Richard Marsden – E. Ann Matter (Eds.)

BOOK REVIEWS

Richard Marsden – E. Ann Matter (eds.). The New Cambridge History of the Bible. Volume 2: From 600 to 1450. Cambridge – New York, Cambridge University Press, 2012. (15×23), 1068 p. ISBN 978-0- 521-86006-2. $190.00.

In the first edition of the Cambridge History of the Bible, the second volume was given the title The West from the Fathers to the Reformation (1969, ed. G.W.H. Lampe). The editor’s preface confirmed that the volume was “principally concerned with the history of the Bible in medieval western Europe” (vii, italics mine) and that the book focused on “[t]he permeation of European culture by the Scriptures” (viii). The corresponding second tome of the New Cambridge History of the Bible wishes to widen the scope of the ‘old’ volume and to open up its strictly Western focus. This change in course explains the more neutral volume title and is mentioned subtly in the editors’ preface: “We have aimed to present a more balanced treatment of eastern and western biblical traditions and especially to highlight the reception and study of biblical texts among Jewish and Muslim scholars” and “[w]e have given far wider coverage to the many scriptural languages of the Middle Ages, some of them ignored or barely mentioned in the earlier volume, including Ethiopic, Armenian and Georgian, and the […] Slavonic languages” (both citations p. xv). Telling in this regard are, besides the articles on Oriental languages and Jewish and Muslim texts and exegesis that were added, the contributions that were left out: articles on the Gothic Bible and Erasmus had to make way for new ones, many of which look beyond the borders of Western Europe. This widened perspective notwithstanding, the reader does notice occasional glimpses of an approach that echoes that of the 1969 publication, such as the frequent use of the term ‘medieval’, an adjective that one would encounter perhaps less often in research on the Christian/Jewish/Muslim Orient. That said, only two contributions express a too narrowly Western point of view. In R.A. Harris’ otherwise very instructive essay on Jewish Biblical Exegesis from Its Beginnings to the Twelfth Century (596-615) one would perhaps expect more than 3,5 pages on exegesis from the East. More remarkable is the complete absence of any attention for Eastern evidence in A.S. Abulafia’s essay on The Bible in Jewish-Christian Dialogue (616-637), which only points to literature (Latin and Hebrew) and examples from the West and disregards the exciting polemical literature written in Greek. The new volume surpasses the one edited by Lampe both in richness and diversity, despite the fact that it covers a more limited chronological framework. The original publication featured several contributions treating pre-Hieronymian evidence and covered the period up to the Reformation; the new volume takes its starting point around 600 and chooses the fall of Byzantium as its closing date (which of course relates to the wider approach mentioned above). Although in his introductory essay R. Marsden describes the chronological boundaries to be flexible (1-16, here p. 3), the contributors appear to have respected them rather strictly

98638.indb 657 20/01/16 10:35 658 BOOK REVIEWS

and breaches are quite rare; a case in point is the essay by F. van Liere on The Latin Bible, c. 900 to the Council of Trent, 1546 (93-109) – despite its title, Harris’ abovementioned article in fact opens with midrashim not from the “beginnings” but from the late Middle Ages. The book gathers a dazzling 44 contributions, which amount to no less than 873 pages, bibliography and indices not included. These articles are grouped into five parts: Texts and Versions (sixteen articles, 19-306); Format and Transmis- sion (nine articles, 309-482); The Bible Interpreted (eight articles, 485-655); The Bible in Use (six articles, 659-752); and The Bible Transformed (five articles, 755-873). An extensive presentation of these five parts is offered in Marsden’s introduction. Of course, any such division cannot be but flexible: an article on the Glossa ordinaria, for example, would have fitted the third part as nicely as it now fits the second. And many of the essays from the first part (those on the Hebrew, Greek and Latin Bible) also deal with questions of format and transmission. But only in one case does one feel that a contribution is out of place: the article on The Latin Psalter by Th. Gross-Diaz (427-445) can be found in the part on Format and Transmission, but deals quite extensively with questions of versions and textual criticism, i.e., topics that are already covered (to a slightly higher degree of satisfaction) in several contributions from the first part. The latter observation makes one ask about overlaps between articles, a phenomenon that cannot be avoided in such a massive undertaking. Therefore it is not surprising that some topics (such as the μεταχαρακτηρισμός of Greek manuscripts or the victory of the Psalterium Gallicanum over the other Latin Psalter versions) recur in various articles. In that sense, particularly the article by D. Ganz on Carolingian Bibles (325-337) appears familiar to the reader who already digested the presentation of the textual history of the Latin Bible by P.-M. Bogaert (The Latin Bible, c. 600 to c. 900, 69-92) and by F. van Liere earlier in the book. More than once, however, overlaps are enriching. A case in point is the already mentioned Glossa ordinaria, which is the topic of an excellent article by L. Smith (363-379) but also occurs in a number of other essays. These address aspects that are not treated by Smith, such as the importance of the Glossa’s biblical text for the late medieval tradition of the Vulgate or the central role of Christian-Jewish debate and anti-Jewish polemics in the Glossa (see resp. 100-101 and 633). In general, not that many contributions cite primary literature (in translation). On the whole, the methods and approaches of the essays are quite diverse. Some articles give a basic introduction and survey the state of the research. Others rather focus on the lacunae in the available studies, sketch recent developments in the field, and point to opportunities for innovative research. The editors do not comment on the nature of the audience that is targeted. The very impressive and rich article by J. Lowden (Illustration in Biblical Manuscripts, 446-482) is written for the student who is new to the field and for whose benefit the author inserted convenient lists of facsimile editions and catalogues. The contribution that immediately follows T.M. Kolbaba’s essay on Byzantine Orthodox Exegesis (485-504), contains far less realia and does not offer a clear-cut overview of the most important texts, authors and methods: it will be useful not so much to the novice as to the experienced researcher. (On the side, the facts are not always correct: the one text that is named as the typical example of a catena, the Collectio Coisliniana on Genesis, is not a real catena [486 n. 4]; the one text that is named as an illustration of Photius’ creative exegesis, the Amphilochia, contains not that much original material [488].)

98638.indb 658 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 659

The volume is carefully edited and contains very few typos or other forms of sloppiness. This is what one would expect from a Cambridge History of…, but it does not mean that this fact should remain unmentioned: in a publication of this size and scope, such care and precision are remarkable and worthy of note. All of this makes for an impressive book of the highest standards that can only be applauded and recommended. R. Ceulemans

Christian Dionne – Yvan Mathieu (eds.). Raconter Dieu: Entre récit, histoire et théologie (Le livre et le rouleau, 44). Bruxelles, Lessius, 2014. (14,5×20,5), 203 p. ISBN 978-2-87299-252-2. €19.50.

As indicated by its title, this collection of essays focuses on the depiction of God in the biblical texts, understood as narratives rooted in a particular historical context which aim to address a theological issue. Most of the essays were presented either as a main lecture or a seminar during a meeting of the Réseau de recherche en Narratologie et Bible (RRENAB), an association of French-speaking North-American and European exegetes who take a common interest in narrative analysis, which in 2011 convened for its biennial symposium at Saint Paul Univer- sity in Ottawa. The only exception is the final essay by Jean-Pierre Sonnet, who was prevented from participating in the symposium but delivered a closely related contribution to its proceedings. In order to foster an interdisciplinary exchange, the keynote lecture was assigned to Philippe Carrard, who has been trained neither as a historian nor a theologian and approaches the issue from the perspective of the poetics of historiography by discussing various kinds of historiographical narratives. Drawing closer to the actual topic of the conference, Françoise Mirguet observes that God is not treated differently from any other character in the biblical narratives: the omniscient narrator remains within the field of human experiences and limitations in expressing God’s actions and emotions. In yet another general study, Anne Pasquier addresses the issue of religious language as oscillating between myth and historiography, which results in a form of divine poetics. The next set of essays presents a detailed analysis of specific texts: André Wénin focuses on the role of the divine character in the so-called Sea Narrative (Ex 13,17–14,31); Didier Luciani traces various forms of ambiguity in the depiction of God’s interventions throughout the Samson cycle (Judg 13–16); Normand Bonneau explores the Gos- pel of Mark as a composite of narrative, history and theology; while doctoral students Ionel Ababi and Constantin Pogor present studies of, respectively, the role of God in the story of David and Bathsheba (2 Sam 11,27b–12,25) and the contrasting descriptions of divine intervention in the deliverer stories of Ehud and Barak/Deborah/Jael (Judg 3,11b-30 and 4). Finally, Jean-Pierre Sonnet points out that the character of God often reformulates, nuances or corrects his earlier statements when revealing himself in a direct speech or through human intermediators. As such, Sonnet brings the reader full circle by offering a further illustration of what Mirguet had already observed in more general terms. Taken together, this collection of nice essays may be seen as an excellent exemplification of the oft-quoted characterization of the Bible as the ‘Word of

98638.indb 659 20/01/16 10:35 660 BOOK REVIEWS

God in human language’, as the Pontifical Biblical Commission has aptly described the Scriptures in its document The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (1993). Even in their depictions of God, so it turns out, the biblical texts by necessity remain within the boundaries of human literature, with all the limitations – but also the beauty – that it entails. To the scientifically trained ear, this may seem like stating the obvious, but it requires little further reflection to realise that the observations made by the contributors to this intriguing volume have important implications for all those who attempt to make absolute claims about God on the basis of the biblical texts. H. Debel

Kunio Nojima. Ehre und Schande in Kulturanthropologie und biblischer Theologie (Arco Wissenschaft). Wuppertal – Wien, Arco, 2011. (17×24), 534 p. ISBN 978-3-938375-41-9. €64.00.

Von der Kulturanthropologie und verwandten Disziplinen, über die interkultu- relle Theologie bis zu neueren hermeneutischen Zugängen zu biblischen Texten spielen die Kategorien von Ehre und Schande eine große Rolle. Verdienst der vorliegenden Studie des Japaners Kunio Nojima (Doktoraldissertation Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal, 2010, Betreuung Klaus Haacker) ist es, die hauptsächlich englischsprachig geführte interdisziplinäre Diskussion hervorragend zusammen- zufassen und an instruktiven Beispielen für das Verständnis biblischer Texte fruchtbar zu machen. Dabei ergeben sich wichtige Einsichten für die Psalmenfor- schung, die Paulusforschung und das Verständnis ntl. Anthropologie, Soteriologie und der eigentlichen Gotteslehre. Im ersten Hauptteil zeichnet Nojima die Forschungsgeschichte zur Ehre und Schande/Scham von der Kulturgeschichte zur Exegese nach (15–58). Dazu gehört die Geschichte der kulturanthropologischen Erforschung von „honour“ and „shame“ im Mittelmeerraum und außerhalb des Mittelmeerraums in Afrika, Japan (59-102) und China. Die Kategorien sind also weit über den antiken und gegenwärtigen Mit- telmeerraum verbreitet. Dem folgt eine Forschungsgeschichte der Anwendungen kulturanthropologischer Erforschung von „honour“ und „shame“ in der Auslegung des Neuen Testaments. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf dem amerikanischen Gelehrten Bruce J. Malina und seinem Freundes- und Schülerkreis und auf anderen Möglichkei- ten der Anwendung kulturanthropologischer Einsichten in der Exegese (R.A. Atkins, D.A. de Silva, C. Strecker). Nojima zeigt, dass die Anwendung von Einsichten der Kulturanthropologie in der Exegese ein neues heuristisches Instrumentarium und andere Möglichkeiten bietet, weist aber auch auf zwei Grundprobleme hin, nämlich „wie man das Verhältnis des Bibeltextes und der Gesellschaft, die ihn produzierte, unterscheiden kann; wie man die Möglichkeit der Anwendung von Forschungser- gebnissen über gegenwärtige Gesellschaften auf antike Gesellschaften übertragen kann“ (141). Nojima plädiert dafür, kulturanthropologische Fragestellungen als einen hermeneutischen Aspekt im Prozess der traditionellen exegetischen Methodik zu verwenden. Mit dieser Methode allein, ohne die traditionelle historisch-kritische Methode, ist das Neue Testament im Ganzen nicht zu verstehen (496). Der zweite Hauptteil widmet sich dem Komplex Ehre/Schande/Scham in ver- schiedenen vorchristlichen Traditionen. Zunächst geht es um „honour“ und

98638.indb 660 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 661

„shame“ im griechisch-römischen Kontext (143-246). Dann untersucht Nojima „honour“ und „shame“ in der alttestamentlichen Tradition mit Schwerpunkt auf den Psalmen (247-336), in deren Tradition die pln. Ehre-Vorstellung steht (497). Der dritte Hauptteil gilt Ehre/Schande/Scham in den paulinischen Briefen und behandelt zunächst die Bedeutung von Ehre und Schande/Scham für die ntl. Forschung, Überblick über die Wortgruppe sowie die anzuwendende Methodik (337-348, u.a. mit einem Exkurs zu doxa als leitender Begriff pln. Theologie). Nojima schreibt:

Der Problemkreis um „Ehre“ und „Schande/Scham“ in den paulinischen Briefen ist enorm. Unter drei Kategorien werden jeweils wichtige Textstellen analysiert: 1. „Ehre“ („Verehrung, Anerkennung“) und „Schande“ („Missachtung, Nicht- Beachtung“) zwischen Gott und Menschen; 2. Sich „Rühmen“ und „Schämen“ des christlichen Menschen („die durch den Got- tesbezug von Menschen beeinflusste Selbstachtung/-verachtung“); 3. Gesellschaftliche „Ehre“ und „Schande“ von christlichen Menschen („die durch den Gottesbezug von Menschen für ihren gesellschaftlichen Status hervorgebrachten Konsequenzen“) (339f.).

Der folgende, erste größere Abschnitt untersucht theologisches Reden von Ehre und Schande, nämlich Ehre und Schande im Verhältnis zwischen Gott und Men- schen (349-383). Dazu gehören Texte, die von der Verehrung oder Missachtung Gottes durch Menschen handeln (Gottes Ehre als zu verwirklichendes Ziel, Gottes Ehre als verpflichtender Wert, die Feststellung menschlicher Defizite – gemessen an Gottes Recht auf Ehre – als Affront gegen Gott und die Feststellung positiver menschlicher Zuwendung gemessen an Gottes Recht auf Ehre) sowie Texte, die von der Anerkennung oder Nicht-Beachtung von Menschen durch Gott handeln (385-415) positive und klare Aussagen über Ehre von Gott oder bei Gott, positive Aussagen über die mit dem Status der Sohnschaft verbundene Ehre, die pln. Wettkampfmetaphorik, die Rede vom Beschämt-Werden, Ehre/Schande und die Rechtfertigungslehre des Paulus). Der zweite Abschnitt untersucht die Verinnerli- chung und soziale Dimension des theologischen Redens von „Ehre“ und „Schande“ (431-483). Dies zeigt sich in der Selbsteinschätzung von Menschen unter dem Einfluss ihrer Gottesbeziehung. Dazu gehören Aussagen des Sich-Rühmens von Menschen, insbesondere der Christen (allgemeine Aussagen, Aussagen in der 1. Person Plural, Selbstaussagen des Paulus in der Ich-Form) sowie Aussagen des Sich-Schämens der Christen – allgemeine Aussagen, Selbstaussagen des Paulus). Weiter beleuchtet Nojima die „Vergesellschaftung“ von Ehre und Schande in Tex- ten, in denen der Gottesbezug von Menschen Konsequenzen für den gesellschaftlichen Status (Ehre oder Schande) von Menschen hat (485-493, Ehre und Schande im Verhältnis zwischen Gemeindegliedern sowie im Verhältnis der Gemeindeglie- der zu ihren Leitern; Ehre und Schande der Christen bzw. der Gemeinden im Verhältnis gegenüber der römischen Obrigkeit bzw. der Gesellschaft). Die umfangreiche Untersuchung endet mit Zusammenfassung und abschließen- den Überlegungen (498-501). Ehre und Schande-Vorstellungen werden in beiden Testamenten verwendet, um das fundamentale Verhältnis zwischen Gott und Men- schen auszudrücken. Ehre von Gott für Menschen und Ehre von Menschen für Gott sind wichtige Anliegen (498). Kulturanthropologische Forschungen haben den enormen und existentiellen Stellenwert der Ehre oder ihrer Verweigerung oder Beschädigung für Menschen in einer Gesellschaft aufgezeigt. Ehre bestimmt dabei

98638.indb 661 20/01/16 10:35 662 BOOK REVIEWS

weit mehr als den sozialen Status eines Menschen in seiner Gesellschaft. Zur Ehre im Verhältnis zwischen Gott und Menschen schließt Nojima:

