Reviewed Book: Brueggemann, Walter. Theology of the Old Testament: testimony, dispute, advocacy. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997

Uitti, Roger W.

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 24Issue 1 Leadership into the 21st Century Article 125-1-1998Theology of the Old Testament: testimony, dispute,advocacyRoger W. UittiFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationUitti, Roger W. (1998) "Theology of the Old Testament: testimony, dispute, advocacy," Consensus: Vol. 24 : Iss. 1 , Article 12.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol24/iss1/12144 Consensuscommon ground in creative imagination going on between narrative historyand narrative fiction and between historical memory and contemporaryenvisioning than one initially suspects. As an added bonus and addendumto all the foregoing, Perdue closes out each chapter by illustrating how suchshifts play out in the Book of Jeremiah. In short, this is a promising bookfor catching up on recent study and reflection in OT theology.Perdue finishes up his book with a proposal for doing OT theologyin the future. He makes it clear that by his reference to the collapse ofhistory he does not mean to suggest that history or historical method isno longer significant for OT scholarship. Rather his purpose has been todocument the growing revolt against the domination of history on behalfof the potential of non-historical epistemologies. Perdue holds that boththe descriptive and the constructive task must continue, but in imaginativedialogue and interchange with both past and present.Only the harsh critique of time, I would suggest, will reveal whethersuch new OT theologizing will work to the interest of the OT, and not goon to become too distant, too subjective, and too imaginative, with the sadresult that contemporary interests, not history, may end up dominating thetext.Roger W. UittiLutheran Theological SeminarySaskatoon, SaskatchewanTheology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute,AdvocacyWalter BrueggemannMinneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1997xxi + 777 pp. $69.75 HardcoverCommencing with winter semester 1998, the OT theology class at LTSwas privileged to begin use of this book as its main textbook. Studentresponse to the book has been most positive. One student quipped: “Ifyou know of any other OT books like this one, I want to read them!” TheSenior class agreed in its discussion of the book, that although excessive inlength, it was challenging, informative, easy to read and comprehend.Brueggemann’s book is an OT theology generated out of imaginativeinteraction with the text of the Hebrew Bible. Its overall approach is post-modern. Thus Brueggemann allows only the OT text to speak, not anythingoutside, under, or behind the text. What the text or Israel speaks is whatis, not what we or others think really happened or should have happened.Brueggemann refuses to let objective positivism or anything else dictatewhat is possible or impossible. What is more, Brueggemann lets the textspeak for itself in all of its fullness, plurality, and diversity.Book Reviews 145The introduction, where Brueggemann details the pre-postmodern andpostmodern interpretive situations, and the epilogue, “Prospects for Theo-logical Interpretation”,are in themselves worth the price of the book, whichis hefty. In between these two bookends Brueggemann lays out the heart ofhis book, the content and thrust of the OT, in terms of a trial, somewhatin imitation of Deutero-Isaiah’s own efforts to win Israel back to YHWH’scomforting side from exilic despair as a people.In Part I Brueggemann sets forth Israel’s “core testimony” in terms ofvital Hebrew verbs (YHWH, the God who creates, makes promises, delivers,commands, and leads), adjectives (Exodus 34:6-7), and nouns (metaphorsof governance and sustenance). By contrast. Part II supplies Israel’s “coun-tertestimony”, citing counterevidence of YHWH’s own hiddenness, ambi-guity, and negativity. Next, Part HI deals with Israel’s “unsolicited testi-mony”, a kind of testimony sometimes unintended, volunteered, or simplyto be discovered in between the lines of fine print (regarding YHWH’s part-nerships with and beyond Israel, including generic humanity, the nations ofthe world, and creation itself). The final segment. Part IV, treats of Israel’s“embodied testimony”, i.e., YHWH’s unmediated (public theophany, per-sonal encounters) and mediated (through Torah, king, prophet, cult, andsage) presence.The court-room model works surprisingly well to gather together theword of and witness to YHWH within the pages of the OT by comparisonwith the many organizing themes attempted in the past. If there is