HISTORICAL OVERVIEW CHART

THINKING THROUGH 20TH CENTURY THEOLOGY
(Grenz and Olson)

Transcendence and Immanence and Modern Theological History

The Enlightenment--Shattering the Classical Balance
Exaltation of reason and of mankind, "I believe in order to understand" becomes "I believe what I can understand."

Reconstruction of Transcendence: Immanence in 19th century Theology

Kant: The immanence of God in moral experience
Hegel: The immanence of God in speculative reason
Schleiermacher: The immanence of God in religious feeling
Ritschl and classical liberal theology: The immanence of God in ethical culture

Revolt against immanence: Transcendence in Neo-Orthodoxy

Barth: Transcendence as God's freedom
Brunner: Transcendence in divine-human encounter
Bultmann: Transcendence of the Kerygma
Neibuhr: Transcendence through Revealed Myth

Deepening of Immanence: Reformulations of the Liberal Tradition

Tillich: The Immanence of the "God Above God"
Process Theology: Immanence within the Process

Immanence with the Secular: The Radical Movement

Bonhoeffer: Transcendence in the Midst of Life
Secular Theology: The Submergence of God within the Modern World

Transcendence of the Future: Theology of Hope

Moltmann: The transcendence and immanence of the future
Pannenberg: Transcendence in reason and hope

Renewal of Immanence in Experience of Oppression

Black Liberation
Latin American Liberation
Feminist theologies

Transcendence of Human Spirit: New Catholic Theology

Rahner: The transcendence of human subjectivity
Kung: Striking a balance between transcendence and immanence

Transcendence within Story: Narrative Theology

Reaffirming the Balance: Evangelical Theology Coming of Age

Carl F. H. Henry
Bernard Ramm

BEGINNINGS AND DEVELOPMENT OF OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY

A. From Reformation to Enlightenment
B. Age of Enlightenment
C. Enlightenment to Dialectical
D. Revival

THEOLOGIES
Theology; two large categories: naturalistic vs. religious

• natural--looks to experience to prove existence of God, order requires orderer, cause/effect, infinity is where have uncaused cause, God, Aristotle, must be unmoved mover
• apologetic--establish distinctiveness of Christian religion, religion among all other religions, show continuous history, essence of Christianity is not endangered by development and change
• polemical--apologetic is directed outward to world, polemics is directed inward, directed to Christianity itself to identify diseases or conditions within Christianity, may appear when a recession of vitality or other factors enter from without.
• Applied/practical--Practical theology has three basic patterns: traditional, prevailing, developing
  • Traditional: divide into disciplines, church government, church service, etc.
  • Prevailing: relationship between church and issues outside, analyzes some radical situation of ethnic/religion importance, class elitism, sex, anti-Semitism, economic exploitation, racism, analyzes these in a prophetic way. Social/scientific method sees distortions in culture, uses the biblical message to speak against abuses in world, not just focused on church's inner life. This subverts the discipline of theological ethics. Tends toward a theology of culture (Gilkey, Tillich). Liberation, feminism, politics (Moltmann, J. B. Metz), public theology (Tracy, Stachow), social theology (Rauschenbush).
  • Developing: Christianity and culture, practical theology, culture can become preeminent, pragmatic theology, even emphasis on spirituality may be result of developing theology.
• biblical theology (inductive, exegesis). Individual OT/NT books--diversity, (applied practical theology), traditional, developing, Old Testament core or New Testament core--what is the unity? Is biblical theology the theology contained in the Bible or theology that accords with the Bible, i.e. based on Bible and scripture? Schleiermacher called biblical theology exegetical theology.
• historical theology--method is historical/descriptive, contemporary religious thought, especially with regard to the Enlightenment, historical analysis of development of presuppositions and methods in theology, sees theology of Christian religion as subfield of church history, also subset of Christian theology. Schleiermacher reverses this--sees church history as a subdivision of historical theology (because he is a theologian?). Question: was Bible written by church (Israel) or was church created by the Bible? Tillich sees historical theology as the first phase of biblical theology, a history of Christian thought--Seeberg, Loofs, Werner
• systematic--descriptive of significant theological emphases; comparative, systematic, analytical
• dogmatic--(teaching), exegesis, theological, didactic
• philosophical--tradition consists of approach to religion or ultimate reality, on basis of human reason alone, a basis distinct from approach on basis of revelation, based on reason not Bible, without recourse to Bible and events in revelation, looks rather to events in the world and experience, a la Augustine, Aquinas, Anselm, Kant, Hartshorn, Alfred North Whitehead
• process--H&W, process theology, philosophy is a version of process theology, is empirical
• canonical--asks about the unity between the two testaments, can be asked in various religious contexts, i.e. Baptist, Presbyterian, etc. Blends to a confessional approach.