Gottes eigene Ehre (im Verhältnis zu seinem Geschöpf, u. a. zum Menschen) wird erst durch die angemessene Antwort des Menschen verwirklicht bzw. bewusst gemacht, andererseits kann Gottes Ehre von Menschen verletzt werden (Mal 1,6 u.a.). Das ist das „Risiko“, das Gott eingegangen ist, als er den Menschen zu seinem „Ebenbild“ schuf. Der Mensch antwortete de facto nicht angemessen: Die Nichtverehrung oder Entehrung Gottes ist ein fundamentaler Aspekt der Sünde (Röm 1,21). Auf Verletzungen seiner Ehre reagiert Gott scharf mit „Zorn“. Wenn ein Mensch durch seinen Glauben im Gegenteil Gott die Ehre (zurück)gibt, erfüllt er das erste Gebot (Röm 4,20): Die Verehrung/Ehrung ist ein wichtiger Aspekt der Liebe zu Gott (vgl. Deut 6,5). Die dem Menschen als Geschöpf Gottes verliehene Ehre ist durch seine unangemess- ene Antwort auf Gott beschädigt oder verloren gegangen. Der Verlust der Ehre hat den Menschen sowohl ihre Verbannung aus der Gemeinschaft mit Gott eingebracht wie auch die Selbst-Verachtung: die Missachtung der Menschenwürde durch die Men- schen selbst (Röm 1,24.26.28b)

Weitere Themen sind die Bedeutung von Schamvorstellungen, der Entzug der sozialen Ehre der Glaubenden um Gottes Willen (die Verheißung und Erwartung von Ehre bei Gott wird dem erfahrenen oder drohenden innerweltlichen Ehrverlust entgegengestellt und wirkt in den Glaubenden das Gefühl positiver Selbst- Bejahung aufgrund ihres Gottesbewusstseins, ein positives Sich-Rühmen, vgl. Röm 5,2f), der Wunsch nach gradueller Überbietung anderer, das Streben nach endzeitlicher Ehre sowie Ehre/Schande und pln. Rechtfertigungslehre. Der folgende, instruktive Vergleich zwischen Ehre und Schande/Scham bei Paulus und in der japanischen Kultur fällt leider knapp aus (502-510). Neben dem „archai- schen Schuldgefühl“ der Japaner (wie es in der Kapitulationserklärung aus dem Jahr 1945 zum Ausdruck kommt) vergleicht Nojima auch zwei Schuldbekenntnisse japa- nischer Christen nach dem 2. Weltkrieg mit entsprechenden Texten aus Deutschland. Nojima schreitet ein großes, interdisziplinäres, forschungsgeschichtliches Feld gekonnt ab. Seine Untersuchungen zur griechisch-römischen Welt und zum Alten Testament sind weiterführend. Vor allem zeigt er, wie die Kategorien von Ehre und Schande/Scham helfen können, wichtige Aussagen des Paulus (und darüber hinaus im Neuen Testament) zu verstehen (etwa auch in der Diskussion und Neu- bewertung der Satisfaktionslehre Anselms von Canterbury). Der informierte sowie moderate Ansatz und die Ergebnisse dieser bisher wenig beachteten Studie verdie- nen Aufnahme in die wissenschaftliche Diskussion. C. Stenschke

Mark A. Chancey – Carol Meyers – Eric M. Meyers (eds.). The Bible in the Public Square: Its Enduring Influence in American Life (SBL Biblical Scholarship in North America, 27). Atlanta, GA, Society of Biblical Literature, 2014. (15×23), vi-222 p. ISBN 978-1-58983-981-6. $29.95.

What role does the Bible play in forming the religious, social, and political landscape of a given nation? The present volume originated from a conference held at Duke University in 2012 that considered how the Bible has influenced

98638.indb 662 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 663

American society through the years. “Recognizing that the Bible was, is, and probably will continue to be an important part of American life, the conference was organized in order to highlight the diverse ways the Bible appears in various aspects of national culture” (4). Due to the success of the conference, it was concluded that the essays presented would be compiled into the present work, thus opening the discourse to a broader audience. The essays are as follows: Mark Chancey, Carol Meyers, and Eric Meyers, “Introduction” (1-11); Part One (The Bible and Politics), Jacques Berlinerblau, “The Bible in the Presidential Elections of 2012, 2008, 2004, and the Collapse of American Secularism” (15-36); Yaakov Ariel, “Biblical Imagery, the End Times, and Political Action: The Roots of Christian Support for Zionism and Israel” (37- 62); Part Two (The Bible, America’s Founding, and American Identity), John Fea, “Does America Have a Biblical Heritage?” (65-92); David Morgan, “The Image of the Protestant Bible in America” (93-119); Part Three (The Bible and Popular Culture), Adele Reinhartz, “Holy Words in Hollywood: Demille’s The Ten Com- mandments (1956) and American Identity” (123-135); David W. Stowe, “History, Memory, and Forgetting in Psalm 137” (137-157); Rubén Dupertuis, “Comic Book Bibles: Translation and the Politics of Interpretation” (159-178); Part Four (The Bible and Public Schools), Charles C. Haynes, “Battling over the Bible in Public Schools: Is Common Ground Possible?” (181-191); and Mark A. Chancey, “Public School Bible Courses in Historical Perspective: North Carolina as a Case Study” (193-214). The volume is constructed well and the parts flow smoothly together. The authors successfully show how in many ways the biblical narrative has collapsed into the American narrative, a point they argue continues to the present day. Each article carefully navigates the historical development of a given topic and concludes with the persistent nature of a particular American hermeneutic when reading the Bible. A strong element of the book concerns how the Bible has per- meated American culture including politics, the formulation of American identity, popular culture, and public schools. Not only do the authors show how the Bible has influence American culture, but they also show the ways in which various writers have shaped the Bible into a discernible American narrative. An example of this is Dupertuis’ article on comic book Bibles. He investigates how various comic book Bibles work herme- neutically, all the while trying to be true to the biblical narrative. At the same time, he notes that their interpretations actually add details not in the narrative itself, but are used to back preformed opinions. This example serves as the basis for the findings of many of the articles. The Bible is not read objectively, but with ideological interests in mind. Berlinerblau succinctly summarizes the thrust of the book when he writes, “When a professional biblical scholar reads a verse, she sees a question. When a politician reads a verse, she sees an answer” (15). His article considers how politicians use Bible verses to support either their candidacies or policies, but we can take his statement and broaden it beyond just politicians seeing an answer, and insert Americans seeing an answer in the Bible. The other articles work around that very premise, how the answers Americans are looking for are given credence by their particular reading of the biblical text. It would have been interesting for the organizers of the conference to consider the ways in which the Bible has influenced sports and music in America given their place in American society, but even with this gap, the essays provide an

98638.indb 663 20/01/16 10:35 664 BOOK REVIEWS

insightful window into the collective psyche of American culture and its use of the Bible. Given the recent discussion in America regarding same-sex marriage and the appeal to the Bible by both proponents and opponents, one readily sees how important a work like this is for understanding the unique discourse occurring in America over the meaning and interpretation of the biblical text. T. Vollmer

Magne Sæbø (ed.), in co-operation with Peter Machinist and Jean-Louis Ska. Hebrew Bible / Old Testament: The History of Its Interpretation. Volume III: From Modernism to Post-Modernism (The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries). Part 2: The Twentieth Century – From Modernism to Post-Modernism. Göttingen – Bristol, CT, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015. (17×24,5), 777 p. ISBN 978-3-525-54022-0. €150.00.

Two years after the appearance of the previous instalment, the monumental Hebrew Bible / Old Testament series reaches its apex with the completion of its final volume. Devoted to the twentieth century, it presents contributors with considerable challenge in contrast to earlier volumes. For not only is the study of the recent past always a methodologically hazardous endeavour, but biblical studies – as indicated by Magne Saebø in his brief introductory essay – has witnessed an unprecedented fragmentation in the final decades of the century, in view of both geograph- ical and confessional diversification as well as the variety of methods applied. Even a moment’s glance at the table of contents, however, may convince readers that the editors of the present collection of essays, composed by leading scholars from different fields and locales, have taken serious efforts to avoid obvious pitfalls. Although a certain degree of overlap is unavoidable in this kind of work, the volume is divided clearly in three parts. The essays in the first part broadly survey various methodological approaches within biblical studies: the general issue of hermeneutics and the quest for meaning (Dagfinn Føllesdal), comparative Semitic linguistics (Steven E. Fassberg), the study of Ancient Israel’s social life and institutions (Anselm C. Hagedorn), the diverse approaches developed in reaction to literary criticism à la Wellhausen (John Barton), the form- and traditio-historical methods (Antony F. Campbell), so-called contemporary methods such as rhetorical criticism, reader-response criticism, structuralism, feminist criticism or postcoloni- alism (David J.A. Clines), the significance of the Old Testament for twentieth century systematic theology (Manfred Oeming), and what is conveniently referred to as the ‘canonical’ approach of Brevard S. Childs and James A. Sanders (Dennis Olson). The essays in the second part present recent developments from the perspective of specific regional and confessional areas, including both Americas (Douglas A. Knight), Africa (Hendrik Bosman), Australia and New Zealand (Mark A. O’Brien), Asia (Seizō Sekine), the European mainland, the United Kingdom and Ireland (John Barton), Scandinavia (Antti Laato), and Jewish biblical scholarship (S. David Sperling). Specific fields of interest appear in the essays of the third part, devoted to the history of Ancient Israel (Jean-Louis Ska), Pentateuchal criticism (David M. Carr), the so-called Deuteronomistic and Chronistic Historiographies (Walter Dietrich), the prophetic books (Marvin A. Sweeney), the Psalms (Corinna Körting), sapiential literature (Knut M. Heim), law and ethics (Eckart Otto), Israelite religion (Joachim Schaper), Old Testament theology (Bernd Janowski),

98638.indb 664 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 665

and translation studies (Jan de Waard). A brief epilegomenon by Saebø concludes the volume by looking back on the twofold human aspect of biblical interpretation as God’s word in human language being interpreted in human fashion. Each of the volume’s three parts develops clearly its own perspective regarding the diversity so characteristic for twentieth-century exegesis: the first part introduces readers to the methodological pluralism of present-day biblical studies, the second then brings in the full-blown globalisation of the discipline, and the third summarizes the most important results of scholarly work in the past century. This last part may be particularly relevant for a broader scholarly audience that entertains no specific interest in the history of exegesis, as it offers a good overview of the current state of affairs in the respective fields of study. Especially noteworthy, in this respect, is Jean-Louis Ska’s superb discussion of the history of Ancient Israel that culminates in a list of pertaining ‘open questions’, as well as David Carr’s excellent overview of trends within Pentateuchal criticism after the collapse of consensus on the newer documentary hypothesis. Evidently, readers should not expect this volume to offer an introductory textbook; most essays presuppose a certain familiarity with the work of the scholars in question and the debates that would follow in its wake. It is nevertheless somewhat unfortunate that some contributors have not taken the trouble to present a synthesis, and instead restrict themselves to an extensive review of the literature. Further, one may note a few blind spots within the volume as a whole, for example the curious absence of separate essays discussing the discipline of textual criticism or recent interests in the relevance of Second Temple Jewish literature for understanding the emergence of the scriptural texts. For both, one must note that a few individual essays in this volume pay attention to matters text-critical, while some of the essays in the first volume already covered issues from these fields of study. That does not alter the fact, however, that both may also be considered sub-disciplines of biblical studies in their own right, which have witnessed considerable developments during the two decades separating the first and the final volume in the series. Such critical remarks should of course not take away from the many obvious merits of the volume, and of the process that led to its production. As the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament project – initiated in the early 1980s – draws to a close, one can only look admiringly at the efforts of the editors to bring a project of this mag- nitude to completion within a fairly limited span of time. There can be little doubt that this monumental series, standing out particularly for its comprehensiveness, international scope and detailed bibliographies, will serve as a standard reference work and major scholarly tool for the decades to come. The publication of this mag- nificent final volume may therefore be considered a true landmark in biblical studies. H. Debel

Bill T. Arnold. Introduction to the Old Testament. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014. (19×23,5), xvi (+ twelve plates)-409 p. ISBN 978-0-521-70547-9. £34.99.

In light of the accumulation of ‘introductions’ in recent years – seemingly the second-best ranked genre within biblical studies, to be eclipsed only by the ‘commentaries’ – it may be tempting to ask: who needs yet another introduction to the Old Testament? To an outsider, it may seem as if every self-respecting scholar of

98638.indb 665 20/01/16 10:35 666 BOOK REVIEWS

stature has to publish at some point in his/her career the course notes of his/her undergraduate introduction to the Old Testament (in addition to writing at least one commentary on a biblical book!). At any rate, recent decades have seen the appearance of a whole range of such introductions, some of which have very little to offer beyond a mere paraphrase of the biblical texts in question coupled with few innovative comments. This trend puts an obvious burden on the shoulders of any scholar contemplating the possibility of publishing his/her own introduction, and sharpens the critical reviewer’s eye when reading the fruit of his/her labours. Like most other introductions to the Old Testament, Arnold’s work begins with some general introductory chapters. In this case, these chapters deal with mono theism as the basic characteristic that holds the entire Old Testament together, with the Old Testament’s status as a book to which divine inspiration has been attributed, and with the world in which the emergence of the Old Testament is to be located. Subsequent chapters survey individual parts and books of the Old Tes- tament, from the primary history and ancestral narratives in Genesis, to the book of Daniel and the five Festival Scrolls from the Jewish canon. A final chapter then returns to the enduring relevance of the Old Testament for the contemporary world, after which a helpful glossary summarises the book’s key points. Throughout the work, Arnold repeatedly draws attention to the idea of monotheism as representing the Old Testament’s most important legacy in the history of ideas. As is unfortunately often the case in introductions of this kind, the Pentateuch and Historical Books feature much more prominently than the Prophets and the Psalms and Wisdom Literature, from which certain books are mentioned only in the briefest way. Even more troubling is the fact that this introduction at times reflects theories and viewpoints that have been largely abandoned in recent research, or at the very least have become highly disputed among the current generation of scholars. For example, Arnold clings to the Documentary Hypoth- esis to explain the origins of the Pentateuch, and even calls the (in his view clearly pre-exilic) ‘Yahwistic’ source ‘the world’s first work of prose’ (56). In a similar vein, he considers the books of Joshua to Kings as part of a running ‘Deuterono- mistic History’, to which he couples an alternate ‘Chronistic History’ that consist of Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah. With respect to the book of Nehemiah, he claims that the ‘book of the law’ read by Ezra may be safely identified as nearly identical to the Torah in its canonical form, although the evidence from the Judean Desert militates against such an assumption. On a more general plane, the value of the Dead Sea Scrolls is confined to the so-called ‘biblical scrolls’ that offer copies of a book in the current Jewish canon. When probing the work of the ancient scribes, Arnold sticks to the superseded distinction between authors, com- pilers, editors and copyists, although he does admit that their work cannot always be clearly distinguished, whereas his discussion of other books held in high regard by early Judaism is limited to the so-called ‘deuterocanonicals’, and fails to even mention the books of Jubilees and 1 Enoch for which the Scrolls have rendered such important evidence. With respect to the historicity behind the texts, Arnold paints a fairly accurate picture of the present state of research for the patriarchs and the exodus, but for the period of the so-called judges and the United Monar- chy takes a leap of faith that allows for a greater degree of historicity than most historians of ancient Israel would be willing to concede. In the chapters dealing with the prophetic books, it may be noted that the author upholds traditional assumptions about the historical preaching of the prophets that go unsupported by

98638.indb 666 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 667

the biblical texts themselves, for example by attributing Isaiah 40–55 to that anon- ymous and highly gifted poet conveniently referred to as ‘Deutero-Isaiah’ – Arnold prefers to call him ‘Isaiah of the Exile’ – without taking into account the important trends in recent research that focus instead upon the text itself as a literary drama, and speak with more caution about its alleged Babylonian provenance. In sum, this very accessible and beautifully edited introduction certainly deserves its place among other textbooks in its genre, most of which suffer similar shortcomings. One is still eager, however, to see at last an introduction that does not simply rehearse what has been taught for decades in introductory courses, but would dare to present students with the results of cutting-edge scholarly research. It may leave them more puzzled and confused, but would also open up new perspectives for transcending an all too naïve approach to a diversified collection of texts with a complicated history of development. H. Debel

Emanuel Tov. Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Qumran, Septuagint. Collected Essays, Volume 3 (Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, 167), Leiden – Boston, MA, Brill, 2015. (16×24), xxiii-539 p. ISBN 978-90- 04-27013-8. €168.00; $218.00.

