place of God's revelation. Insofar the results of the motif critical investigation approves former redaction critical studies. In contrast to this in Isa 13-23 the term has an almost consistent meaning. In Isaiah's words to the nations it is used for the nation's actual condition and qualifies the situation as good or bad.     

Passion and compassion of god in the old testament

Abstract

The point of departure is the Kitamorian “Pain of God Theology”. However, the present survey is that of exegesis and of biblical theology. We pose the question whether the concept of the “immutability of God” is that of the OT? We believe our focal texts (Hos 11,8; Jer 31,20; Isa 63, 9+15) do challenge that notion. The righteous God of Israel is not presented as a vindictive god, who delights in judgement. Rather, the glimpses of God's “emotions”, read “passions”, suggest a more complex God‐image. The righteousness of God demands judgement, whereas his compassion finds another solution. We find that female and masculine imagery in connection with God's attitude and feelings toward his people, are frequently interchangeable. The all‐embracing motherly love of God may be seen as an expression of God's heart in tension between inevitable judgement and compassionate love. But the same aspect may also be expressed in the father/son relationship. The passion of God in OT is not a static or inherent condition of God's being. Rather, the anthropomorphic (or, anthropopatic) expressions may be glimpses of a rare “I‐You” relationship between God and his people Israel. The passion of God then becomes the most profound expression of God's dynamic response to man's fatal situation.     

The Holy Road as a Bridge: The Role of Chapter 35 in the Book of Isaiah

This article argues that chapter 35 serves as a bridge between mainly Proto- and Deutero-Isaiah, but partly also to Trito-Isaiah. Its method is to compare intertextually phraseology in chapter 35 with similarities in the other parts of the Book of Isaiah. Outlook is all the way from chapter 35, backwards to Proto- and forwards to Deutero- and Trito-Isaiah. In summary, there are a series of intertextual relations to particular parts of Proto-Isaiah, especially to those parts were blessings predominate over curses, while the intertextual relations to Deutero-Isaiah are closer to the essence of its message, in particular to chapters 40-48. Intertextual relations between chapter 35 and Trito-Isaiah are more sparse. Intertextually these relations are mainly from the “canon-before-canon” stage (cf. Fishbane) of the text, rather than “author intended intertextuality” (cf. Nielsen). But there is also an aspect of “editor intended intertextuality” (cf. Nielsen). The investigation demonstrates how central this chapter is in the Book of Isaiah, but it is intertextually closest related to Deutero-Isaiah.     

Isaiah b. Amoz’s Attitude towards the Faith of the Gentile Nations

This article discusses the pilgrimage of the nations to Zion described in Isa 2,2-5, focusing on Isaiah’s attitude to their future faith in the God of Israel. A number of ways of understanding Isaiah’s view are proposed on the basis of a series of ever-widening interpretive circles. These are determined by their linguistic and/or substantive and/or cognitive affinities with the vision, influencing the exegesis of the vision either through their content or the worldview they reflect. None of the circles entails a reading of the vision as a closed unit isolated from its context.     

The Picture of Artificial Intelligence and the Secularization of Thought

ABSTRACT

This article offers a critical interpretation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a philosophical notion which exemplifies a secular conception of thinking. One way in which AI notably differs from the conventional understanding of “thinking” is that, according to AI, “intelligence” or “thinking” does not necessarily require “life” as a precondition: that it is possible to have “thinking without life.” Building on Charles Taylor’s critical account of secularity as well as Hubert Dreyfus’ influential critique of AI, this article offers a theological analysis of AI’s “lifeless” picture of thinking in relation to the Augustinian conception of God as “Life itself.” Following this critical theological analysis, this article argues that AI’s notion of thinking promotes a societal privilege of certain rationalistic or calculative ways of thought over more existential or spiritual ways of thinking, and thereby fosters a secularization or de-spiritualization of thinking as an ethical human practice.     

Letters to the exiles

ABSTRACT

A slightly different separation of the text in Qoh 3,18 results in the reading ??? ??????? instead of ???? ??????, in which ??? is “apart of” based on the Aramaic, or ??? = ??? “alone” assuming a ?/? confusion. In each case an eminently reasonable text is obtained regarding man apart of God, or man without God. Qohelet seems to believe that without God man would be egocentric, just as a beast.     

