Family and everyday life

Philosophical Engagement With the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament: Some Methodological Reflections

“…Third, except for the broad methodological question of how to relate the Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament (as well as the New Testament, though that is outside the scope of this article) and philosophy, including the more particular framing of that question just given, these works do not necessarily have much in common. Rather, individual, and minority collective, interests have developed, such as epistemology (Healy and Perry 2007; Johnson 2018Johnson , 2021O'Dowd 2009;Yoder 2020), philosophy of religion (Gericke 2012), ethics (Keefer 2021;Vesely 2019), political philosophy (Berman 2008; Hazony 2016) and the history of philosophical interpretation (Weiss 2018). What I have attempted to articulate here is a way of framing these various works, lending some methodological clarity on what might otherwise appear homogenous or entirely segregated.…”

“…Like Vesely's Friendship and Virtue Ethics in the Book of Job, my The Book of Proverbs and Virtue Ethics represents an increasing number of works that focus on discrete philosophical and biblical texts, using the former to interpret the latter while attempting to preserve the integrity of both. Furthermore, as with those who use the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and/or New Testament for philosophical reflection, those who make use of philosophy for biblical interpretation manifest analytic (Peterson 2019;Keefer 2021) and continental (Legaspi 2018;Stump 2010) styles.…”

“…The popularity of these two works is due, not least, to their overarching proposals of method (Gericke) and purpose (Hazony). Unsurprisingly, certain scholars have attempted a synthesis of these two approaches (see Carmy and Shatz 1997;Keefer 2021;see Sekine 2005see Sekine , 2014, while some have endeavored to advance one of them (see Johnson 2021;Peterson 2019). As for the latter, Johnson's work (2021) is the most recent and constructive in the field.…”

“…A recent raft of "philosophical" interpretations has emerged within biblical studies. The book of Job has been interpreted via Aristotelian notions of friendship (Vesely 2019), Ecclesiastes read alongside Benatar's "anti-natal" premises (Peterson 2019), Proverbs put in touch with Socratic and Aristotelian moral theories (Ansberry 2010; Keefer 2021), and the book of Exodus analyzed with the epistemology of Polanyi (Johnson 2013), to name only a few. The prospect of using philosophical resources for biblical interpretation has, furthermore, been a matter of exploration at several research venues, including the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem, the "Hebrew Bible and Philosophy" sessions of the 2014-2015 SBL Annual Meetings, the Logos Institute for Analytic and Exegetical Theology in St. Andrews, Scotland, "The Origins of Second Order Thinking" research venture headed up by Dietrich and others, and the Center for Hebraic Thought, based at The King's College in New York City, which serves as the current online hub of such efforts.…”

“…In what follows, I will trace a trajectory of approaches, beginning with two sides of a spectrum: "using the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament for philosophical reflection" (Antony 2011;Chrétien 2015;Craig 2020;Fales 2011;Murphy 2011;Wood 2021) and "using philosophy for biblical interpretation" (Gericke 2012;Hazony 2012;Johnson 2021;Keefer 2021;Legaspi 2018;Stump 2010;Vesely 2019;Yoder 2020). The former often features those trained in philosophy or in Christian theology, while the latter often features biblical scholars who draw on philosophy.…”