Some scholars simply have no need of introduction, and Emanuel Tov is without question one of these. As former editor-in-chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls editorial team and one of the leading textual critics of the Hebrew Bible, his major achievements are well-known both in and even beyond the community of biblical scholars. Most of his ground-breaking essays have already been brought together in two earlier collections, viz. The Greek and Hebrew Bible: Collected Essays on the Septuagint (1999), and Hebrew Bible, Greek Bible and Qumran: Collected Essays (2008). This third collection gathers thirty-three of his most recent papers, originally published between 2008 and 2014 (with one more still forthcoming), all of which have been reworked and updated to various degrees. Readers familiar with Tov’s work may observe that all the essays post-date the significant turning- point in his thinking that occurred in his publications from 2006 onwards, when he allowed himself to become convinced by the evidence that certain compositions that are arguably dependent upon the textual form represented by the Masoretic Text may likewise be considered as genuine editions of the scriptural text – a step that represented an audacity which only few scholars possess. A number of the essays included in this volume further pursue this line of thinking by applying the new perspective on the so-called pre-Samaritan texts from Qumran and the manuscripts once labelled 4QReworked Pentateuch, by offering further reflections upon the coincidental nature of the ancient collections of Scriptures, or by further retracing the many branches of textual development attested for certain biblical books. Others continue the various other avenues of research that run through Tov’s distinguished scholarly career, such as his interest in the many different scribal practices and features, his expertise on the Septuagint and other so-called versiones, his analysis of harmonisations in biblical texts, or his work as editor- in-chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls publication project. Their threefold division into bunches devoted to, respectively, ‘textual criticism’, ‘Qumran’ and ‘Septuagint’ is

98638.indb 667 20/01/16 10:35 668 BOOK REVIEWS

largely artificial, as most of the essays interact with all three fields of study. As with Tov’s earlier work, these studies too are focused on the actually available textual evidence, replete with detailed lists of examples, profound analyses of relevant cases in point, and helpful statistics that undergird his arguments. In short, together with the third edition of his acclaimed monograph Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, this collection not only presents the mature insights of an uncontested expert in textual-criticism, but it also gives an excellent overview of the work and thinking of the ‘later Tov’ – if such an expression would be acceptable. H. Debel

Jeffrey Stackert. A Prophet Like Moses: Prophecy, Law, and Israelite Religion. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014. (16×24), viii-243 p. ISBN 978-0-19-933645-6. $74.00.

Despite the ongoing confusion and disagreement that have characterized Penta- teuchal studies since the outbreak of the so-called ‘storm’ in the 1970s, scholars seem to have quickly reached a virtual consensus that any new models for the growth of the Pentateuch are to be fashioned in a redaction-critical mould. In recent years, however, this methodological point of departure has been sharply called into question by a small group of (quite prolific) scholars who are commonly referred to as ‘Neo-Documentarians’, as they attempt to revitalise the (so-called ‘Newer’) Documentary Hypothesis associated in particular with Julius Wellhausen. It should be noted, nevertheless, that these Neo-Documentarians part company with 19th-century German source critics in several respects. As one of the most important representatives of the Neo-Documentarian approach, Jeffrey Stackert aims to dissociate this school of thought clearly from Wellhausen’s denigrating view on rabbinic Judaism, believed to have influenced his historical reconstruction of Israelite religion. In short, Stackert sets out to demonstrate that Wellhausen’s conclusions on the development from a spontaneous prophetic tradition to a formalised legal religion were based on predisposed and biased arguments, yet nevertheless reflect a correct assessment of the literary growth of the texts. In order to make his case, Stackert begins by introducing readers to Well- hausen’s views on the Pentateuch and on Israelite religion, before presenting the Neo-Documentary approach and its divergences from the classical Documentary Hypothesis. Bluntly accepting the distinction between ‘J’, ‘E’, ‘D’ and ‘P’, the rest of the book is focused on the picture of Moses in the alleged sources. Before embarking on a more detailed exploration, the second chapter argues that particularly ‘E’, ‘D’ and ‘P’ display a clear intention to depict Moses as a prophet who mediates the Law. The three subsequent chapters are devoted to the relationship between prophecy and Law in each of these three sources. In a quite remarkable departure from the traditional understanding of ‘E’, Stackert argues that ‘E’ develops a distinctly pro-legal and anti-prophetic stance by promoting the substitution of prophecy by the Law. As a response, ‘D’ would have attempted to somewhat rehabilitate prophecy by allowing for a limited form of post-Mosaic prophecy tied to the figure of Moses, whereas ‘P’ would further endorse ‘E’s anti-prophetic stand by turning Moses into a priest and effectively imagining a world without prophecy. In addition, chapter 5 pays some attention to ‘J’, characterised as the

98638.indb 668 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 669

outsider of the Pentateuchal sources which includes neither a legal collection nor any anti-prophetic argument. Somewhat strangely, Stackert interprets this lack of any particular interest in either prophecy or Law as an intentional attempt to draw up a different picture of Moses, and thus as a conscious reply to at least ‘E’ and ‘D’, whereas he had earlier argued that ‘D’ is obviously dependent on ‘J’. The sixth and final chapter again summarises Stackert’s claims, and ends with a plea to locate the study of the Hebrew Bible within the discipline of religious studies in order to safeguard it from contemporary religious influences and biases similar to those on which Wellhausen founded his claims. As with other works of a Neo-Documentarian tenor, the main problem with this monograph is in the underlying assumptions taken for granted without serious consideration of the contrary. In terms of method, the objections to the Neo- Documentary approach are quickly dismissed without any form of dialogue with recent redaction-critical models. Particularly disturbing is the fact that the basic assumption of source criticism, viz. that each of the earlier sources is still clearly discernible in the final text, has become something of an axiom to Stackert. In fact, Wellhausen is jettisoned for nót having clearly disentangled ‘J’ and ‘E’, which is presented as one of the causes of the flaws in his work! The actual evidence from late Second Temple Judaism nonetheless calls into question Stackert’s implicit equation of the Masoretic Text with the final text, and indicates a degree of fluidity that flies in the face of anyone who views the work of redactors as a mere copy-pasting of earlier sources. This lack of any serious engagement with recent text-critical work and of criteria that undergird the distinction between the various sources gives Stackert’s work the flavour of a form of circular reasoning: the distinct profile of each of the sources serves as a means to allot particular chapters and verses to one or the other source, and the allotted texts are then presented as a justification of the assumption that each source has its distinct profile. Finally, the example of the picture drawn of Moses in each of the alleged sources reiterates a fundamental problem which the Neo-Documentarians are unable to solve, due to their perspective on the work of the ancient scribes: if the four sources, believed to be clearly recognisable in the Masoretic Text, are so obviously different from one another in almost every respect, what then did the redactor who compiled them aim to achieve except the creation of a jumbled and contradictory text? At first sight, it may seem as if Stackert has constructed a nice house, but closer examination reveals it to be built on shaky foundations. H. Debel

André Wénin, avec la collaboration de Marguerite Roman. Échec au Roi: L’art de raconter la violence dans le livre des Juges (Le livre et le rouleau, 43). Bruxelles, Lessius, 2013. (14,5×20,5), 255 p. ISBN 978- 2-87299-239-3. $24.50.

To say that the book of Judges is not among the most popular books of the Bible is quite an understatement. At first sight, the book seems little more than an unappealing collection of disturbing, xenophobic stories that justify the abounding violence against other peoples. Considered more closely, however, the book emerges as a piece of literary artistry which communicates a much more sophisticated

98638.indb 669 20/01/16 10:35 670 BOOK REVIEWS

message. Following a number of recent scholarly works on Judges, the present monograph aims to invite (particularly French-speaking) readers to appreciate its literary and artistic qualities. As in his other work, Wénin develops a narrative approach, in dialogue with historical-critical research. Yet unlike a more conserva- tive trend in scholarship, he wisely disregards questions on the alleged historicity of the events. Instead, he notes that while certain parts of the book may contain ‘reminiscences’ of actual events reflecting ancient traditions, their historical background is impossible to reconstruct in detail. The book consists of six chapters, grouped in two sections. The first two chapters offer some hermeneutical clues for Judges as a whole: chapter 1 explores the twofold prologue (Jdg 1,1–3,6) as providing the book’s global framework, while chapter 2 surveys the following chapters based on that premise. In the first two chapters, already one may observe Wénin’s sensitivity to details in the text – for example, when he correctly points out that some small clues set Judges 17–21 apart as a flashback, compelling readers to reconsider the succession of judges in previous chapters. With such a reading, Wénin contradicts the often-heard opinion that Judges was written to advocate human kingship in Israel. The author demonstrates the same attention to detail in the second part of the book, consisting of four chapters that in turn provide a more specific narrative analysis of individual epi- sodes, including the story of Ehud (Jdg 3,12-30), the tragedy of Jephtah (Jdg 10,6– 12,7), the Samson-cycle (Jdg 13,1–16,31) and the dramatic death of the Levite’s concubine (Jdg 19,1-30). Inevitably, some criticisms should be raised with respect to specific points. One may wonder, for instance, whether the brief story of Othniel, the first ‘judge’ (Jdg 3,7-11), should not be considered as the final part of the introductory ‘exposition’ rather than as the first judge story, as it illustrates the pattern sketched in Judges 2 – for, as Wénin correctly notes, this episode can hardly be considered a narrative and remains the only one that fully corresponds to the pattern. Likewise, one could raise some doubts vis- à-vis Wénin’s picture of Gideon as a truly ‘positive’ figure. After all, certain details in the text appear to present him in a quite different light: his formal refusal of the offer to rule over the people contrasts with many of his actions following his victory, which seem to represent those of a tyrant. Likewise, his initiative to build an ephod brings the idolatrous people ‘back to square one’, already during his lifetime. On the whole, however, Wénin offers a sound and refreshing analysis of an underappreciated biblical book. His work invites readers not familiar with Judges to reconsider some previous, perhaps hastily drawn scholarly conclusions. Specialized readers of Judges, in fact, may find quite a number of revealing, new insights in this well-written monograph. As such, there can be no doubt that it presents a most welcome addition to the ever-growing library of literary studies on Judges. H. Debel

William P. Brown (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014. (18×25,5), xix-661 p. ISBN 978-0- 19-978333-5. £97.00.

As one of most complex and most pronouncedly polyphonic books of the Hebrew Bible and a magnet for interpretations throughout the centuries, the Psalter

98638.indb 670 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 671

is truly sui generis. A separate Oxford Handbook specifically devoted to the study and reception of the book of Psalms is therefore most welcome, after previous handbooks had already surveyed broadly the areas of Biblical Studies (2006), the Dead Sea Scrolls (2010), and the reception of the Bible (2011). With no intention to fully cover the many different aspects of this multifaceted field of study in the past and the present, this volume announces itself as offering ‘a modest sampling of what is under way in Psalms studies and perhaps a glimpse of what is in store’ (ix). The no less than forty-two individual essays, written by as many authors, do indeed treat a variety of topics, and thus highlight the almost inexhaustible richness of the Psalms. After an introductory essay that provides a general orientation to the literary character, variegated interpretation and main issues in the historical-critical exegesis of the Psalms (William P. Brown), ten more specific fields of study receive treatment, each of them in at least two different essays that are not always as clearly delineated from one another as their placement in separate chapters suggests: (i) the comparative study of the Psalms against their ancient Near Eastern background, more specifically in the light of the extant Mesopotamian hymns and prayers (Anna Elise Zernecke), the Canaanite texts from Ugarit (Mark S. Smith), and the Egyptian hymnic tradition (Bernd U. Schipper); (ii) the poetical language of the Psalms, with a general introduction to the Psalter’s lyric nature (F.W. Dobbs- Allsopp), an impression of the influence of the Psalms on later poets (Peter S. Hawkins), and more detailed treatments of the expressions of lament in the Psalter (Carleen Mandolfo), the role of metonymy in its language of praise (Travis J. Bott), and the sapiential dimension of certain Psalms, sometimes denoted with the contested term of ‘wisdom psalms’ (Diane Jacobson); (iii) the ancient translations of the Psalter, i.e., its rendering into Aramaic (David M. Stec), the Old Greek translation commonly referred to as the ‘Septuagint Psalter’ (Joachim Schaper), and the three Latin translations made by Jerome (Scott Goins); (iv) various issues related to the composition of the Psalter, viz. the role of the Levites in the collect- ing and editing of the book (Susan E. Gillingham), the arrangement of Psalms 136–150 (Yair Zakovitch), and the new insights drawn from research into the Psalms scrolls from the Judean Desert, to which the two appendices placed at the end of the book are to be added (Peter W. Flint); (v) some trajectories within the tradition of interpretation, more particularly pre-Enlightenment Jewish interpretations (Alan Cooper), the use of the Psalms in the New Testament, with Psalm 2,7 as an example (Stephen P. Ahearne-Knoll), the role of the Psalms in the Qur’an (Walid A. Saleh), and the reception history of Psalm 91 in particular (Brennan Breed); (vi) the many different aspects of critical research into the Psalms during the past decades, with expositions on form-critical scholarship and the question of genre (William H. Bellinger, jr.), the cultic setting of certain psalms (Richard J. Clifford), the different ‘setting in life’ (Sitz-im-Leben) of other Psalms (Erhard S. Gerstenberger), the editorial shape and shaping of the Psalter as the literary context for the Psalms (J. Clinton McCann, jr.), the so-called meta-narrative constructed in the book (Nancy L. DeClaissé-Walford), the literary imagery in the Psalter, with the imagery of violence in Psalm 76 as an example (Joel M. LeMon), the rhetorical dimension of the Psalter (Robert L. Foster), the application of psychology and psycholinguistics to the Psalms (Brent A. Strawn), feminist interpretation of the construction of God and of women in the Psalms (Melody D. Knowles), and the different roles of the king in the Psalter (Norman K. Gottwald);

98638.indb 671 20/01/16 10:35 672 BOOK REVIEWS

(vii) a sample of explicitly culturally based interpretations of the Psalms among the African American community (Rodney S. Sadler, jr.), Asian Americans (John J. Ahn) and in Latin America (Edesio Sanchez); (viii) biblical theology of the Psalms, both from a Jewish (Marc Zvi Brettler) and a Christian perspective (Rolf A. Jacobson); (ix) the anthropology of the Psalms, with an exploration of the performed self in the Psalms (Walter Brueggemann) and of the righteous and the wicked as humankind’s two primary categories (Jerome F.D. Creach); and (x) the use of the psalms in contemporary practice, with elaborations on the general place of the Psalms in Christian worship (Kimberly Bracken Long), on fruitful strategies for developing a sermon on a psalm (Thomas G. Long), on old and new psalm settings for congregational singing in English (Michael Morgan), on the Psalms as a resource in pastoral care (Carol L. Schnabl Schweitzer), on the role of the Psalms in the life of monastic communities in the past and the present (Edmée Kingsmill), and on the relevance of certain Psalms in the current ecological crisis (David Rensberger). As even such a brief overview indicates, this voluminous collection of essays is very diverse; accordingly it shares the merits and limitations of similar collections. On the positive side, it gives readers a general impression of different issues and provides an orientation for further study through the bibliography at the end of each essay. At the same time, many issues receive superficial treatment, so that one is left puzzled whether the selection of examples is actually representative. That, of course, does not make the effort of the editor and authors to try to offer everyone something less commendable. In the end, this volume contributes to an improved awareness that the study of biblical texts, and of the Psalms in particular, has become a complex and multifaceted enterprise in current research. H. Debel

Sigmund Mowinckel. Psalm Studies. Translated by Mark E. Biddle, 2 vols. (SBL History of Biblical Studies, 2-3). Atlanta, GA, Society of Biblical Literature, 2014. (15×23), i-xii, 1-491 + i-x, 495-904 p. ISBN 978-1-58983-508-5/510-8. $59.95/53.95.