Priestley on materialism and the essence of God

ABSTRACT

The paper focuses on Priestley’s complex views on the essence of God in connection with his materialism, elaborated in the Disquisitions Relating to Matter and Spirit (1777/ 1782). This issue is crucial if one wishes to get a clear idea of what Priestley’s materialism amounts to; whether it is mainly a thesis about the material grounds of the human mind (“psychological materialism”), or a more far-reaching one about what kind of substances exist in the world (a version of “ontological materialism”). The claim that God may be material allows for the most radical version of ontological materialism according to which everything in the world is material, without altogether denying that God exists. In fact, Priestley considers and partially defends at least three different views on the potential materiality of God: (1) an agnostic stance that is his official view, (2) materialism about God based on his own theory of matter, and (3) “gross” materialism about God. The aim of the paper is to analyze these three views, in particular concerning what kind of materialism they support and whether they can contribute to the consistent Christian materialism Priestley envisaged.     

Defending Political Augustinianism: Brague and Taubes on the “Divine” as a Common Conceptual Space

Augustine holds that each society needs to be oriented to “God and the good.” He invidiously compares the earthly city as receptive to the true God with the earthly city as opposed to the true God, and he resolutely holds that only an earthly city oriented to the true God can be genuinely described as just and legitimate. At first glance this “political Augustinianism” hardly seems very attractive to non-believers or defensible in the eyes of modern secular liberals, and yet in this article I wish to defend it and commend it universally, that is, to promote its benefits and critical insights beyond religious circles. I commend an emphasis on “the divine” (to theion), rather than on God (ho theos), as a bridge to God for believers but also, and more importantly in the West's present liberal pluralist context, as a common halting place where believers and non-believers alike can sense “the beyond” (Augustine's “God and the good”) in their midst. I develop my argument that the “divine,” thus understood, can provide us with a common conceptual space where we can abide, converse, and even agree: (i) by engaging with Jacob Taubes who powerfully criticises such an emphasis on the “divine,” (ii) by considering “divine” natural law as a bridge and halting place between immanence and transcendence, and (iii) by reflecting upon the work of Rémi Brague who has recently given powerful support to the importance and utility in the present intellectual climate of the divine (to theion) as a bridge to God (ho theos).     

Book Reviews

Hans M. Barstad, The Babylonian Captivity and the Book of Isaiah. “Exilic” Judah and the Provenance of Isaiah 40–55. Oslo 1997. Pp 120.

Else K. Holt (ed.), Alle der ånder skal lovprise Herren! Det Gamle Testamente i tempel, synagoge og kirke, Frederiksberg 1998. Pp 304.     

By analogy to the element of the stars: the divine in Jean Fernel's and William Harvey's theories of generation

ABSTRACT

In trying to develop their respective theories of generation, Jean Fernel and William Harvey both drew repeatedly on Aristotle's suggestion that something “analogous to the element of the stars” was involved. The analogy with the stars suggested something celestial or divine, and both thinkers subscribed to the dominant assumption that God is the primary cause of generation, but, as natural philosophers, they were expected to develop theories based on secondary causes. Fernel simply defined “divine” as “hidden” or “occult”, and developed a sophisticated occult explanation of how generation takes place. Harvey, by contrast, rejected occult explanations, and, although offering tentative alternatives, ultimately failed to discover any convincing naturalistic account. It is the contention of this paper that Harvey resorted, therefore, to the direct intervention of God in the process of generation.     

The messiah epithet in the Hebrew Bible

Rather than a reference ''to a present, political and religious leader who is appointed by God, applied predominantly to a king, but also to a priest and occasionally a prophet'' as proposed in 1985 by the first Princeton Symposium of Judaism and Christian origins, the term 'MSH' in the Hebrew Bible is an epithet or title which functions within a literary and mythic but not an historical context. The role of the messiah as played in the Hebrew Bible is not uniquely Jewish, but functions within the symbol system of ancient Near Eastern royal ideology and functions within a theology of divine transcendence and immanence. The coherence of the mythic role of the messiah is identified in relation to concepts of messianic time, as in the functions of expiating and mediating transcendence, of maintaining creation through war against the powers of chaos and the establishment of eternal peace. David's role as messiah in the Psalter is described in his role as ideal representative of piety, and as ruler over destiny bringing the good news expressed in various forms of ''the poor man's song.'' Finally, the role of the messiah myth is integrated with utopian concepts of a new Israel.     

A Loving Attack on Caputo’s ‘Caputolism’ and his Refusal of Communism

Abstract

For various reasons, John D. Caputo is one of my favorite philosophers. However, one may identify two basic weaknesses or contradictions when it comes to his thoughts on political economy: (1) Caputo insists on capitalism—even if it be a significantly transformed capitalism (what I will be calling here “Caputolism”)—but he does not question whether capitalism can accommodate the required reforms; and (2) Caputo’s refusal to entertain the possibility of communism as a good/better alternative to capitalism, even though he has referred to an earthly “Kingdom of God” composed of a “radical community of equals”—which (strongly) resembles communism, thus rendering his refusal of communism all the more perplexing.     