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Two items interrelate and introduce theological permutations into the theological spectrum:

1. Differences created by answers given to relationship between the two testaments
2. Differences created by methods used in treating the two testaments

MODELS OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TESTAMENTS

• Discontinuity--Bultmann
• Old Testament Superiority
• New Testament Superiority--Marcionism--low estimate of Old Testament, Harnack; Delitzsch--Old Testament is an unChristian book
• Continuity
  through salvation history
  promise/fulfillment--Westermann, Zimmerli, von Rad
  central concepts--election (Wildberger), covenant (Eichrodt and Fennscham), reprobation, rule of God, life/new life, community, will of God, people of God, salv of God, law/promise, help of God, presence of God, character and nature of God, holiness of God (Sellin), God as Lord (Kohler)
• typological unity--Eichrodt, von Rad
• Continuum of tradition
• World order model
• Hasel's multiplex approach (Hasel, Introduction to Old Testament Theology, pp. 191-93)

METHODOLOGIES
Is the task descriptive or normative?

• descriptive--limited to past, what text meant, Gabler, G. E. Wright, Jacob, Christer Stendahl = meant vs. means
• cross section--Eichrodt, uses systematic categories, guide Old Testament theology with principles of selection and congeniality, see unifying core (biblical)--kingdom of God, covenant concept = selection principle
• confessional--descriptive method is too cold, descriptive is too much a history of religions, Vriezen, Knight, de Vaux
• diachronic--von Rad, historical, but not cross section. Old Testament theology is found in the confessional statements of the Old Testament, activity of God in history, retelling is most legitimate form of Old Testament theological discourse, thus a theology of Deuteronomy, Psalms, JEDP. No need to make it fit together, just understand the process
• new biblical--OT and NT are descriptive theology, biblical theology is part of Christian theology because it uses both testaments, canonical criticism, wants to use whole canon, common threads, links, start with Old Testament citations found in New Testament, Christian theology as systematic enterprise must look at biblical theological approaches.
• correlative--Tillich

Hasel's list of methodologies

• dogmatic/didactic--George L. Bauer, typical categories, systematic, also Dyrness, deductive, outside interests dominate, no precise parallel in Old Testament Israel
• genetic/progressive--unfolding of God's revelation, historic progression, centers in covenants
• cross section--Eichrodt, centers in covenant, firmly historical and descriptive, Vriezen combines with confessional interest. Kaiser centers in blessing/promise, Goldingay--not treat descriptive/normative as either/or choice
• topical--refuses to let outside categories be superimposed, topical for Hasel means a single or dual center in Old Testament or even the absence of an explicit thematic center, McKenzie--experience, Fohrer--rule/community, Blenkinsopp--prophecy, Zimmerli--continuity of history about God
• diachronic--von Rad, retelling of kerygma or confession, diachronic traditional-historical method, pioneers "actualization" as hermeneutical method, also adopted/adapted by Westermann, Porteus, Anderson, Brueggemann, and Sanders. Also applies to formation of tradition approach.
• Formation of tradition--Continuation of diachronic, Stuhlmacher, Gese, "historical process of development."
• thematic/dialectic--Terrien, Westermann, Hanson
• recent "critical" methods
  Barr--synthetic modern biblical theology (96-97)
  new biblical--connecting Old Testament and New Testament, Vriezen, Helmen, Terrien, Westermann, Gese. Childs has developed this most fully
  multiplex (Hasel's synthesis)

BASIC PROPOSALS FOR DOING OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY

1. Biblical theology, including Old Testament theology, must be understood as a historical-theological discipline.
2. The method employed must be historical and theological from starting point.
3. The subject must be Old Testament theology.
4. Theologies from Old Testament books will be independent.
5. Old Testament theology will present major themes of the Old Testament.
6. Old Testament theology must address individual books and longitudinal themes.
7. Theology of Old Testament cannot be done in total isolation from consideration of the end result--the New Testament.