Among Biblical scholars, neither the figure of Sigmund Mowinckel nor his Psalmenstudien need any further introduction, since this collection in particular is commonly considered one of the most important works written by one of the most influential scholars from the twentieth century. As he followed the lead of Her- mann Gunkel, the Norwegian scholar is usually counted among the fathers of both form criticism as well as modern psalm studies. At the same time, Mowinckel is also known for having significantly modified Gunkel’s insights. His ambiguous relationship with Gunkel is well expressed in the preface to the first of his Psalm Studies: “my understanding of the psalms … stands on the foundation of Gunkel’s works … however, I consider it necessary to liberate what is new in Gunkel from its bondage to older views … one must play Gunkel against Gunkel” (1). Compared to Gunkel, Mowinckel would reduce the number of different genres (Formen) distinguished in the Psalms, while at the same time elaborating upon the context in which they supposedly originated (Sitz-im-Leben). In his view, the origins of the psalms may be traced back to a cultic setting with only very few

98638.indb 672 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 673

exceptions. More specifically, Mowinckel issued the suggestion of an annual ‘Enthronement Festival’ (Thronbesteigungsfest) in pre-exilic Israel, which he believed to have been celebrated in the autumn as a New Year’s Festival associated with the Feast of Booths (Sukkot). Through its various rites and processions, on the occasion of which several dozens of psalms would have been recited, this feast would have involved the re-enactment of yhwh’s victory over the primeval forces of chaos, the dramatic re-enthronement of yhwh as king over Israel, and the cultic re-affirmation of the human king as yhwh’s representative on earth. It is important to note, however, that Mowinckel’s theory was exclusively based on an argument by analogy; he was particularly inspired by the Babylonian New Year Festival during which the Enuma Elish was recited to celebrate Marduk’s enthronement and subsequent act of creation. In this respect, Mowinckel was simply a child of his own times, writing in an age where the many new textual and archaeological discoveries had led scholars to hypothesize a great number of parallels between Israelite religion and its Ancient Near Eastern neighbours. With hindsight, this ‘history of religions’ (religionsgeschichtliche) approach firmly and irrevocably located the study of Ancient Israel into its wider cultural environment, but some of the parallels suggested have turned out to be completely unfounded. The example of the supposed Enthronement Festival, which as the subject of the second (and lengthiest) ‘study’ occupies the most prominent position in Psalmenstudien, illustrates the merits and limitations of this translation very well. On the one hand, it is undoubtedly a benefit for scholarship to have Mowinckel’s seminal work, originally published in Oslo between 1921 and 1924, for the first time available in English. In fact, this translation may be regarded as a most welcome complement to the translation of his Offersang og sangoffer (1951) as The Psalms in Israel’s Worship (1962), which already popularised most of his ideas for a non-German audience. On the other hand, the studies are presented without any form of contextualization or probing of their reception. Unlike Eerdmans’ recent reprint of The Psalms in Israel’s Worship (2004), this translation does not include an introductory essay to provide readers with an overview of the book’s place within the history of scholarship; the brief translator’s preface is limited to some technical problems encountered during the translation of Mowinckel’s ‘Germwegian’ into English. Readers unfamiliar with the critical study of the Psalms are thus left on their own to assess the value of this work, which is a pity in light of nearly a hundred years of scholarship elapsed since the original appearance of the Psalmenstudien. H. Debel

Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford. The Shape and Shaping of the Book of Psalms: The Current State of Scholarship (SBL Ancient Israel and Its Litera- ture, 20). Atlanta, GA, Society of Biblical Literature, 2014. (15,5×23), xv-267 p. ISBN 978-1-62837-001-0. $36.95.

As part of a general tendency in biblical studies to take a synchronic perspective on the Scriptural texts, research concerning the shape of the Psalter as a whole has increasingly gained impetus in recent decades. Particularly influential in this regard was the publication of Gerald H. Wilson’s dissertation The Editing of the

98638.indb 673 20/01/16 10:35 674 BOOK REVIEWS

Hebrew Psalter (1985). In order to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of Wilson’s seminal work, in 2011 the annual conference of the Society of Biblical Literature devoted two sessions to the shaping of the Psalter. The present volume includes the contributions to those sessions, as well as six additional essays commissioned specifically to broaden its otherwise predomi- nantly North-American perspective. The first three essays directly link up to Wil- son’s dissertation. In the first, Nancy L. de Claissé-Walford compares it to the work of the two main protagonists of the so-called ‘canonical approach’, Brevard Childs and James Sanders, before briefly probing its influence on Psalms scholarship. Harry P. Nasuti, in the second essay, raises a few remarks about Wilson’s work and proceeds to remind readers of his own contribution to ongoing Psalms scholarship. Finally, J. Clincton MCann, Jr., devotes some pages to the impact of The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter. The next essays interact with Wilson’s work in a more subtle or implicit fashion: Erhard S. Gerstenberger briefly sketches the Ancient Near Eastern background for the poetry of praise; Jaco Gericke describes the theological pluralism in the Psalter; Derek E. Wittman maintains that Psalms 2 and 149 are meant to form an inclusion through their portrayal of yhwh’s kingship and of foreign nations; Christine Brown Jones assesses the pivotal place of the Asaph Psalms; Catherine Petrany examines wisdom elements in Psalms 62, 92 and 94; Phil J. Botha analyses the structure of Psalm 112; Karl N. Jacobson addresses the notion of yhwh being asleep and the verbs ‘to awake’ and ‘to contend’ in the Psalter; Sampson S. Ndoga highlights the theocratic organization of ‘Book 4’; Jonathan Magonet characterizes Psalms 96–99 as a set of liturgical psalms; W. Dennis Tucker, jr., points to anti-imperial language in ‘Book 5’; and Robert E. Wallace, finally, describes the mixed portrayal of David in ‘Book 5’. Exceptional in more than one way is the penultimate essay, in which Peter W. Flint once more presents an overview of the current state of research into the Psalms scrolls discovered in the Judean Desert, as well as his reconstruction of the various editions of the Psalter inferred from them. Finally, the somewhat provocative and even humorous essay by Rolf A. Jacobson looks back upon the past twenty-five years of Psalms scholarship as being dominated by the form-critical and canonical-critical approach, and predicts that the near future in Psalms studies will witness an increased imitation of methods employed in other fields. Few will disagree that Psalms scholarship has for all too long been focused on the individual compositions in the collection, without any serious attention to their editorial linkage, and that Wilson’s work has indeed brought about a necessary corrective in this regard. Much recent work, however, ignores the fact that Wilson – as well as the main protagonists of the canonical approach – were steeped deeply in historical-critical scholarship. Rather than claiming to disprove its results, they aimed to supplement it by focusing on an important aspect of the text that was previously overlooked. In hindsight, quite a number of scholars have interpreted this move as offering a fatal blow to traditional scholarship, and saw it as a justification of an equally one-sided focus on the present shape of the Psalter, of which the results are not seldom as speculative of those that they claim to replace. Unfortunately, some of the essays included in this rather heterogeneous volume suffer similar shortcomings. Particularly disturbing is that most of them, as still happens so often in current biblical scholarship, tend to identify the Masoretic Text as the ‘final text’ designed consciously by the redactors as marking the end of the

98638.indb 674 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 675

compositional process. By so doing, scholars tend to disregard the evidence of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Specifically for the Psalter, it may be noteworthy that the most important scroll, the so-called ‘great Psalms scroll’ from Cave 11 (11QPsa), was already published during the 1960s by James Sanders. Moreover, as the first to make extensive use of the fragments from Cave 4, Gerald Wilson himself significantly contributed to a better understanding of the pluriformity of the Psalter in Second Temple Judaism. That leads to the somewhat awkward conclusion that the history of scholarship painted by Flint, which updates overviews already published elsewhere, is still to be read for the first time by most contributors to the volume. H. Debel

Mirjam van der Vorm-Croughs. The Old Greek of Isaiah: An Analysis of Its Pluses and Minuses (SBL Septuagint and Cognate Studies, 61). Atlanta, GA, Society of Biblical Literature, 2014. (15×23), xiii-577 p. ISBN 978-1-58983-978-6. $75.95.

In the wake of the appearance of its editio maior as part of the Septuaginta Unternehmen in Göttingen in 1939, the Septuagint (lxx) of Isaiah – or more correctly, the Old Greek of Isaiah – has generated a considerable amount of scholarly discussion. In recent years, Septuagint scholars have become particularly divided over Isac Leo Seeligmann’s contention that the translator of Isaiah has a knack for discovering his own world in the text: some have pointed out that the translator has read certain oracles as predictions of events that occurred in his own time, whereas others have vigorously dismissed the notion of a conscious pursuit of a contemporising reinterpretation of prophecies. In addition, renewed attention for the many textual variants in the Isaiah scrolls from Qumran – and more specifically in the so-called ‘great Isaiah scroll’ from Cave 1 (1QIsaa) – has refuelled the debate whether specific textual differences are to be ascribed to the translator or to his Vorlage. Despite the very detailed work that has been done on lxx Isaiah during the past decades, a systematic analysis of the translation as a whole was still wanting, as most contributions to the debate have limited their work to one or two cases in point. This monograph, which presents a slightly revised version of the author’s dissertation written under the guidance of Arie van der Kooij – a well-known specialist of lxx Isaiah, who has repeatedly argued in favour of a form of contemporising exegesis on the part of the translator – ambitiously seeks to fill this lacuna by offering a comprehensive survey of all textual differences exhibited by lxx Isaiah vis-à-vis the Masoretic Text. After an obligatory state of the question and elaboration on various kinds of ‘pluses’ and ‘minuses’ to be found in Greek biblical translations, the author discusses eight principal inclinations which she finds on display in lxx Isaiah, viz. (1) ‘explicitation’ of elements implicit in the source text; (2) ‘implicitation’ of elements explicit in the source text; (3) addition and omission of particles; (4) free translations of idiomatic Hebrew constructions; (5) so-called ‘double translations’, in which one and the same segment of the source text appears twice; (6) condensation or the reduction of synonymous elements from the source text; (7) the amelioration of rhetorical figures; and (8) anaphoric translations in which the Greek rendering has been influenced by the translation of other biblical passages.

98638.indb 675 20/01/16 10:35 676 BOOK REVIEWS

To each of these, the author devotes a separate chapter, each consisting of a brief introduction, a range of subheadings with discussion of the relevant textual evidence, and a few conclusive remarks which probe the translator’s motivations for making such changes. The subsequent chapter then addresses a series of minor factors that seem to have guided the translator in adding or omitting elements from his source text. Two final chapters are devoted to unconscious errors that generated textual differences and to the pluses and minuses that seem to be caused by a different Vorlage. The former is by far the briefest of the entire book, whereas the latter offers a more elaborate discussion of the evidence from the Desert of Judah. Like most books in its series, this monograph is clearly directed towards a spe- cialised audience of textual critics. The author’s nuanced approach and the detailed fashion in which she proceeds make her work an outstanding example of text- critical scholarship, which may even serve as a model for future analyses of other Septuagint books. Specifically with respect to lxx Isaiah, her observations on the translator’s skilfulness and sensitivity to the various aspects of both source and target texts once and for all discredit the older view on the translator’s supposed incompetence. In addition, this study is also most welcome in light of current debates on the so-called ‘translation technique’ applied by the different Septuagint translators, since a number of scholars tend to speak of ‘translation technique’ as if each translator has consistently applied a uniform method in rendering his source text. Quite often, such a view is meant to undergird circular arguments about the perennial question ‘Vorlage or translator?’, as a consistently applied technique is believed to enable a scholar to predict what a translator may or may not have done. Various scholars have pointed out, however, that such an approach leads to an impasse, which may only be avoided by adopting a purely descriptive perspective on the actual work of the translator, without hypothesising beyond what the facts allow. The work of van der Vorm-Croughs presents an excellent example of such a descriptive approach. Quite to the point, she observes that one and the same translator may have applied contrasting ‘translation techniques’ in specific instances, or rendered identical constructions in different ways, which exemplifies that the human art of translation should never be reduced to a mechanical act. More specifically, her analysis makes clear that ‘explicitation’ and ‘implicitation’, on the one hand, and double translations and condensation, on the other, are each other’s opposite to such an extent that it becomes impossible to speak of a consistently applied ‘technique’. The present work is therefore to be recommended to all scholars involved in the study of the Septuagint, whereas any future investigations of lxx Isaiah obviously cannot afford to neglect its valuable contribution. H. Debel

Timothy P. Mackie. Expanding Ezekiel: The Hermeneutics of Scribal Addition in the Ancient Text Witnesses of the Book of Ezekiel (Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testa- ments, 257). Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015. e-Book: 339 p. ISBN 978-3-6475-4033-7. €79.99.

In 2010 T.P. Mackie published a preparatory study on the text of Ez 7 entitled Of Editions and Expansions: The Hermeneutics of Scribal Expansion in the Mas- oretic and Septuagint Texts of Ezekiel 7, in M.A. Lyons – W.A. Tooman (eds.),

98638.indb 676 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 677

Transforming Visions: Transformations of Text, Tradition and Theology in Eze- kiel (Princeton Theological Monograph Series, 127), Eugene, OR, Pickwick, 2010, 249-278. In Expanding Ezekiel, the revised version of his PhD dissertation accepted by the University of Wisconsin, Mackie, currently Adjunct Professor at Western Seminary, analyses the phenomenon of “scribal expansion” in the Masoretic Text of Ezekiel. In a first step (chapter I) the author carefully presents the methodology for identifying scribal additions. In a second step (chapter 2) he proposes a descriptive typology for categorising and analysing the additions. In a third step (chapters 3 to 5) he offers a commentary on selective examples in each of the categories. He concludes with an exploration of the implications of his findings for understanding the nature and purpose of scribal expansions and the development and transmission of the scriptural texts. At the end of his book Mackie presents two long catalogues of the variants between the Masoretic Text (MT) and the Old Greek Text (OG) of Ezekiel, ordering them in different categories. The first one is an Index of Scribal Additions listed in sequential order and including additions in MT as well as those in OG (219-261). The second is a Categorized List of Scribal Additions organised according to their respective categories (262-213). The bulk of the volume (71-205) consists of Mackie’s patient discussions of numerous examples of pluses which he deems to be “expansions”. In chapter 4 he distinguishes between expansions that are scribal “explicitations” and those that are “elaborations”. The first sample is taken from Ez 6,12 and is discussed in some detail. Where MT reads two verbs “and he that remains and is besieged” OG has only one (ὁ περιεχόμενος). According to the author ,(והנשׁאר והנצור) Ez 6,12 thus illustrates the text-critical issues that the reader faces throughout this study: “Is this MT plus the result of scribal expansion, or abbreviation by the OG translator?” Mackie sides with Zimmerli and answers that it is more likely a case of scribal expansion. The reasoning of Allen (Greenberg and Block), who suggested that the translator condensed two synonymous terms, is dismissed; yet it must be admitted that the case is difficult to decide. The phrase is further compli- .(והנצור) cated by the debatable parsing and meaning of the second Hebrew term There is no cogent reason pleading against Greenberg’s view that the double expression in MT is a hendiadys. The conclusion must be that this example, like many others, can hardly be used as a proof for or against Mackie’s thesis. In chapter 5 the author offers examples that harmonise or assimilate related texts within Ezekiel, as well as examples of texts that coordinate related texts in Ezekiel and other biblical books. His conclusions are clear: the scribal modifica- tions analysed in his study “are additions that were meant to be incorporated into the received base text” (207). In a footnote he adds that this applies both to the OG-Vorlage and the MT; however, in his view it is especially true for the MT. The basis of Mackie’s research is the unusually large number of quantitative differences between the Greek and the Hebrew texts of Ezekiel. The MT is longer than the OG translation. Mackie is well aware of the fact that there are two possible explanations: (1) the translator had before him a Hebrew text almost identical to our MT, but chose to abbreviate it, or (2) the translator worked with a Vorlage that did not contain the pluses of the present Hebrew text. In the latter view the pluses in the MT text represent words and phrases lost in the Greek by scribal error, or scribal additions in MT. We cannot do justice here to Mackie’s patient and nuanced refining of the terminology and definitions used in this context. His reasoning, however, may be

98638.indb 677 20/01/16 10:35 678 BOOK REVIEWS

flawed by an underestimation of the most ancient Greek manuscript p967 and of the Vetus Latina Codex Wirceburgensis which are the most faithful representatives of the OG. The result is that he overlooks some of the major minuses in the OG, among which figures the end of chapter 12, as well as major sections of chapter 32, and the last verses of chapter 36 (from v. 23c to v. 38), combined with the different ordering of chapters 37–40. Zimmerli published his impressive Ezekiel commentary in 1969; he did not have access to the at that time still unpublished sections of p967. The same was true for Ziegler, editor of the Göttingen-Septuagint of Ezekiel. The CATTS data- base, which identifies every quantitative divergence (pluses/minuses) between MT and Ziegler’s edition of the Greek text, also lacked these sections of p967. Together, these three works serve as Mackie’s yardstick when searching for minuses in OG. The result is that he focuses on the additions of words and phrases, not on the addition or omission of longer sections. He even states that “the vast majority of scribal expansions consist of shorter phrases and individual words” (48). Several recent commentaries and major studies that do deal with the longer differences between OG and MT-Ezekiel are overlooked or not yet known to the author. Important examples include: K.F. Pohlmann, Der Prophet Hesekiel, 1996 and 2001; P. Schwagmeier, Untersuchungen zu Textgeschichte und Entstehung des Ezechielbuches in masoretischer und griechischer Überlieferung, 2004; A.S. Crane, Israel’s Restoration, 2008; I.E. Lilly, Two Books of Ezekiel, 2012. Each of these additional studies draw attention to the OG as best represented in the Greek p967 and indirectly in the Vetus Latina Codex Wirceburgensis. Such an addition allows the authors of these studies to highlight the major minuses in the OG. Mackie’s careful and nuanced explorations and evaluations of the minor differences between OG and MT in Ezekiel are valuable indeed; yet his work should be complemented by in-depth study of major differences evidenced in the works listed above. J. Lust

John J. Collins (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014. (18×25,5), xiii-546 p. ISBN 978-0-19-985649-7. £97.00.

