How can Biblical Theology, the very goal of our work, be approached? In this purview focusing on the Psalter as a prime example for theological reasoning in liturgical contexts I am departing from several assumptions. One simply says, that God-talk or theology can hardly be uniform, universal, and valid through the ages. Rather, God-talk, for deeply divine and human reasons, for the very heart of faith must be contextual, temporary, unfinished and in a certain concordance with changing customs, cultures, social conditions. 1 Our theological discourse must not be taken as eternal truth. We think and talk as transitory beings, firmly tied to the textures of our socialization and cultural identities. Secondly, since there are great varieties of cultural and social patterns-in coexistence as well as in conflict with each other-we certainly have to count on quite different modes of talking about God, with different experiences and conceptualizations of the Divine. Living side by side, nowadays, with many other godfearing or godignoring people, intensely feeling the challenges of our pluralistic societies, we have the unique opportunity to test our own theological affirmations and learn of their richness and deficiencies, and their precious, human relativity-that is, affinity-to our own cultural settings. What rarely has been recognized, however, is that pluralism (to a certain degree this always has been the case) has invaded even the stronghold of individual being. Each of us lives at the same time in very different social contexts. We are on the one hand members of small, intimate groups of family and friends, and on the other of various economic, political and religious associations. In both kinds
ERHARD GERSTENBERGER YALE UNIVERSITY T HE Book of J eremiah has always been regarded as particularly open for historical and psychological study. There seemed to be sufficient material at hand for the compilation of a biography of the prophet; his inner and outward life has even been made the subj ect of nove1s and plays.' The apparent a bundance of data in J er has exercised an irresistible temptation on virtually all scholars and commentators regardless of their school of thought or method of a pproach' to focus their attention upon the prophet's curriculum vitae and experience. J eremiah is looked upon as a religious genius, the champion of personal, inner, and spiritual religion. The basic fallacy of this viewpoint is the presupposit ion that the "facts a nd fi gures" in Jer a re identical with "historical events," or, that they, a t least, permit easy access to tha t wh ich "really ha ppened" during J eremiah's Iifetime. 3 The ongoing discussion of wha t "history " is, a nd how it is intertwined with, even sustained a nd created by, later interpretation 4 should make us wary of the great difficulties which Iie in the path of any historical reconstruction on the basis of such collections of texts as that of Jer. The fundamental insight of form-critical research , moreover, must not be forgotten: Any given text in the OT more likely than not has been cast into the mold of some conventional The a uthor gratefully acknowledges the valuable help of the Reverend J a mes L. Pratt who made readable many a Germanic sentence in this essay. , The most important scholarly monographs in English were written by Th. K.
Resumo: Estamos acostumados a pensar diferentemente sobre a voz divina nos livros proféticos e no Saltério. Em ambos os escritos o Senhor fala diretamente ao povo. Mas quem eram os alocutores concretos? Os textos bíblicos dão nomes pessoais aos profetas, os mediadores da palavra de Javé nos salmos permanecem anônimos. A maioria das nomeações nos livros proféticos, no entanto, ocorreram posteriamente, pelos colecionadores e compositores tardios da tradição. Será que a voz divina nos tempos do exílio-pós-exílio realmente foi proclamada pelos levitas ou pregadores das assembleias sinagogais? Talvez eles leram textos proféticos, sapienciais, da “instrução” popular (Torah) para uma audiência de maneira homilética? Assim, as sermões dos profetas bem como dos salmistas representariam discursos do serviço comunitário dos judeus da época Persa. Palavras-chave: Profeta. Sermão. Comunidade judaica. Voz divina. Oráculo.
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