aproblem with this model, it may lie more with us moderns than with theancients, as we may not so easily link together truth and witness, afterobserving the O.J. Simpson trial and recent US presidential testimoniesand countertestimonies. As to the subparts, one wonders how one arrivesso confidently at the lines of demarcation between what is core, contra,unsolicited, and embodied. Where is such wisdom to be found? Does suchconfidence proceed from the time and place of one modern interpreter or adisparate group of ancient theologians? And with what justification doesone confine such witness only to the name YHWH and not to other divinenames used of Israel’s God in the OT?Persons who borrow or buy, read and reflect on this book, will not bedisappointed. The only negatives raised against the book by the OT classwere its expense, its length, and its repetitiveness. Treating the OT’s corewitness in terms of verbs, then adjectives, and nouns unfortunately invitessome revisiting of the same material in more than one way or place. Theclass welcomed both the indices of scholars cited and of scriptural references,but lamented the absence of any subject or topic index, which would have,of course, added to the length. This means that a good page once read maynot easily be found again.W. Brueggemann admits he has written this OT theology as a Chris-tian. Nevertheless he is insistent that OT theology as a Christian enterprise,must recognize Jewish imaginative construals of the OT text as legitimatetheological activity, activity to which Christians might well pay more atten-tion. Indeed, in Brueggemann’s view, the task of OT theology as a Chris-tian discipline, is “to articulate, explicate, mobilize, and make accessible146 Consensusand available the testimony of the Old Testament in all of its polyphonic,elusive, imaginative power and to offer it to the church for its continuingwork of construal toward Jesus.”In spite of some of the suspicion surrounding the postmodern perspec-tive I personally believe this perspective provides an opportunity to thechurch. In a day when the witness of secular society and the universityis being called on the carpet for its own over-confident objectivism, thechurch and synagogue can increasingly make its own testimony about theGod of Israel and our Lord Jesus Christ in equal and new-found legitimacy.I believe this book is one such testimony.Roger W. UittiLutheran Theological SeminarySaskatoon, SaskatchewanEyewitness to JesusC.P. Thiede and M. D’AnconaNew York: Doubleday, 1996Basically this book is the account of the reasoning and path followedby Dr. C.P. Thiede, an eminent papyrologist, in re-dating the MagdalenPapyrus, as recorded by his amanuensis, M. D’Ancona, the Deputy Editorof The Sunday Telegraph. Putting aside the breathless and rather pre-cious prose of the dust jacket, it really is a fascinating volume to read.In addition to reporting the line of argument developed by Dr. Thiede,Mr. D’Ancona, who is himself a graduate of Magdalen, records a brief bi-ography of Rev. C.B. Huleatt who acquired the manuscript fragments whileserving in Luxor, Egypt, and donated them to Magdalen College at the turnof the twentieth century. Rev. Huleatt was also a graduate of the College,and thought of himself as a “Magdalen man”.Dr. Thiede’s contention is that the fragments contain elements fromMatthew 26:7-8, 10, 14-15, 22-23, 31-33, that the fragments came from acomplete codex of the Gospel of St. Matthew, and that the codex pre-datesthe end of the Jewish revolt against the Romans, which occurred in the latesixties and early seventies of the first century A.D. The arguments are de-tailed, filled with examples taken from other investigations in papyrology,and replete with esoterica such as line length analysis, the use of “nom-ina sacra”,editorial techniques used in marking “new lines” or “new para-graphs”, the development of microscopes and microscopic analysis methodsin order to reconstruct debatable characters, and so on. Further, the storyof Charles Bousfield Huleatt is interwoven through the text. Unfortunately,this rather mixed method of presentation gives the lay reader much troublein following the thread of the argument. To the expert in the field it is nodoubt obvious that the work of O’Callaghan on 7Q5 is being used as an

Theology of the Old Testament: testimony, dispute, advocacy

Scholars Commons

Consensus
Volume 24
Issue 1 Leadership into the 21st Century Article 12
5-1-1998
Theology of the Old Testament: testimony, dispute,
advocacy
Roger W. Uitti
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus
This Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by an
authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.