Thirty-five years after the appearance of the notorious 1979 issue of Semeia, which provided a major impetus for defining apocalypses as a distinct literary genre, the study of apocalyptic literature turns out to have developed to such an extent that the mere concept of a single literary genre hardly applies anymore. Instead, most scholars would probably agree that ‘apocalypticism’ is a complex and long-term phenomenon that manifested itself in a variety of forms and genres. In light of the proliferation of scholarly literature on the topic, a systematic overview of the major issues involved is thus most welcome. As the present handbook restricts itself to ancient Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature predating the dawn of the Middle Ages and the advent of Islam in the Ancient Near East, it will probably serve as a useful tool for biblical scholars in particular, as well as for their colleagues in the fields of early Jewish, early Christian and Dead Sea Scrolls studies. Taking its cue from the ‘morphology’ outlined in the Semeia issue, the introductory essay by John J. Collins reviews the question of the genre and its far-reaching

98638.indb 678 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 679

legacy. The essays in the first part aim to locate the phenomenon of apocalypticism in its broader context by probing the apocalyptic features of certain prophetic texts (Stephen L. Cook), the continuation of the prophetic project within apocalyptic literature (Hindy Najman), its affinities with the sapiential literature (Matthew Goff), the creative engagement with older scriptural traditions in apocalyptic texts (Alex P. Jassen), their relationship to early Jewish mysticism (Ra’anan Boustan and Patrick G. McCullough), and ancient understandings of dreams and visions as part of the world behind the texts (Frances Flannery). Focusing on the social function of apocalyptic literature, the four essays that make up the second part explore the contribution of social-scientific ideas and perspectives to a better understanding of it (Philip F. Esler), its various aspects as a form of resistance literature (Anathea Portier-Young), the alleged anti-Roman senti- ments embodied in the book of Revelation (Steven J. Friesen), and the potential of postcolonial analysis and so-called ‘Monster Theory’ for interpreting some of the bizarre imagery included in apocalypses (Daniel L. Smith-Christopher). The third and fourth part narrow the focus down to apocalyptic literature itself by discussing its literary features and apparent theology; in particular, scholars examine the rhetoric aspects of Jewish apocalyptic literature (Carol A. Newsom) and of the early Christian apocalypses that arose in the late first and early second centuries (Greg Carey), the image of the ‘Whore’ as a form of allegory (Erin Runions), the ‘different shades’ of determinism found in apocalyptic literature and its wider environment (Mladen Popović), various forms of dualism displayed by apocalyptic texts (Jörg Frey), the ways in which they aim to shape concrete human behaviour (Dale C. Allison, jr.), the different attempts of their authors to work the Torah into their texts (Matthias Henze), the question of apocalypticism and Christian origins (Adela Yarbro Collins), the trajectories of the themes of descent to hell and heavenly ascent (Jan N. Bremmer), the importance of apocalyptic literature for understanding the so-called gnostic and Manichaean movements (Dylan M. Burns), and lastly the imagined world of apocalypses (Stefan Beyerle). The fifth and final part reviews the influence and role of apocalyptic literature in the contemporary world by tracing the success of messianism as a political power in contemporary Judaism (Motti Inbari), the history of apocalyptic radicalism (Christopher Rowland), the legacy of the aspect of violence within apocalyptic texts (Catherine Wessinger), apocalyptic tendencies within contemporary Christi- anity (Amy Johnson Frykholm), the characteristics of trauma associated with apocalypticism (Dereck Daschke), and the influence of apocalyptic literature on popular culture (Lorenzo DiTommaso). After reading this impressive volume, however, one cannot help but feeling that not all essays succeed in meeting the expectations raised in the preface, where the editors introduce the work as a companion to the Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism (1998) that offers thematic and analytical treatment of the various aspects of apocalyptic literature. Some of the essays are not as focused as one would hope, whereas others simply fail to contribute to a better understanding of apocalyptic literature. That, of course, should not obfuscate the fact that quite a number of the essays included – actually still the great majority of them – do indeed offer a systematic exploration of issues crucial for the appreciation of apocalyptic literature within its proper context. As such, there can be no doubt that this handbook presents a major contribution to the study of a most peculiar religious phenomenon that has deeply influenced the history of both Judaism and Christianity. H. Debel

98638.indb 679 20/01/16 10:35 680 BOOK REVIEWS

Hindy Najman. Losing the Temple and Recovering the Future: An Analysis of 4 Ezra. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014. (14,5×21,5), xi-193 p. ISBN 978-1-107-00618-8. £60.00. Hindy Najman, professor of ancient Judaism at Yale University and from August 2015 Oriel and Laing Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oxford University, has already produced an impressive oeuvre introducing scholars to new perspectives connecting the history of concepts in ancient Judaism to authorizing strategies, traditionary processes of interpretation and text production. Najman’s research on pseudepigraphy, Jubilees, Philo, 4 Ezra and the Dead Sea Scrolls serve as significant reference points engaging reconfigurations of research in Second Temple Judaism and Biblical Studies. In her well-crafted third book, Losing the Temple and Recovering the Future: An analysis of 4 Ezra, Najman offers scholars of Second Temple Judaism an innovative approach to destruction and exile with new insights into the transformation of divine revelation and the creative power of memory. With Losing the Temple and Recovering the Future: An Analysis of 4 Ezra, Najman offers a new and compelling insight into reading the apocalypse known as 4 Ezra. Four elements taken together illuminate a phenomenon that Najman identifies as ‘revelation inflected by destruction’ (italics original, 6): (1) Ezra as model figure, (2) the recollection of Torah in flames and the reception of visions, (3) wilderness and the transformation brought on by lamentation, (4) a hope so radical as to recover the future. Recalling an easily identifiable practice of “reboot”, Najman resets both the questions and the temporal complexities for established research paradigms and motifs made familiar by investigations into the Second Temple Period. Rather than rearticulating historiographical investigation into the aftermath of exile through a progressive mapping of two overlapping trajectories dealing with the growth of biblical traditions in the aftermath of exile on the one hand, and the development of a scribal culture thematised by the end of prophecy on the other, Najman innovates both conceptually and methodologically. Conceptually, Najman identifies a phenomenon that resists literary classification and yet can be identified in texts as indicators of how in extremis a distinctive variety of modes of divine encounter survived, reimagined, investing the work of prophecy with different ends. Acknowledging insights from Michael Knibb and John Barton, Najman argues that exilic and post-exilic texts exercise ambivalence with regard to a return from exile or a rebuilt Temple. Second Temple Judaism never fully overcame the first destruction. Judaic texts express a loss of intimacy with the divine and all modes of divine encounter suffered rupture, not just the institution of prophecy as divine mouth-piece but, so Najman argues, a wider economy of divine-human relations contributed to the retrieval of fragments of divine encounter and to the work of returning a culture to life. Throughout her book the main thrust of Najman’s argument is that: “distinct modes of divine encounter persisted, not in spite of destruction and exile, but as transformed by them” (italics original, 5). Naming the concept of ‘revelation inflected by destruction’ to identify how Jewish interpretive communities continued to claim to have access to the divine “even, and especially” in the face of a destruction never fully overcome (italics original, 6), Najman illustrates the particular significance of 4 Ezra as an exemplary text for study in a network retrospective ‘reboot’ of both precursors and traditions to unfreeze time brought to a standstill through the

98638.indb 680 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 681

trauma of destruction (22). Methodologically, Najman connects exile and revelation by invoking a pattern of multiple temporality given to take seriously the textual self-representation of 4 Ezra and inviting a reevaluation of existing assumptions about religious provenance, textual unity and transmission. In the second chapter, “The Past and Future Ezra”, Najman brings together in critical reflection, previous studies published separately on the nature of pseudepigraphy and authorial self-effacement. Extending an argument made by Floren- tino García Martínez with respect to the classification of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Najman cautions scholars on the need for a keener sense of self-critical perspective in recognizing the way scholarly concepts and categories have been used anachronistically to classify texts (36). Returning to her discussion in Seconding Sinai bearing on Foucault’s notion of the “author function” and the historical limits of applying modern concepts of authority and authorship to ancient texts, Najman analogically considers Nietzsche’s discussion of the Homeric question and the textual construction of the concept of personality to make a compelling case for the relevance of greater scholarly awareness into the historicization of concepts and strategies of ascription within texts and across different epochs: “It is not only the texts that have histories” (38). Methodologically, it makes a difference to take seriously the textual self-representation of 4 Ezra in terms of strategy of ascription and discern the state of Judaism in the age it was written by someone who could not have been its author. It makes a difference which end- point-community, Jewish or Christian, traces back the textual development in which 4 Ezra participates. Highly significant is the way Najman then engages the work of Stanley Cavell on the perfective imitation or emulation of exemplary figures and Nietzsche on the reflexive power of philology in personality-creation to connect questions of pseudepigraphic writing and authorial self-effacement (49). After suggesting that the self-effacement of the pseudepigrapher is part of a perfective process for both writer and readerly formation Najman shows how pseudepigraphic attribution functions in a variety of ways by comparing examples ranging from scriptural attribution to Moses in Deuteronomy, Jubilees, Philo and 4 Ezra. Najman then tightens her discussion by describing the two ways authoritative figures are invoked as exemplars in 4 Ezra: the contrastive and analogical use of simile in determinate forms of identification by imitation must be distinguished from the singular use of metaphor in indeterminate forms of identification by emulation (58). These distinctions are important since it is one thing for the text to present the protagonist imitating a series of exemplary authoritative figures, such as Ezekiel, Daniel, Job, Jeremiah or Moses and quite another to understand the scribal processes enabling a single exemplar, the Ezra from Ezra-Nehemiah, to be held out as authoritative model for emulation. Najman’s point is that both aspects inflect on the pseudepigrapher writer(s) and on traditionary processes of textual transmission. Najman’s ‘reboot’ successfully explores how via pseudepigraphic strategies in 4 Ezra the flames in which the Temple burned but also the fire from Sinai make present renewal of revelation under the sign of destruction (67). In the third chapter, “The Memory of Scripture”, Najman explores 4 Ezra’s relationship to scriptural traditions. In a period when Judaism was becoming increasingly textualized, 4 Ezra portrays detextualisation. Moving from a twice- named protagonist, neither a new nor a familiar one, the self-representation of 4 Ezra is also neither pure invention nor mere fact but a “figuration of the

98638.indb 681 20/01/16 10:35 682 BOOK REVIEWS

problematic status of scriptures and its need for renewal” (italics original, 71). If old strategies of scriptural citation and authoritative interpretation would prove problematic, the memory of scriptures remains and figures could be recalled. This is a difficult but important point to make. Najman compellingly argues that 4 Ezra mostly functions on allusions and interpretive responses to scriptural allusions and cautions scholars too quick to discern exegesis, midrashic interpretation or forms of citation (82). Pseudepigraphic writer(s), so Najman argues, have deliberately opted for strategies of allusion to evoke how in extremis the memory of scripture worked itself out with singular effectiveness even as traditions persist in ruins and scriptures recalled. Ezra is portrayed as instructed in visions rather than more texts. From a hermeneutical point of view the argument is important on two counts. In the case of 4 Ezra, scholarly expectations and religious assumptions have transmitted set interpretations for a “new covenant” and for the sources of evil as either “original” or as an internal human disposition which better reflect traditions from rabbinic Judaism and Christianity. Secondly, taking seriously the self-representation of 4 Ezra not only does justice to the variegated textual traditions before the “parting of the ways” but also to aspects of textual unity in which the deliberate act of self-effacement of the writer is primarily intended for the sake of readership transformation. According to Najman the textual self-representation of 4 Ezra is deliberately set as being on the way to “multiple possible futures” (93). In the fourth chapter, “Re-centering the World”, Najman shows how in 4 Ezra both figure and recalled figuration of retellings of Israelite history reveal the problematic location and function of writing in the present absence of the first Temple. To the question of how the metaphorical and literal loss of the vertical/horizontal center of Israel’s cultic and political life be restored, Najman argues that 4 Ezra aims to deflect energies from attention to massive efforts of Temple re-building by transforming tropes of location into novel perspectives projected onto an alternative history (97). Najman’s argumentation in this chapter is eminently dialectical, building on “neither … nor” and “not only … but also” constructions whilst drawing on examples from a wide sample of texts including the Dead Sea Scrolls and Philo. Whilst 4 Ezra is able to draw on traditions invoking the possibility of revelation in exile or hopes of return to rebuilt Temple-centered land, Najman shows how a novel perspective is being worked out so that 4 Ezra’s readers are to be absolved from Temple rebuilding and yet free for renewed reception of Torah. The post-destruction place functions, so Najman argues, for the actualiza- tion of renewed revelation and the retroversion of time and place: neither earthly, nor heavenly but both; not only the city but also the Temple are destroyed; not only exilic but also post-exilic wilderness periods signify suffering; not only exile as punishment but also as separation from sin; not only for purification but also to receive revelation; not only place for, but also path to God (italics original, 106-107). The main thrust of this chapter is to show how the ‘rebooted’ action of 4 Ezra leaves room for radical innovation. If Torah is from God it cannot perish; so even if a burned Torah may have become inaccessible on earth its very renewal is yet possible and accessible in a place that is nowhere yet equally everywhere (125). Najman shows how 4 Ezra significantly reconfigures the spectrum of ancient Jewish conceptions of the Temple yet like the location of the first giving at Sinai and that of the final revelation of the Temple, it is unbuilt, having been prepared in heaven before the destruction.

98638.indb 682 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 683

The closing chapter, “Radical Hope and the Revitalization of Scripture”, is a tour de force. Evoking the series of visions in 4 Ezra, Najman offers a new interpretation for the development of the relationship between Ezra and the angel Uriel and for the renewal of sacred writing in which scripture is made to function mean- ingfully once again. Acknowledging the careful account by Karina Martin Hogan of the dual nature of the methodological aporia, theological and conceptual, with respect to Ezra’s attempt at facing the problem of evil exemplified by destruction (136), Najman argues that rather than engaging conflicting theologies of covenantal and wisdom eschatology, the core of the aporia is really only methodological and lies with the impossible use of the analogical method of reasoning typical of wisdom traditions. Najman can then go on to give a different interpretation of the transformation of the relationship between Erza and Uriel on the one hand, and the resolution to Ezra’s dilemma with regard to the salvation of the “few” or the “many” on the other. That Ezra learns the value of lament and is able to transcend his attempt to imitate Uriel turns out to be highly relevant for the renewal of revelation and the twofold symbolic significance of having an esoteric and exoteric com- ponent (150). Throughout the book Najman makes a compelling argument for the way in which 4 Ezra leaves open the many possibilities, “including but not exhausted by Christianity and rabbinic Judaism” (153) by anticipating both whilst not quite fitting either. Pseudepigraphic strategies deployed by the writer(s) of 4 Ezra make present for post Second Temple readers a way of identifying with the protagonist in his preparation and rendition of scriptures with recovery of future made meaningful once again. Reading Hindy Najman’s Loosing the Temple and Recovering the Future: An Analysis of 4 Ezra is a privilege and an education. The book is a must-read for scholars of Second Temple Judaism, early rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity. Najman brings a philosophical sophistication to her analysis that makes for an invaluable contribution to the field of Biblical Studies. It is no small achievement to discern the role of creative imagination in the work of the pseudepigraphic writers bound in extremis by the memory of scriptures. It is no small achievement to discern the complex multiple mediate and intermediary structures deployed by scribal processes that retain the experience of divine encounter in a radically new context. Each chapter is introduced by a representation from one of Cy Twombly’s Roses series and Jonathan Lear’s recent novel Radical Hope accompanies the project making Najman’s book more than just a piece of brilliant research. C. Leroy

Matthias Henze – Gabriele Boccaccini (eds.), with the collaboration of Jason M. Zurawski. Fourth Ezra and Second Baruch: Reconstruction after the Fall (Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, 164). Leiden – Boston, MA, Brill, 2013. (16×24), xvi-456 p. ISBN 978-90- 04-25867-9. €161.00.