International Peacemaking and the Anti-War Movement

Abstract

This paper contends that biblical law provides guidance about the proper configuration of moral goods and evils, which are often incommensurable, rather than offering a “vision of the good.” It argues that the “good” of creation itself comprises a moral order of goods to which there are many proper responses and investigates how such openness, when combined with a focus upon moral goods, intersects with three aspects of Burnside’s argument in God, Justice, and Society, namely, the role of wisdom, the importance of vocation and the significance of God’s grace.     

No Angst and All Play: Postmodernism and the Humanities

Abstract

There is widespread disagreement about Tocqueville's conception of human nature, some going so far as to say that Tocqueville possessed no unified conception of human nature at all. In this paper, I aim to provide the essential principles of Tocqueville's conception of human nature through an examination of the way in which he describes the power of human circumstances, such as physical environment, social state, and religion, to shape human character by extracting the principles underlying these transformations. There is no “natural man” or man “in the state of nature” but instead a set of psychic operations that reveal a picture of human nature in which human freedom, or the ability to initiate action in pursuit of important objects, lies at the heart of human life.     

“Have You Considered My Servant Job?” A Reflection on the Book of Job

Abstract

The Book of Job is often viewed as a story of unnecessary and undeserved suffering. A man who is “blameless” in the eyes of God is put through senseless anguish and misery simply because God and the Adversary have a wager. It is a story of a whimsical God who does not understand or care about human beings and their sufferings, and of an insignificant and yet defiant being who epitomizes human dignity and fortitude. This and other similar accounts make God villainous and human sufferings mysterious and incomprehensible. This article seeks to cast these issues in a different light by exploring some of the key terms in the Prologue and the speeches of God in the Theophany. The exploration ends with some reflections on Job in the Epilogue of the Book.     

A Call to Higher Things

Abstract

Seeking a responsible middle ground between complaisance and the “religious totalitarianism” of Sayyid Qutb, Miroslav Volf proposes a proper role for religion as a faithful advisor in the public square and an inspired one in the corridors of conscience. But he seems to lose patience with that theme without addressing John Rawls’ case for silencing religious counsels—or engaging the strident atheism of Dennett, Dawkins, Hitchens, or Grayling, and he takes Qutb more as a foil than an adversary to be grappled with directly. Turning away from debates over religion’s proper public role he catalogues the “malfunctions” of faith, sidestepping many of today’s more burning issues in favor of a generic call to “lives of integrity”—while acknowledging that we mortals are “powerless against the lure of evil,” too often seconded by “the power of the systems that surround us.” Prayer, Volf argues, finds its best use when we ask to be made “willing, capable, and effective instruments in God’s hand.” One only wishes he had been more explicit and more ready for down and dirty argument with those who reject the very idea of prayer and with those who imagine they become God’s best instrument when holding an incendiary device.     

The Fine Incense of Virginity: a late twelfth century wall painting of the Annunciation at the Monastery of the Syrians,Egypt

Abstract

A richly symbolical wallpainting of the Annunciation was brought to light in 1991 in the western conch of the church of the Virgin at the desert Monastery of the Syrians at Scetis (Wadi al-Natriin) in Egypt (figs. 1–5). The interpretation put forward here is that the scene celebrates the Mother of God as the epitome of perfect womanhood at the moment of Christ's conception with her key role reinforced by explicit symbolism of her virginity. This is stated visually, through the liturgical symbolism of the burning censer at her feet, and verbally through the ‘container’ imagery proclaimed on the scrolls of the accompanying prophets: Isaiah, Moses, Ezekiel and Daniel. A detailed townscape represents the town of Nazareth, both the Virgin's own birthplace and the site of the Annunciation.     

God’s Sovereign Word

Abstract

Much political theory is funded by a purportedly “theological” notion of sovereignty. This essay re-reads and thereby deconstructs such a view. The argument presented herein is that certain political theorists—notably Schmitt, Bodin, and Hobbes—uncritically appropriate a “theological” notion of sovereignty as an analogy for political sovereignty. Engaging the work of Karl Barth, this essay undercuts such analogizing tendencies, contending that the “theological” superstructure on which so-called political theology is constructed is not theological but anthropological. Barth’s reconfiguration of theology, grounded not on natural law or reason, but on God’s self-revelation of Godself in Jesus Christ, offers a very different terminus a quem for political theology.