Recommended Citation
Uitti, Roger W. (1998) "Theology of the Old Testament: testimony, dispute, advocacy," Consensus: Vol. 24 : Iss. 1 , Article 12.
Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol24/iss1/12
144 Consensus
common ground in creative imagination going on between narrative history
and narrative fiction and between historical memory and contemporary
envisioning than one initially suspects. As an added bonus and addendum
to all the foregoing, Perdue closes out each chapter by illustrating how such
shifts play out in the Book of Jeremiah. In short, this is a promising book
for catching up on recent study and reflection in OT theology.
Perdue finishes up his book with a proposal for doing OT theology
in the future. He makes it clear that by his reference to the collapse of
history he does not mean to suggest that history or historical method is
no longer significant for OT scholarship. Rather his purpose has been to
document the growing revolt against the domination of history on behalf
of the potential of non-historical epistemologies. Perdue holds that both
the descriptive and the constructive task must continue, but in imaginative
dialogue and interchange with both past and present.
Only the harsh critique of time, I would suggest, will reveal whether
such new OT theologizing will work to the interest of the OT, and not go
on to become too distant, too subjective, and too imaginative, with the sad
result that contemporary interests, not history, may end up dominating the
text.
Roger W. Uitti
Lutheran Theological Seminary
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Theology of the Old Testament: Testimony, Dispute,
Advocacy
Walter Brueggemann
Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1997
xxi + 777 pp. $69.75 Hardcover
Commencing with winter semester 1998, the OT theology class at LTS
was privileged to begin use of this book as its main textbook. Student
response to the book has been most positive. One student quipped: “If
you know of any other OT books like this one, I want to read them!” The
Senior class agreed in its discussion of the book, that although excessive in
length, it was challenging, informative, easy to read and comprehend.
Brueggemann’s book is an OT theology generated out of imaginative
interaction with the text of the Hebrew Bible. Its overall approach is post-
modern. Thus Brueggemann allows only the OT text to speak, not anything
outside, under, or behind the text. What the text or Israel speaks is what
is, not what we or others think really happened or should have happened.
Brueggemann refuses to let objective positivism or anything else dictate
what is possible or impossible. What is more, Brueggemann lets the text
speak for itself in all of its fullness, plurality, and diversity.
Book Reviews 145
The introduction, where Brueggemann details the pre-postmodern and
postmodern interpretive situations, and the epilogue, “Prospects for Theo-
logical Interpretation”
,
are in themselves worth the price of the book, which
is hefty. In between these two bookends Brueggemann lays out the heart of
his book, the content and thrust of the OT, in terms of a trial, somewhat
in imitation of Deutero-Isaiah’s own efforts to win Israel back to YHWH’s
comforting side from exilic despair as a people.
In Part I Brueggemann sets forth Israel’s “core testimony” in terms of
vital Hebrew verbs (YHWH, the God who creates, makes promises, delivers,
commands, and leads), adjectives (Exodus 34:6-7), and nouns (metaphors
of governance and sustenance). By contrast. Part II supplies Israel’s “coun-
tertestimony”, citing counterevidence of YHWH’s own hiddenness, ambi-
guity, and negativity. Next, Part HI deals with Israel’s “unsolicited testi-
mony”, a kind of testimony sometimes unintended, volunteered, or simply
to be discovered in between the lines of fine print (regarding YHWH’s part-
nerships with and beyond Israel, including generic humanity, the nations of
the world, and creation itself). The final segment. Part IV, treats of Israel’s
“embodied testimony”, i.e., YHWH’s unmediated (public theophany, per-
sonal encounters) and mediated (through Torah, king, prophet, cult, and
sage) presence.