In the wake of the new interest in early Jewish literature provoked by the dis- covery and publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls, research into 4 Ezra has been thriving in the past couple of decades. Likewise, the less well-preserved book referred to as 2 Baruch – also known as the (Syrian) Apocalypse of Baruch – now

98638.indb 683 20/01/16 10:35 684 BOOK REVIEWS

enjoys an increase of scholarly attention, perhaps in part due to its common association with 4 Ezra. Both works are late first-century ce Jewish-apocalyptic works composed in the wake of the Roman destruction of the temple, and both stem from a crucial period in Jewish history, during which rabbinic Judaism and early Chris- tianity were being moulded in the crucible of late Second Temple Judaism. Their mutual relationship, rootedness in earlier Jewish traditions and relevance for the study of Judaism and Christianity were discussed during the sixth gathering of the Enoch Seminar, which has grown from a small specialists’ symposium focusing on 1 Enoch into a full-blown scholarly network on both Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins. The present volume offers the proceedings of this conference, held at the end of June 2011 near Milan. The individual contributions are presented as part of eight different sections, each of which is made up of two, three or four essays. Only the first, introductory part consists of a single essay, in which Matthias Henze sketches the state of the question and at the same time provides an overview of the contents of the volume. The two essays in the second part explore both works’ relationships with earlier Second Temple Jewish literature: Devorah Dimant observes some similarities with the compositions from Qumran published as Pseudo-Ezekiel and Apocryphon of Jeremiah C, while Gabriele Boccaccini interprets 4 Ezra’s view on the evilness of human nature as a reaction against both Enochic Judaism as represented by 1 Enoch and Jubilees as well as the letters of Paul. The third part is focused on the pseudepigraphical nature of 4 Ezra, which in John J. Collins’ view presents a more complex case than Enoch, as Ezra was probably chosen specifically because of his association with the failed theology of the temple that was being decon- structed and refashioned. In a similar view, Hindy Najman argues that 4 Ezra is not merely tied to a figure from the past, but effectively reshapes that figure in light of the future it envisages, and thus participates in an ongoing traditionary process. Lorenzo DiTommaso, for his part, characterises 4 Ezra as a sophisticated apocalyptic work – ‘the intellectual zenith of apocalyptic literature’ – in which the figure of Ezra personifies both the nation of Israel as its individual members, who through Ezra’s dialogues with Uriel are invited to participate in a cathartic experience. The ‘close readings’ assembled in the fourth part focus, respectively, on Ezra’s vision of a mourning woman who transforms into a beautiful city (4 Ezra 9,26–10,59), rightly considered by Loren T. Stuckenbruck as a crucial turning point in the book; on the so-called Epistle of Baruch (2 Baruch 78–87), for which Lutz Doering makes a strong case to consider it an integral part of the book’s narrative frame; on the angelic mediators that appear in both, who for Benjamin E. Reynolds do not so much resemble their counterparts in the so-called ascent apocalypses like the Book of the Watchers and the Apocalypse of Abraham, and have more in common with the otherworldly mediators in the biblical prophetic books of Daniel, Ezekiel and Zechariah; and on the multifaceted role of Baruch in 2 Baruch, characterised by Balász Tamási as a prophet, sage, community leader, interpreter of the Torah and eschatological seer. The fifth part moves on with Lester L. Grabbe’s probing of the social setting and historical context behind both books, which he believes to derive from a group of Jews traumatised by the war of 66-70 ce whose eschatological visions anticipated the Bar Kokhba revolt and thus diverged from the developing rabbinic tradition. According to Pierluigi Piovanelli, 4 Ezra was more specifically meant to counter the Roman imperial propaganda of the definitive vanquishing of Judaea by envisioning an alternative

98638.indb 684 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 685

future. The sixth part aims to explore the many parallels of 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch with nascent Christianity, with Adela Yarbro Collins comparing their apocalyptic eschatology to the Pauline epistles as a use of similar ideas to serve different purposes in a different context; George Nickelsburg surveying a range of parallels vis-à-vis the New Testament that further underline Christianity’s Jewish roots; Alexander Toepel speculating on the man rising from the sea (4 Ezra 13,3‑6) as a polemic against Christian baptism; and Eugen J. Pentiuc examining the nature of the resurrected bodies in both 2 Baruch and the New Testament. The seventh part sets out to read both works in the context of post-70 ce Jewish literature, but nonetheless begins with Daniel Boyarin making a case for the Jewish background of a Messiah called the Son of Man as a pre-existent divine figure, making the so-called high Christology of the gospels appear much less as a Christian innovation than is often believed. Only Steven Fraade properly deals with rabbinic literature in his persuasive disproval of an oft-cited claim found in the introduction to 2 Baruch in James Charlesworth’s Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, viz. that the book was closely acquainted with rabbinic writings. Finally, the eighth part raises two issues from the reception history or Nachleben of both books: Karina Martin Hogan points out that 4 Ezra owes its inclusion in the Vulgate – which significantly contributed to the book’s preservation and dissemination in the western Church – not to Jerome himself, but to the positive attitude of Ambrose of Milan, who cites it as Scripture in several of his writings; whereas Liv Ingebord Lied points out that three medieval West Syrian lectionary manuscripts indicate that the reception history of 2 Baruch is more complex than thought hitherto. All in all, the strangest thing about this volume is probably its awkward arrangement of essays. A few section headings hardly seem to apply to some of the essays included in them, and the coupling of certain essays to one another turns out to be somewhat artificial. For example, the third part of the volume announces to survey pseudepigraphy in both 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, but is actually exclusively focused on 4 Ezra, whereas the fourth part with close readings contains an essay on the role of the figure of Baruch that could as well have been included there. Most peculiar is the place of Boyarin’s essay in the section dealing with post-70 ce Jewish literature, as it deals with 4 Ezra’s relationship to pre-70 ce Jewish literature – unless the Similitudes of Enoch are dated after the fall of the temple – and to early Christianity. In view of the fact that most essays are focused on either 4 Ezra or 2 Baruch, it would probably have been preferable to divide the essays according to the book on which they are focused, with some being focused on both. That, however, is obviously only a marginal remark to an impressive collection of highly specialized studies that will undoubtedly advance research on two Jewish books that have been marginalised for all too long. H. Debel

Géza G. Xeravits – Peter Porzig. Einführung in die Qumranliteratur: Die Handschriften vom Toten Meer (de Gruyter Studium). Berlin, de Gruyter, 2015. (15,5×23), xiv-318 p. ISBN 978-3-11-034975-7. €29.00.

This is an absolutely most welcome introduction to the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls texts. Many English introductions to the Dea Sea Scrolls are broad and

98638.indb 685 20/01/16 10:35 686 BOOK REVIEWS

thematic, often for a general audience or undergraduate students. Or, at the other side of the spectrum, some major surveys such as in The Dead Sea Scrolls After Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment (1998-1999) and the Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (2000) are very detailed, and in some respects already outdated. This German-language introduction (a reworking and expansion of an original Hungarian introduction), however, introduces students and scholars to the texts themselves, and in a concise factual manner to the scholarly discussion about the about one hundred texts of some substance. The authors have arranged their introduction of the texts according to the classification by content and genre that was proposed by A. Lange and U. Mittman-Richtert. Hence, after an introduction to the corpus as a whole, that deals with problems of categorisation, with genre, nomenclature, critical editions, date, and material reconstruction, the book has nine more chapters: (2) “biblical” manuscripts; (3) parabiblical texts; (4) exegetical texts; (5) rules and legal texts; (6) calendrical texts; (7) liturgical and poetic texts; (8) wisdom texts; (9) historical texts; (10) eschatological and apocalyptic texts. Throughout these chapters, the authors give introductions to these subcorpora as a whole (e.g., giving and discussing definitions of eschatology and apocalyptic), and discuss the individual texts. Typically, the authors list editions and commentaries, and provide a bibliography. Often they list and sometimes discuss the individual manuscripts, and present – when possible – a survey of the structure and the contents of the work. But they also discuss the works themselves with reference to scholarly opinions and discussions. Occasional quotations from the works are given to illustrate the content or the discussions. In a smaller font, the authors provide discussions of a more technical detail, for example on the different readings of crucial passages. Frequently, the book offers schemes, for example of the calendrical system or the layout of the Temple according to the New Jerusalem text. Here, student and scholar alike can find the basic data on all those specific texts, which one otherwise would have to cull from various sources. But the authors also present us with the scholarly state of the art on many of the aspects of those texts, and sometimes with their own views or assessments of scholarship. In a few sections, such as that on the exegetical texts and the historical texts, the authors offer broader discussions. Altogether the authors demonstrate a high level of competence and insight in the texts they discuss. The book has hardly any typos or other simple errors. Of course, with so many details on one hundred or so texts, there are the inevitable occasional inaccuracies (none of which seemed absolutely crucial to me), and a few times the assessments do not seem entirely up-to-date (e.g. on the Apocryphon of Jeremiah materials). This does not distract from the fact that this introduction is by far the most up-to- date and the best scholarly one we now have. One would welcome a corrected and updated English translation. E. Tigchelaar

Mika S. Pajunen – Hanna Tervanotko (eds.). Crossing Imaginary Boundaries: The Dead Sea Scrolls in the Context of Second Temple Judaism (Publications of the Finnish Exegetical Society, 108). Hel- sinki, The Finnish Exegetical Society, 2015. (15×21), v-278 p. ISBN 978-951-9217-63-5. €30.00.

98638.indb 686 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 687

This volume contains ten articles, all written in English, related to the Dead Sea Scrolls, published and co-published by twelve different Finnish scholars (Jokiranta – Vanonen; Metso; von Weissenberg – Seppänen; Pakkala; Pajunen; Nissinen; Antin; Tervanotko; Orpana; Uusimäki). The volume bears witness to the thriving study of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Helsinki school of Qumran studies, and at the same times aims at demonstrating how one can integrate Dead Sea Scrolls studies into the broader context of Second Temple Judaism, by crossing the imaginary boundaries between scholarly (sub)disciplines. All the scholars publishing in this volume have written on their own topics of research, and the articles are of interest for those working in these fields, even though there sometimes is overlap with other publications by those authors. Some of the articles zoom in on specific texts (the Rule of the Community and the War Scroll manuscripts; the Temple Scroll; 11Qapocryphal Psalms; the reception of Jubilees 3; or the sapiential texts 4Q525 and 4Q184). Other articles deal with concepts (Halakhah; the “sacred”) or broader themes (oracles and inspiration; sages in the divine council; visions and otherworldly journeys). The volume is of interest because all the authors have attempted to broaden their questions, methods or approaches, or merely their textual data, beyond the area of dead Sea Scrolls studies. With the exception of a courageous attempt to engage the scrolls from a religious studies approach (von Weissenberg and Sep- pänen on the concept of the “sacred”) the volume largely retains the textual and literary approaches for which the Helsinki exegetes are renowned. This has been done in many ways, sometimes by indicating how scholarly models can be applied to the scrolls (e.g. how material philology and digital models can help us to analyse and understand the different so-called Rule of the Community and War Scroll manuscripts), and sometimes how scrolls analysis can be applied outside the field of Scrolls studies (notably how the editorial processes that can be analysed in the Temple Scroll can serve as a model or evidence for processes in the Pentateuch). Or, how, concepts of prophecy can help us analysing some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and vice versa, how these texts contribute to our understanding of prophecy. These two directions are also reflected in the contributors to the volume, some of which are primarily scrolls scholars, and some of which are known for their work in other fields. In this perspective, the volume is also a witness to the gradual integration of Dead Sea Scrolls in their broader historical and literary Ancient Jewish context. E. Tigchelaar

David Trobisch. Die 28. Auflage des Nestle-Aland: Eine Einführung. Stuttgart, Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2013. (15×23), 77 p. ISBN 978- 3-438-05141-7. €9.99.

Das vorliegende Begleitbändchen zur neuen 28. Auflage des Novum Testamen- tum Graece, die im Jahr 2012 erschienen ist, wendet sich an unterschiedliche Zielgruppen. Es hat drei inhaltliche Schwerpunkte. Der erste Teil, „Aufbau und Intention der Ausgabe“ (9-33) wendet sich an Benutzer, die zum allerersten Mal diese Ausgabe des griechischen Neuen Testa- ments verwenden. Griechischkenntnisse werden nicht vorausgesetzt. „Ziel ist es,

98638.indb 687 20/01/16 10:35 688 BOOK REVIEWS

neben Struktur und Konzeption der Ausgabe auch ein kritisches Verständnis für die Probleme und Unsicherheiten bei der Rekonstruktion des ältesten griechischen Textes zu vermitteln“ (5). Zielgruppe sind Leser, die den wissenschaftlichen Hin- tergrund von Fußnoten zur Textgrundlage in deutschen Bibelübersetzungen verstehen und Verweise auf Textprobleme, wie sie in der Fachliteratur begegnen, nachvollziehen wollen. Ferner ist der Abschnitt für die erste Begegnung mit dem griechischen Neuen Testament und der Textkritik in Proseminaren oder ähnlichen Veranstaltungen hervorragend geeignet. Trobisch skizziert kurz die Überlieferungs- geschichte des Neuen Testaments, bietet einen Überblick über die Handschriften und anhand einer Druckseite der Textausgabe eine Annäherung an das Novum Tes- tamentum Graece. Ferner wird der Aufbau der Ausgabe erläutert (Einführung und Hauptteil mit Text und Apparat, diverse Anhänge). Am Ende werden knapp die Kriterien für die Bewertung von Textvarianten vorgestellt (die kürzere Lesart ist vorzuziehen, die schwierigere Lesart ist vorzuziehen, mögliche Missverständnisse). Der zweite Teil, „Übungen und Verständnishilfen“ (34-47) führt anhand konkreter Aufgaben in die praktische Arbeit mit der 28. Auflage ein. Dabei geht es um das Verständnis der in der Ausgabe verwendeten Fachausdrücke und die Einübung des Umgangs mit der Einleitung, dem kritischen Apparat und den Anhängen der Ausgabe. Zielgruppe sind hier Studierende der Theologie. Behan- delt werden Fragen zur Einleitung der Ausgabe, Entstehung und Bedeutung des sog. „Mehrheitstext“, der Text der Katholischen Briefe, positiver und negativer Apparat, der Umgang mit den alten Übersetzungen, die sogenannten „Kirchen väterzitate“ und die Kanontafeln des Eusebius und Hinweise zur Verwendung des Appendix I B: Codices Latini und des Appendix II: Variae Lectiones Minores. Durchweg gibt es Übungsaufgaben, die so formuliert sind, dass sie auch im Unter- richt eingesetzt werden können. Die korrekten Ergebnisse und der Lösungsweg sind in einem Anhang beigegeben (67-76). Am Ende des Bandes stehen didaktische Anregungen zum Umgang mit dem textkritischen Apparat anhand von Texten, die exegetische Probleme aufweisen (63-66; zu 1 Kor 14,30-40; Lk 24,51 und abwei- chende Lesarten im Codex D zur Apostelgeschichte). Dieser Abschnitt eignet sich hervorragend für ntl. Proseminare oder ähnliche Veranstaltungen. Teil drei, „Das Novum Testamentum Graece als wissenschaftliche Ausgabe“ (48-54) wendet sich an Neutestamentler und führt in die Stärken und Grenzen dieser neuen Handausgabe ein. Trobisch stellt in kompakter Form die wichtigsten Änderungen in der 28. Auflage vor im Vergleich zu den vorausgehenden Auflagen des Novum Testamentum Graece. Besprochen wird das Verhältnis zur Editio Cri- tica Maior (bisher nur für die Katholischen Briefe vorliegend), ständige Zeugen zweiter Ordnung, die alten Übersetzungen, der Verzicht auf Konjekturen, die Sub- scriptiones der einzelnen Schriften, Abkürzungen im Apparat, Textänderungen sowie verschiedene Veränderungen bei den Anhängen. Die Grenzen des Novum Testamentum Graece liegen in seinem Charakter als Handausgabe. Nach einem Beispiel (Röm 15,31 in P46) geht es um die Auswahl der Handschriften und Textstellen, den Umgang mit Lücken in Handschriften, die in der 28. Auflage nicht mehr angewandte lokal-genealogische Methode und die zur Geltung kom- mende Kohärenzmethode der Textkritik, die die lokal-genealogische Methode konstruktiv weiterführt. Dazu Trobisch:

Eine Grundeinsicht der Kohärenzmethode ist, dass das Ziel der textkritischen Arbeit, der sogenannte Ausgangstext, von dem alle anderen Textformen abzuleiten sind, ein

98638.indb 688 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 689

virtueller Text ist, der so in keiner Handschrift erhalten ist. Konsequenterweise kann man deshalb auch bei der Stemmabildung von Handschriften immer wieder eine sol- che virtuelle, nicht erhaltene Mutter-Handschrift annehmen, von der andere abhängig sind. Der virtuelle Ausgangstext wird als Zeuge genauso behandelt wie eine erhaltene Handschrift. Eine andere grundsätzliche Einsicht der Kohärenzmethode ist, dass der Text der Hand- schriften kontaminiert ist. Das heißt, dass sich im Laufe der Überlieferung häufig Varianten aus einer Handschriftentradition mit Varianten aus einer anderen Hand- schriftentradition vermischten und man daher auch in Zukunft nicht mit einer sauberen Stemmabildung im herkömmlichen Sinn wird rechnen können. Erstmals in der Geschichte der textkritischen Forschung kann die Fülle der Varianten heute umfassend mithilfe elektronischer Medien beschrieben werden. Die Datenfülle wartet nun auf die angemessene Interpretation. Die Kohärenzmethode versteht sich als ein kontrollierter methodischer Zugang zu den erfassten Daten. Je nachdem, wel- che philologischen Kriterien angewandt werden, um lokal-genealogische Abhängig- keiten zu beschreiben, ändert sich auch das Ergebnis, das das Verhältnis von zwei oder mehreren oder allen Handschriften zueinander bestimmt, die sogenannte genealogische Kohärenz (61).

Da sich das Bändchen begrenzten Umfangs an unterschiedliche Lesergruppen auf unterschiedlichem Niveau richtet, kann es nicht mehr als eine Hinführung bieten. Was geboten wird, ist ausgezeichnet. Die englische Übersetzung ist erschienen als A User’s Guide to the Nestle- Aland 28 Greek New Testament (Text Critical Studies, 9), Atlanta, GA, Society of Biblical Literature, 2013. ISBN 9781589839342, $13. C. Stenschke

James D.G. Dunn. The Oral Gospel Tradition. Grand Rapids, MI – Cam- bridge, Eerdmans, 2013. (16×23), x-390 p. ISBN 978-0-8028-6782-7. $45.00; £29.99.

