| |
Reforming Theological Anthropology: After the Philosophical Turn to Relationality
by F. LeRon Shults
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2003. 248 pp. $35.00. ISBN 0-8028-4887-7.
The ambiguity of this book’s title nicely captures its double aim. In one way it seeks to identify ways in which Christian theological anthropology needs to be changed, i.e. reformed, in the wake of a “turn to relationality” that is prominent in recent philosophy and psychology. In another way, it seeks an anthropology that genuinely represents the Reformed tradition.
These goals are pursued concurrently through three parts of the book. The first part attends to issues concerning inter-disciplinary work by inviting exploration of the conceptual space in which we each personally relate to relationality (ch. 2) and engaging in inter-disciplinary conversation with educational psychology (ch. 3) and cultural anthropology (ch. 4), building on James Loder’s work in practical theology in the Reformed tradition. The three chapters of the second part exhibit the “hermeneutical function of anthropological relationality” in Reformed theologians regarding, respectively, methodology in Schleiermacher (ch. 5), anthropology and trinity in Barth as contrasted to Pannenberg (ch. 6), and the anhypostasis– enhypostasis in Barth as contrasted to revisionist readings of Leontius of Byzantium (ch. 7). Part three sketches the import of “relationality” for constructive proposals concerning human nature (ch. 8), sin (ch. 9), and image of God (ch. 10).
Shults offers an important overview of the intellectual terrain in which new theological anthropological porposals will have to be worked out. The book is not so much a programmatic proposal as a checklist of issues that must be in the agenda of any reformed anthropology. It will be of interest to clergy and seminary students and faculty.
David H. Kelsey
Yale Divinity School
New Haven, Connecticut
Women and Men in the Fourth Gospel: A Genuine Discipleship of Equals
by Margaret Beirne
Sheffield Academic, London, 2003. 240 pp. $110.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-8264-6667-2.
This literary study of the Fourth Gospel argues for the presence of six gender pairs in the Gospel, whose narrative function is to demonstrate a “genuine discipleship of equals” established by the Johannine Jesus. The criteria for determining what constitutes a gender pair is based on earlier work on gender pairs in the Gospel of Luke, especially the work of Turid Karlsen Seim (The Double Message: Patterns of Gender in Luke and Acts, Abingdon, 1995). These criteria include the presence of a common theme in passages in which the characters are located and, if the passages are not in narrative sequence, some form of literary parallelism such as structure, verbal formulae, or imagery. According to Beirne, the following gendered pairs meet these criteria: the mother of Jesus and the royal official, the Samaritan woman and Nicodemus, Martha and the man born blind, Mary of Bethany and Judas, the mother of Jesus and the Beloved Disciple, and finally, Mary Magdalene and Thomas.
While Beirne cites some older feminist work, her book advances that work in introducing the study of male characters. Beirne is also right to move beyond the “representative” approach to Johannine characterization, recognizing the richness of certain Johannine characters. However, Beirne is not the first to make these observations, and it is unfortunate that she does not engage in dialogue with my previously published work on the Gospel that addressed similar concerns with somewhat different results (Men and Women in the Fourth Gospel: Gender and Johannine Characterization, Scholars Press, 1999).
While Beirne’s argument about the presence of gender pairs is convincing, I am less persuaded that the pairs all demonstrate a discipleship of equals. If earlier studies tended to elevate women without studying the male characters, Beirne’s study lacks a more nuanced examination of the relationship between male and female characters. Most puzzling is the absence of Peter in the study, although the characters of Mary Magdalene and Peter (as well as the Beloved Disciple) in 20:1–18 would meet the established criteria. Considering the role of Peter vis-à-vis Mary Magdalene would necessarily raise the question of the status of the Petrine tradition and the role of the Twelve in the Gospel in general. It may well be the case that these male figures are not viewed in the same way as a character such as the man born blind.
Still, the book adds to the growing number of New Testament studies that recognize “gender” does not equal “woman” but must also include a study of the construction of men, in this case the male characters in the Fourth Gospel. Moreover, a reading of the Fourth Gospel such as this one could well promote a “genuine discipleship of equals” in the contemporary Christian church and that, after all, is what much feminist biblical scholarship is after.
Colleen M. Conway
Seton Hall University
South Orange, New Jersey
Identity and Experience in the New Testament
by Klaus Berger, translated by Charles Muenchow
Fortress, Minneapolis, 2003. 298 pp. $27.00 ISBN 0-8006-2779-2.