The court-room model works surprisingly well to gather together the
word of and witness to YHWH within the pages of the OT by comparison
with the many organizing themes attempted in the past. If there is a
problem with this model, it may lie more with us moderns than with the
ancients, as we may not so easily link together truth and witness, after
observing the O.J. Simpson trial and recent US presidential testimonies
and countertestimonies. As to the subparts, one wonders how one arrives
so confidently at the lines of demarcation between what is core, contra,
unsolicited, and embodied. Where is such wisdom to be found? Does such
confidence proceed from the time and place of one modern interpreter or a
disparate group of ancient theologians? And with what justification does
one confine such witness only to the name YHWH and not to other divine
names used of Israel’s God in the OT?
Persons who borrow or buy, read and reflect on this book, will not be
disappointed. The only negatives raised against the book by the OT class
were its expense, its length, and its repetitiveness. Treating the OT’s core
witness in terms of verbs, then adjectives, and nouns unfortunately invites
some revisiting of the same material in more than one way or place. The
class welcomed both the indices of scholars cited and of scriptural references,
but lamented the absence of any subject or topic index, which would have,
of course, added to the length. This means that a good page once read may
not easily be found again.
W. Brueggemann admits he has written this OT theology as a Chris-
tian. Nevertheless he is insistent that OT theology as a Christian enterprise,
must recognize Jewish imaginative construals of the OT text as legitimate
theological activity, activity to which Christians might well pay more atten-
tion. Indeed, in Brueggemann’s view, the task of OT theology as a Chris-
tian discipline, is “to articulate, explicate, mobilize, and make accessible
146 Consensus
and available the testimony of the Old Testament in all of its polyphonic,
elusive, imaginative power and to offer it to the church for its continuing
work of construal toward Jesus.”
In spite of some of the suspicion surrounding the postmodern perspec-
tive I personally believe this perspective provides an opportunity to the
church. In a day when the witness of secular society and the university
is being called on the carpet for its own over-confident objectivism, the
church and synagogue can increasingly make its own testimony about the
God of Israel and our Lord Jesus Christ in equal and new-found legitimacy.
I believe this book is one such testimony.
Roger W. Uitti
Lutheran Theological Seminary
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Eyewitness to Jesus
C.P. Thiede and M. D’Ancona
New York: Doubleday, 1996
Basically this book is the account of the reasoning and path followed
by Dr. C.P. Thiede, an eminent papyrologist, in re-dating the Magdalen
Papyrus, as recorded by his amanuensis, M. D’Ancona, the Deputy Editor
of The Sunday Telegraph. Putting aside the breathless and rather pre-
cious prose of the dust jacket, it really is a fascinating volume to read.
In addition to reporting the line of argument developed by Dr. Thiede,
Mr. D’Ancona, who is himself a graduate of Magdalen, records a brief bi-
ography of Rev. C.B. Huleatt who acquired the manuscript fragments while
serving in Luxor, Egypt, and donated them to Magdalen College at the turn
of the twentieth century. Rev. Huleatt was also a graduate of the College,
and thought of himself as a “Magdalen man”.
Dr. Thiede’s contention is that the fragments contain elements from
Matthew 26:7-8, 10, 14-15, 22-23, 31-33, that the fragments came from a
complete codex of the Gospel of St. Matthew, and that the codex pre-dates
the end of the Jewish revolt against the Romans, which occurred in the late
sixties and early seventies of the first century A.D. The arguments are de-
tailed, filled with examples taken from other investigations in papyrology,
and replete with esoterica such as line length analysis, the use of “nom-
ina sacra”
,
editorial techniques used in marking “new lines” or “new para-
graphs”, the development of microscopes and microscopic analysis methods
in order to reconstruct debatable characters, and so on. Further, the story
of Charles Bousfield Huleatt is interwoven through the text. Unfortunately,
this rather mixed method of presentation gives the lay reader much trouble
in following the thread of the argument. To the expert in the field it is no
doubt obvious that the work of O’Callaghan on 7Q5 is being used as an


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