The volume collects fifteen of James Dunn’s essays on the oral traditions behind the gospels, contributions that cover forty years of scholarly research. Many of the main ideas of these essays converge with those expressed in his Jesus Remembered. Jesus made an enduring impact on a number of his listeners, an impact which lead to the formation of a group of disciples concerned with passing on the stories about Jesus and his teaching. The traditions that resulted from this process communicated to others the impact Jesus made, and these traditions enable us to gain a clear impression about Jesus (6-7, 200-201, 204-205, 214). The transmission of these traditions shows that early Christians were concerned to remember Jesus, to preserve and transmit memories about his ministry. The essays are grouped in three sections. Those in the first part address the oral tradition behind the gospels. Dunn questions Bultmann’s and Käsemann’s view about the pervasive presence in the early Church of prophetic “I”-sayings of the Risen Lord that came to be counted with the logia of the earthly Jesus. Prophetic utterances were tested in earliest Christianity; the recording of sayings that would probably not have passed the threefold criterion of past revelation, moral conduct and community-benefit prove that such sayings belong to the authentic Jesus- tradition (“Prophetic ‘I’-sayings and the Jesus-Tradition”). Dunn strives to alter

98638.indb 689 20/01/16 10:35 690 BOOK REVIEWS

what he calls the “default setting” of contemporary scholarship, the literary mindset, the focus on the gospels as literary products. Due to the low degree of literacy, the first century Galilean/Palestinian culture was essentially oral; therefore the process of handing on the traditions about Jesus was in the earliest phase an oral one. Dunn explores the features of oral transmission – oral tradition as event, as evanescent performance, with a communal character, which in the same time requires individuals who maintain and perform the traditions of the community (apostles, teachers). It is pointless to attempt to establish an original tradition, due to the multiple versions in which oral traditions were transmitted. Oral traditions are characterised simultaneously by fixity and fluidity, by stability and diversity. This explains why the Synoptic gospels are similar, yet different. Dunn accepts the two-document theory and the literary interdependence of the gospels, but his emphasis on orality leads him to conclude that in certain cases of triple traditions differences should be explained with variations of the oral tradition instead of deliberate redactional changes (“Altering the Default Setting…” and the subsequent articles). This principle is applied to Q (“Q1 as Oral Tradition”, where the differences between six texts assigned to Q and their parallels are thought to result from the diversity of oral traditions), and to the gospels of Matthew and John. Thus occasionally Matthew’s departure from Mark or from the Q-material does not reflect a deliberate redaction of his sources, but his knowledge of different oral traditions that continued to exist even after the writing of Mark or of Q for that matter (“Matthew’s Awareness of Markan Redaction”; “Matthew as Wirkungsgeschichte”). The same goes for the Fourth Gospel, where the divergence of certain narratives (the tradition about John the Baptist, the frame of Jesus’ mission, the healing at Cana, the feeding of the five thousand and the walking on the water, the anointing at Bethany and the entry into Jerusalem, the passion narrative) from the Synoptic parallels, as well as the specific features of some logia that have their parallel in the Synoptics reflect the use of alternative oral traditions (“John and the Oral Gospel Traditions”, “John’s Gospel and the Oral Gospel Tradition”). The second part of the volume brings together four essays that address the broader question of memory and eyewitnesses and the role of these factors in the constitution and transmission of Jesus traditions. Three of these papers were written in dialogue with or in response to the critiques of Bengt Holmberg, Samuel Byrskog, Birger Gerhardsson, Richard Bauckham and Theodore Weeden (critiques formulated notably to Dunn’s Jesus Remembered). These essays bear the features of responses, picking up and explaining earlier points and countering critique. The issues pressed here concern the transformative, enduring pre-Easter impact made by Jesus on his disciples, an impact that constitutes the origin of oral traditions, performed and celebrated in communities. It is this impact, this impression Jesus made, the interpretations given by eyewitnesses to the events that are remembered in the gospel traditions. The essay on “Social Memory and the Oral Jesus Tradition” attempts to describe the manner in which memory functions in the formation of the oral Jesus tradition, the primary way in which Jesus is remembered. Dunn discusses Halbwachs’ theory of cultural or social memory. Whereas Halbwachs refers to cultural memory as a social construct meant to define the identity of a community and emphasises the creative dimension of memory, Dunn applies to the formation of oral traditions Assmann’s distinction between cultural and communicative memory, the latter functioning in communities closer to their

98638.indb 690 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 691

origins which circulate foundational memories. As teacher, Dunn argues, Jesus was concerned with his teaching being remembered and appropriated, and the impact he made was retained (not primarily as verbal fidelity achieved through memorisation, but as the memory of significant facts). Oral traditions were circulated through spoken exchanges and performed in the community. In a subsequent essay Dunn applies to the Synoptic tradition Kenneth Bailey’s theory of oral tradition inspired by the evening gatherings in the Middle Eastern village as a setting for telling, performing and sharing oral traditions. The final part of the volume, with four essays, places the discussion on the oral gospel traditions in the framework of the quest for the historical Jesus and the formation of the New Testament. Against presuppositions coming from the conventional distinction between the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith, Dunn argues that Jesus did evoke faith and made an impact on the disciples. Dunn emphasises the oral phase of the history of the Jesus-tradition. Most of the ideas discussed above in the margin of the other essays surface here again. Dunn’s emphasis on the importance of orality and oral traditions in a cultural context characterised by low literacy and his work on memory represent valuable contributions to the study of the Synoptic gospels. This remains true even when some may disagree with certain details of the arguments and the interpretation of individual texts. The volume, which brings together the best of Dunn’s essays on these topics, provides thus a very useful tool for scholars and students of the gospels. K. Zamfir

Giovanni B. Bazzana. Kingdom of Bureaucracy: The Political Theology of Village Scribes in the Sayings Gospel Q (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 274). Leuven, Peeters, 2015. (16×24), xii-383 p. ISBN 978-90-429-3178-7. €85,00.

The title, Kingdom of Bureaucracy, draws its inspiration from Giorgio Agamben’s distinction between “representative political theology” in which the monarch’s rule over his (or her) realm is treated as a representation of God’s absolute control over the cosmos, and “bureaucratic political theology” wherein God (who may be treated as inactive or even absent) governs through hierarchies of supernatural beings and, correspondingly, political rule mirrors this by a hier- archy of bureaucratic structures (The Kingdom and the Glory: For a Theological Genealogy of Economy and Government, Stanford, 2011). Bazzana mobilizes this latter model as a way to understand the situation of Hellenistic kingdoms, especially in Egypt and presumably in Palestine, where the essence of righteous government was separated from the person of the monarch and embodied instead in the abstract notion of the βασιλεία (24). It is just such an approach to govern- mentality, and its social location in the world of sub-elite village administrators, that makes sense of the transformation of the sparse references to the βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ in Jewish scriptures of the second temple period and the explosion of discourse about the βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ in early Christian discourse, and in particular in Q. “The hypothesis that circles of Galilean village scribes stood behind the Sayings Gospel provides the most apt context for the emergence of the phrase βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ, since sub-elite administrators were, on the one hand,

98638.indb 691 20/01/16 10:35 692 BOOK REVIEWS

acquainted with the biblical traditions and, on the other, had the cultural resources to deploy the Hellenistic discourse on sovereignty in the ways most appropriate to further their theological political agenda” (22). As the subtitle indicates, Bazzana engages and develops the suggestion of J.S. Kloppenborg that rather than itinerant radicals, it was village scribes who were the producers of Q, a suggestion developed in more detail by W.E. Arnal, Jesus and the Village Scribes: Galilean Conflicts and the Setting of Q (Minne- apolis, MN, 2001). But as Bazzana rightly points out, Arnal did not devote much space to elaborating the roles and responsibilities of the κωμογραμματεῖς. Hence, Bazzana’s first task in chap. 1 is to offer a detailed examination of the roles and activities of the κωμογραμματεύς, especially in the period prior to 136 ce when the position became a liturgy. He shows that even a low-level office holder like a κωμογραμματεύς could have significant power and influence because he managed archives, including records of monies that were owing and was therefore in a position to make debts disappear. There are also instances of what A.M.F.W. Verhoogt has called a “strike” of twelve κωμογραμματεῖς (P.Tebt. I 24; Menches, Komo- grammateus of Kerkeosiris [Papyrologica Lugduno-Batava, 29], Leiden, 1998), which temporarily disrupted the administration of several villages in the Fayum. In a remarkably richly documented chapter, Bazzana illustrates the middling position of the village scribes: on the one hand they had an indispensable function in the recording of taxes and the efficient functioning of agriculture; on the other hand, they lacked the social status to be regarded as part of the élite and thus illustrate and develop A. Giddens’ notion of “distantiation” in the elite control of material and social resources (A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism, Stanford, 21995). Bazzana’s second chapter offers a focussed examination of three lexemes, ἐκβάλλω, οἰκετεία and θησαυρός and the particular textures that these terms have when seen in the context of administrative papyri. Long thought to be an odd choice of words for the sending out of ἐργάται into the harvest, Bazzana shows that ἐκβάλλειν in Q 10,2 is not so unexpected and in fact points to composition and circulation among persons “acquainted with the specific Greek terminology for liturgies and for the management of liturgical services” (95). He is careful to note that the village scribes were normally not in charge of liturgical services with which strong verbs such as ἐκβάλλειν were associated, but that Q 10,9 reflects Greek administrative language certainly known to village scribes. Bazzana also notes that οἰκετεία (Q 12,42), a term that is quite uncommon in both literary and documentary sources, appears in documentary papyri – all Greek translations of the wills of Roman citizens – with the precise nuance that it has in Q, referring not to the “household” as it is often misleading translated, but to the slave retinue of a household. Hence Bazzana suggests that Q here reflects acquaintance not only with Greek administrative practice, but with “some of the linguistic devices used … to translate particular features of the Latin legal jargon” (105). Finally, Bazzana notes that θησαυρός in Egyptian papyri usually refers to storehouses for agricultural products, which fits with the focus of Q 12,33-34 on the potential destruction of agricultural products through σῆς and βρῶσις: “the specific content of Q 12,33-34 fits perfectly the proposed socio-cultural ethos of village sub-elite bureaucrats, who have moderate wealth, but prize the basic staples of their trade – education and the ability to store information and resources – above all else” (117).

98638.indb 692 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 693

Chap. 3 addresses the oft-raised question of the degree of competence of Greek that might be expected in Roman Palestine. To judge from contemporary Egyptian evidence, there is little reason to doubt that Galilean scribes worked in both Greek and Aramaic. A bit more surprising is Bazzana’s observation – again based on contemporary Egyptian evidence – that low level scribes might (and did!) have access to classical literature which afforded them “an additional opportunity to ‘play’ with a wider array of identity markers in a situation of ‘discrepancy’ that was forced on the Galilean population by the growing imperial influence of Rome” (163). Chap. 4 turns to the specific examples in Q of the discourse of sub-elite administrators. Bazzana begins with the Lord’s prayer, mounting a compelling demonstration of the close connection between the (re)inauguration of the βασιλεία and debt-forgiveness in Ptolemaic documents. This being so, he insists that ὀφείλημα in Q 11 should not be immediately metaphorised; on the contrary, the petition refers to debt relief. As such, the prayer reflects discourse of kingship, as mediated in bureaucratic documents, promising amnesty from debt, provision of food and nourishment – the first two ‘we’ requests –, and invoking the kinds of “loyalty tests” that are found in various pieces of administrative writing. Thus Bazzana suggests that the scribes behind Q, knowledgeable of the terminological and ideological features of “kingdom” and “kingship” were in a position to trans- pose these terms and ideas from the human to the divine level. This in turn allowed the scribes of Q (chap. 5) to participate in the more general discourse on ideal kingship current especially in the Eastern Mediterranean and instanced in such writers as Dio and Philo, which stressed not only the military aspects of rule, but the ruler’s responsibility in caring for his subjects. In this way, Q, like other writers of the time, invoked βασιλεία as a “means through which they established some measure of control on Roman hegemony and thus negotiate their own positions of local prestige and power” (262). In the final chapter Bazzana returns to Agamben and his proposal of an alternate “political theology of bureaucrats” or “economic political theology” (i.e., the theology of an oikonomia). Q’s discourse on the kingdom is, curiously, a βασιλεία without a βασιλεύς and is in contrast to the “theocratic political theology” or “representative political theology” that Jan Assmann (Politische Theologie zwischen Ägypten und Israel [Themen], München, 1992) has emphasised, wherein the ruler is represented as the single link that connects the divine and human realms. Baz- zana adduces Q 11,19-20 and other Q texts such as Q 22,28-30 (where κρίνειν is interpreted as “ruling”) where agency is assigned to figures other than God or his envoy Jesus, including the second petition of the Lord’s prayer, where debt relief is connected with a reciprocal action by humans rather than assigned simply to divine fiat. Thus Bazzana sees the discourse of low-level scribes and administrators, engaged in a creative combination of Hellenistic political theology and biblical traditions, and charged with “making the governmental benefitting and judging machine work, while this very task includes them in the circle of heavenly liturgical glorification that legitimizes divine sovereignty on the world” (313). This is an extraordinary work, displaying an encyclopaedic grasp of primary and secondary literature relevant to Q and administration in the Ptolemaic and early Roman periods, and a breathtaking knowledge of current anthropological and political theory. Its many strengths come from the painstaking lexical and ideological analyses of chaps. 3-4, and the comprehensive theoretical framework

98638.indb 693 20/01/16 10:35 694 BOOK REVIEWS

into which he places Q. The book raises many questions that deserve further investigation, including on the one hand, the relation between the “economic political theology” that seems at work in parts of Q, and the notions of intense and extensive divine surveillance that is also present in Q 3,7-9, 12,42-46 and especially 19,12-27, and on the other, the transition to Matthew’s discourse, which seems more at home in Assmann’s “representative political theology”. J.S. Kloppenborg

Simon Butticaz. Pâques, et après? Paul et l’espérance chrétienne (Parole et liberté). Bière, Cabédita, 2014. (15×22), 91 p. ISBN 978-2-88295- 702-3. €15.00.

Le livre de Simon Butticaz éveille à la nécessité de l’espérance, d’une espé- rance chrétienne solide et forte, qui ne se laisse ni battre ni courbattre par le temps de crise et les outrages de l’histoire. Qu’elle nous tenaille l’esprit ou le traverse furtivement, la peur de la fin fait son grand retour. Partout, le destin du monde semble programmé: au périmètre du trou d’ozone, dans le marc de café, à la lunette de nos télescopes. Aujourd’hui plus que jamais, nul hasard si les prédica- tions mayas ou les prophéties de Nostradamus font recette. Et si les diseurs de bonne aventure comme les oiseaux de mauvais augure pullulent à la rubrique des petites annonces. Face à ce tableau hideux que dépeint l’auteur d’entrée de jeu et qui conjugue des crises anxiogènes, que m’est-il permis d’espérer? Emmanuel Kant, le philos- ophe des Lumières, voyait là l’une des trois questions fondamentales posées à l’être humain, et le terrain fertile par excellence de la religion. Ce sera aussi le questionnement vers lequel l’auteur entraîne tous ses lecteurs: que nous réserve l’avenir? Face à la fin, à ma fin, que puis-je espérer? Et en quoi l’espérance change-t-elle la vie? Une problématique d’actualité que l’auteur aborde par ailleurs en arpentant les sentiers, tour à tour dégagés ou escarpés, du Nouveau Testament. Un choix surprenant. Car pourquoi convoquer une littérature datée sur une question d’urgente modernité? La raison nous paraît simple, parce qu’elle est vieille comme le monde, l’angoisse de la fin! Par ailleurs, une espérance qui se dépiste aux variations de l’ADN m’aide-t-elle à vivre? Un peu, sûrement. Quelque temps, peut-être. Très souvent pourtant, les duretés et les énigmes du réel ont radicalement raison de ces fragiles espoirs. C’est d’une espérance forte, plus forte que la mort, dont nous avons besoin. Bien plus, les premiers chrétiens, eux aussi, ont dû rendre compte de leur espérance. Pâques, l’événement qu’ils avaient salué comme le triomphe de Dieu sur le mal, avait-il réellement changé la face du monde? Pour y répondre, Simon Butticaz fait le choix, celui de Paul, le premier théologien de l’Église qui s’est saisi de la plume de roseau, offrant aux croyant de son temps un véritable manifeste pour l’espérance et nous léguant ipso facto, à deux mille ans de distance, une correspondance qui console et tonifie tout à la fois. En effet, chez Paul, elles sont au nombre de trois. Non pas les fées de l’Église, mais les vertus théologales: la foi, l’espérance et l’amour. Une triade bien connue que l’on rencontre explicitement dans deux lettres de l’apôtre, en 1 Théssalo- niciens (1,3 et 5,8) ainsi qu’en 1 Corinthiens (13,13). Elles sont trois, et pourtant,