This book presents what the author, Klaus Berger, calls an historical psychological perspective on the New Testament. Historical psychology differentiates between ancient views of psychology located in the New Testament texts and modern psychological evaluations. Historical psychology articulates the difference between then and now regarding the following topics: identity and personality, demonic possession, the body, concepts of interiority and exteriority, the process of perceiving, emotions, suffering, the experience of religion, and various behaviors (hatred, self-love, sexuality, possessions, etc.). In each of these topics, Berger explores the New Testament concepts that construct a psychology appropriate to the ancient text, and differentiates that construct from modern psychological understandings. Berger’s is not a social scientific book that explores the ancient Stoic, Epicurean, or Platonist psychology in order to examine the New Testament through them. Rather, Berger writes an exegetical, pastoral, and theological analysis intended to dramatize and describe the actual psychological expressions contained in the New Testament.
At the heart of Berger’s method stands good exegesis of many important passages, especially the Pauline corpus and the Gospels, although with a goodly number of references to the other books of the New Testament. These are thorny texts that talk about the psychological realities of embodiment, sin, divine indwelling, sanctification, and salvation. Berger lays out their meaning and significance not from the modern psychological perspective, but from an analysis of the text that constructs an ancient model.
The book is also pastoral. Berger models a way of looking at the vast difference in understanding between the early Christians in their milieu and modern, Western Christians in ours. The exploration of difference sets the stage for understanding the ancient others on their own terms, in their own frames of reference, in their own conceptual schemes. The preacher and the pastor need this information to be able to interpret the text for community living and use. The fine exegesis leads to a thoroughly useful and beneficial way of approaching the text.
Berger also writes theologically. The issues of the ancient text have direct implications for the life and practice of modern Christians. The biblical text has meaning and depth for moderns, not because it mirrors modern sensibilities, but precisely because it does not. Modern Christians, by looking at the new Testament through historical psychology, realize that they encounter a startlingly different world from their own, but a world whose theology informs modern theology.
Richard Valantasis
Iliff School of Theology
Denver, Colorado
The Psalms: Strophic Structure and Theological Commentary
by Samuel Terrien
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2003. 971 pp. $95.00. ISBN 0-8028-2605-9.
Published posthumously, this one-volume commentary is the author's final work. Although not a crowning achievement, it is a treasure full of diamonds in the rough. Terrien sets forth three tasks: "to . . . elucidate the theological significance of these poems," "to analyze their strophic structure," and "to discover a link between their archaic language and the intellectual demands of modern thinking and spirituality" (p. xiii). His "structural analysis" enables him to identify the strophic divisions within each psalm, as well as highlight the "integral unity of composition." Terrien includes an all too brief discussion of the literary integrity of the Psalter as a whole. While some posit Psalm 73 as the Psalter's central pivot, Terrien adds Psalm 90 to the discussion, thereby creating "two poles" around which the Psalter is organized.
Terrien discusses in cursory fashion the standard issues of ancient Near Eastern background, textual transmisson, and genre. More space is devoted to the music of the psalms and strophic structure. Although he overuses the label "sapiential" or "wisdom" to describe many of the psalms, he is quick to claim that the Psalter is not so much a didactic manual as a collection of sacred songs "destined to perpetuate the art of music in nights of distress as well as in days of serenity" (p. 24). The style of the Psalter is that of adoration, not instruction. Even Psalm 1 is "fit to be sung, not spoken" (p. 71). Terrien accords the office of "musician" equal status to those of priest, prophet, and sage. The Psalter is a "musicotheca" that provides a portrait of Israel coram deo and a picture of divinity coram humane (p. 45). Versed in poetry and music, the psalmists were "'theologians' unaware" (p. 45); their "sense of wonder" and "fierceness of emotion" underwrote the psalms (p. 61). In his theological analysis, Terrien sifts out the theme of "Yahweh's [elusive] presence" as central (p. 46) and proceeds to highlight the various roles God assumes in the Psalter, from creator and judge to protector of the poor. Lamentably lacking is an equally insightful treatment of the psalmists' view(s) of humanity.
Terrien's commentary on individual psalms begins with translation (which lapses into King James English wherever God is addressed) and "form." He then moves to commentary (by strophe), and concludes with "date and theology." Terrien is particularly attuned to the poetic contours of the psalms and their rich imagery. His theological analyses are provocative but occasionally idiosyncratic, laden with abstract and artificially constructed terms (some of which could be typos) bereft of explication. While each psalm is introduced with a bibliography (which rarely goes beyond 1995), Terrien's primary conversation partner is himself (and, by extension, Job). His historical and theological reflections are mostly musings, frequently cast as hypothetical suggestions. Throwing caution to the wind, Terrien dares to be historically specific for many psalms (e.g., Psalm 45 as a "love song" for Ahab and Jezebel). But whether you agree or disagree, his reflections are consistently thought provoking, even if you're not sure what he means. But, then, that's vintage Terrien.
William Brown
Columbia Theological Seminary
Decatur, Georgia
|