98638.indb 694 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 695

deux mille ans de christianisme et l’élévation de l’Église au faîte de l’Occident ont eu raison de cette belle triade. La foi s’est embourgeoisée et l’amour s’est travesti. Tout cela, parce que l’espérance a été étouffée. Il convient de l’avouer à la suite de l’auteur: dans les annales chrétiennes, l’espérance n’a pas toujours eu bonne presse. Jürgen Moltmann, le théologien de Tübingen, va même jusqu’à déclarer que «l’espérance a … en quelque sorte émigré de l’Église» (Théologie de l’espérance…, 12). Car elle serait l’apanage dangereux des illusionnistes, ces courants minoritaires et sectaires de la chrétienté qui se sont régulièrement enflammés pour la fin du monde. Sans conteste, Paul de Tarse est un théologien de l’Avent; de ce Dieu qui est venu, qui vient et qui viendra. Et c’est précisément cela la spécificité et la force de l’espérance chrétienne selon l’apôtre, souligne notre auteur (87). Elle n’est pas futur simple; elle est l’à-venir de Dieu conjugué à tous les temps. À commencer par le passé. Car c’est à Pâques, dans le mystère du Crucifié relevé de la mort, qu’a lui l’aube d’une création nouvelle. L’espérance chez Paul, c’est donc premi- èrement la confiance tenace aux promesses pascales: accueil de l’homme sans qualités par le Dieu du Golgotha. Mais la foi est aussi l’espérance au présent. Car elle ne peut s’accommoder des structures de pouvoir et des rapports de force qui défigurent la vie humaine. Sous ce prisme, l’ouvrage de Simon Butticaz est une exhortation à maintenir vive la flamme de l’espérance chrétienne. À nos Églises guettées par l’abattement, tentées par le syndrome du repli sur la serre chaude des convertis ou grisées par l’esprit du temps, on ne peut qu’encourager une fréquentation assidue de Paul et de ses lettres. Tant il est vrai que sa théologie a de quoi animer, vitaminer un christianisme fade et déprimé. Lui ouvrant d’autres possibles que le dégoût de soi, le sectarisme ou l’insignifiance au cœur du monde. L’ouvrant à la tendresse de Dieu et à son inviolable fidélité à ses promesses (89). Telle est la théologie de l’espérance que l’ouvrage de Simon Butticaz, faisant dialoguer Bible et actualité, invite à redécouvrir. R. Ongendangenda Muya

Ben C. Dunson. Individual and Community in Paul’s Letter to the Romans (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament. 2. Reihe, 332. Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2012. (15,5×23,5), xii-217 p. ISBN 978-3-16-152057-0. €59.00.

In the wake of the Protestant Reformation and influenced by other factors, a tradition of understanding Paul came into being that focused primarily on the salvation of individuals. By their faith individual people are justified apart from their works or the merits of the Church. This tradition remained unchallenged for centuries in the common Protestant understanding of Paul. However, in the past thirty years a number of scholars have argued that Paul is far less concerned about individual salvation and individual Christian existence than he was with the community of believers. With some exceptions, this position is the current consensus in Pauline studies. In view of this development, the present monograph argues that neither of the two positions is correct on its own: individual and community cannot be separated in Pauline theology.

98638.indb 695 20/01/16 10:35 696 BOOK REVIEWS

In the introduction, “Exit the Individual: Recent Trends in Scholarship on the Individual and the Community in Paul’s Letters” (1-14), Dunson delineates how social-scientific approaches have contributed to anti-individualistic readings, analyses the anti-individualism in the wake of the new perspective on Paul and inspired by apocalyptic readings of Paul and describes some attempts to return the individual to the centre of Paul’s theology (e.g. G. Burnett’s study Paul and the Salvation of the Individual). In order to clarify issues further, chapter two describes and assesses the debate over the individual in Rudolf Bultmann and Ernst Käsemann (18-63). According to Dunson, many of Käsemann’s central emphases have been warmly embraced in modern Pauline scholarship as it became attuned to themes that transcend, and even marginalize, the individual. Dunson argues that the antithesis between the individual and the community that dominates Käsemann’s writings, and which also dominates recent Pauline scholarship, is without merit. The individual and the community must not be separated. Bultmann has not related individuals and community satisfactorily. However, his sensitivity to communal issues in Paul should be acknowledged. Bultmann’s merit is to have shown that the individual (one specific kind at least) is indispensable for Paul’s thought. Chapter three offer a survey of the relationship of individual and community in the Discourses of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus (64-107). While they do not operate from the same convictions, looking at Epictetus can shed fresh light on the same questions in Paul’s letters. Both thinkers relate the individual and the community in different ways. The differences indicate the nature of the relationship between individual and the community in both figures:

whereas Epictetus’ philosophy demands a militant guarding of one’s personal power of choice, and thus is pointedly individual in its fundamental orientation (without excluding social concerns), Paul is much more concerned to define what it means to be an individual in comprehensively (but not exclusively) communal terms. Further- more, Epictetus’ discourses make it clear that the question of individuals and their relationship with community is not a merely modern question that has been imposed anachronistically onto ancient texts. While the function of the individual and the Community in antiquity can be placed on a sliding scale of prominence depending on the source, articulating the relationship between the two themes is a pressing concern for a large number of ancient thinkers (16).

Chapter four examines Paul’s understanding of the individual in Romans 1–4 (108–146). It becomes clear that there is a wide variety of ways in which Paul conceptualizes the individual. This is in contrast to those scholars for whom the word individual means one single thing:

Since these interpretations usually understand the word individual to imply some sort of modern individualism, they then feel warranted in dismissing the entire idea of the individual, almost always doing so without argumentation in support of such a move. The rightness of doing so is simply taken for granted. Such reasoning wrongly assumes that Paul only has a single way of conceptualizing the individual. … Paul constructs the individual in numerous ways, and that none of these can be summarily dismissed from consideration through vague charges of anachronism (16).

Dunson also emphasises the communal context of the Pauline individuals that appear in Romans 1–4.

98638.indb 696 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 697

In chapter five Dunson completes the typology of the individual in Romans (147-176). Again, a wide variety of constructions of the individual appears in Romans 5, 7, 12 and 16. In particular, Romans 12 and 16 underline the necessar- ily communal context of the Pauline individual. “There simply is no individual in Pauline teaching on the believing life that is not at the same time embedded into the ongoing life of the believing Community, which is the body of Christ. There is no individual qua individual” (16). According to Romans, the individual is not complete without the wider body of Christ. The individual members of the one body need each other and depend on each other as Paul emphasises in the body and members analogy in Romans 12. Without each other they cannot function properly in the world. Dunson writes: More than this, individuals are told by Paul that love within the Community is a binding obligation; love is a debt owed by all in the body of Christ (Rom 13:8). As such, individuals are in a very important sense not free at all. The individual has been freed from bondage to sin (the point of Rom 6:1–8:17) in order to become a slave of right- eousness (Rom 6:18, 19) and of God (Rom 6:22). Such slavery brings with it binding obligations within the Community of fellow slaves of God. Whereas for Epictetus the actions of others are completely outside the concern of self-preservation, for Paul the way in which others respond to oneself is of supreme importance. As he says in Rom 14:14: “If your brother or sister is grieved because of food, you are no longer walking in love”. The Pauline individual is not an autonomous agent free to pursue immunity from the possibility of being affected by the fate of others in the community (178). Dunson rightly argues that the importance of the individual must not be emphasised without at the same time taking account of the indispensably communal matrix of Pauline individuals. Failure to do so will not do justice to Paul’s thinking either on the individual or the community. If the relationship between the individual and the community is not understood properly, then central themes in Paul’s thought (faith, justification, judgment, etc.) will be misunderstood. Chapter six summarises the results and describes their significance for understanding Paul’s way of relating individuals to community (177-183, differences between Paul and Epictetus, individual and community in Romans). Detailed studies need to indicate how other Pauline letters relate individual and community (some suggestions on pp. 181f.). It is noteworthy that Dunson skips over Romans 9–11. While not directly addressing the relationship of individual and community according to Dunson’s quest, Paul relates individual Jewish and Gentile believers to the community of the people of God in broad salvation historical perspective. A limited number of Jewish Christian believers constitute the remnant (like in the Old Testament) which guarantees the faithfulness of God and the eventual salvation of the whole community (“all Israel”). These individuals are highly significant for the whole people. Likewise one might ask how Romans 14f. defines the relationship of the individual (and its particular convictions) or groups of individuals (their attitude and behaviour) to a community in which other convictions exist. Dunson’s otherwise persuasive and well-argued study of individual and community in Romans is an important contribution to the history of Pauline scholarship, to the study of Romans and to New Testament soteriology and ecclesiology. It offers a necessary corrective to a number of false assumptions in current Pauline studies (182) and the traditional focus on individuals. Dunson’s conclusions (“Paul knows nothing of an isolated individualism”, 181) are particularly challenging in

98638.indb 697 20/01/16 10:35 698 BOOK REVIEWS

the age of unbridled Western individualism and postmodern understandings and constructions of the nature and ministry of the Church. C. Stenschke

Roy E. Ciampa – Brian S. Rosner. The First Letter to the Corinthians (The Pillar New Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids, MI – Cam- bridge, Eerdmans; Nottingham, Apollos, 2010. (15×23), liv-922 p. ISBN 978-1-84474-484-8. £45.00.

There is no shortage of recent, good scholarly commentaries on 1 Corinthians. The excellent and comprehensive volumes of David Garland and Anthony Thiselton quickly come to mind and also a number of volumes in German (E. Schnabel, D. Zeller). So, why bother with yet another commentary? In the case of the present volume, the answer is simple: what has been discussed for the past two decades is not merely added together and peppered with the odd original observation here and there; but the letter is approached from a fresh perspective. Ciampa and Rosner, both specialists in the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament, argue that: “Often regarded as Paul’s makeshift response to random problems in the Corinthian church, we believe that a more coherent reading of the letter emerges by talking full account of its Old Testament and Jewish roots, along with paying careful attention to the Corinthian historical context” (xvi). The detailed introduction concentrates on Corinth and its church at the time of writing, on the situation of Paul, his aims of writing to the Corinthians and various issues in interpreting the letter. “The Church in Corinth” (2-6) gives a very brief survey of ancient Corinth and then describes the origin and present state of the Corinthian church. The section entitled, “The identity and aims of the Apostle Paul” (6-18), describes the major factors involved in the Apostle Paul, namely Paul the Jew, Paul the Roman citizen, Paul the follower of Jesus, and Paul the eschatological herald. In this function, Paul was the end-time herald commissioned by Israel’s God to announce his salvific reign: “Paul’s gospel heralding is an eschatological, divinely commissioned activity. Although Paul the eschatological herald is less well known than other ways of describing his identity, it turns out to be a key ingredient in understanding his agenda” (9f.). In addition, Paul was also commissioned to be the apostle to the Gentiles. In this function it was: “Paul’s aim was to bring about true worship and obedience among the Gentiles, to the glory of God … How did Paul envisage this happening? An examination of certain key texts shows that he followed a fairly consistent pattern. His exposition of the dynamics of pagan sin, the nature of Gentile conversion, and his own missionary agenda are consonant with the themes and structure of 1 Corinthans” (16). Against this backdrop, Ciampa and Rosner write:

Paul’s aims and agenda for his Gentile converts, then, can be summarized as follows. The Gentiles fail to glorify God, chiefly through idolatry and sexual immorality (which reflect their lack of true wisdom). The proclamation of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is a call to enter the new eschatological age established in and by him. It demands that all people submit in unity to Christ, living out the true wisdom of the other-person-centered lifestyle of the cross. They must abandon sexual immorality and idolatry and instead worship the one true God. The goal of all of this

98638.indb 698 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 699

is the glory of God. The Gentiles’ lives will be characterized by expectant hope for the final consummation of God’s glory (and so their own glorification) in the future bodily resurrection. When we come to ι Corinthians, much is gained by reading Paul’s letter with this in mind (18).

In the following section on the interpretation of 1 Corinthians (19-52), Ciampa and Rosner first review suggestions regarding the unifying theme, structure and purpose of the letter. At variance with several recent studies which suggest that Paul’s main purpose in writing the letter was to unify the congregation (including rhetorical studies), the authors note that while it is true that disunity is a major theme of the letter, there are other equally important concerns. They note: “Our contention is that rather than reading 1 Corinthians with Greco-Roman rhetorical categories in mind, it is better to take Old Testament and Jewish frames of reference as the primary lens that clarifies our understanding of both the form and contents of the letter. In this light, disunity is one of several behaviours that char- acterise the Corinthians as ‘worldly’, as ‘acting like mere human beings’ (3:3). Paul’s goal is bigger than merely having them live harmoniously” (20f.). However, this needs not be mutually exclusive. Several examples from early Jewish literature indicate that Jewish frames of mind can also be expressed in texts that betray knowledge and the use of Hellenistic rhetorical categories. This is followed by an analysis of the structure of 1 Corinthians and a detailed survey of its argument. The four main themes of the letter are wisdom, sexuality, worship, and resurrection/consummation. This pattern of thought also appears elsewhere in Paul’s letters:

To put the pattern in point form, with the overall goal of the glory of God, we find: 1. The proclamation of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is a call to enter the new eschatological age established in and by him. It demands that all people submit in unity to Christ, living out the wisdom of the other-person-centered lifestyle of the cross. 2. They must abandon the Gentile vice of sexual immorality (to the glory of God). 3. They must abandon the Gentile vice of idolatry, and give proper worship to the one true God (to the glory of God). 4. The Gentiles’ lives will be characterized by expectant hope for the final consummation of God’s glory (and so their own glorification) in the future bodily resurrection (26).

The pattern has affinities with Jewish moral teaching contemporary with Paul which stand in a biblical tradition where the order of these elements is not the same, and temple worship is probably meant more literally. “Also, reference to the cross is obviously not present, being by definition a Christian motivation. Nonetheless, they add further support to our contention that Paul’s ethics in general and 1 Corinthians in particular are best read as in line with biblical and Jewish moral teaching” (28). Building on these observations, the authors sketch the biblical-theological framework that informs Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians (28-32). Paul seems to have taken clues from Deuteronomy and Isaiah in particular. “A comparison of these key OT books with 1 Corinthians confirms the origin not only of many of the specifics but also of the general shape of Paul’s response to the problems in Corinth” (28, “Deuteronomy and 1 Corinthians”, 29f., “Isaiah and 1 Corinthians”, 31f.; perhaps one may add Exodus due to its extended use in 1 Corinthians 10).

98638.indb 699 20/01/16 10:35 700 BOOK REVIEWS

In addition, the authors identify four key themes in the letter which arise from the biblical-theological basis of Paul’s aims and agenda in his relations with the Corinthians. These themes drive his instruction throughout the letter and give it its essential unity: the lordship of Christ, worldwide worship, the eschatological temple, and the glory of God (32-35). This is followed by a survey of recent research on 1 Corinthians (biblical and Jewish background, the Greco-Roman foreground, social sciences and approaches from classical rhetoric) and a sketch of the approach taken to theology and exposition: “… we have endeavoured to write a commentary that has an interest both in history and in the usefulness, power, and authority of the text as God’s word. However, this goal does not find expression in separate sections on preaching and application. Instead, we aim throughout to offer a Christian theological interpretation of the letter that at the same time takes its historical and literary dimensions seriously” (41). In this context, the authors introduce special features of this commentary (41-52), namely the use of Greek and the question of verbal aspect (survey of the recent discussion, “with respect to grammar we have followed recent developments in Greek verbal aspect and have sought to avoid the naïve comments about tense and aspect that can be found in in many previous commentaries on 1 Corin- thians”, 44) and explain the format of major sections. The introductory paragraphs to larger units describe the situation in Corinth, along with a tentative reconstruction of what Paul heard or read of the Corinthians, the biblical and Jewish foundations of Paul’s response, main problems of interpretation to be solved, the passage’s contribution to theology and ethics, and its argument and structure (46). The authors also deal with the challenges involved in “mirror-reading” (“In each section attentive readers gain from Paul’s responses some sense of what had been said and was going on in Corinth. Read this way, the letter is far from dry moral and religious discourse; on the contrary, it is a vibrant conversation”, 46). At the beginning of each unit Ciampa and Rosner offer their own understanding of the other side of the conversation, that is, what the Corinthians were doing, thinking, and saying. This is followed by a discussion of the value of 1 Corinthians as Christian Scripture in the 21st century (47-51; issues of hermeneutics and application) and the distinctive contribution of this exposition to the study of the letter. It consists of the conviction that

a biblical/Jewish approach provides a solid basis for appreciating the structure and coherence of Paul’s response to Corinthian problems and also does greater justice to the fundamentally Jewish character of Paul’s response to the Corinthians. The letter is not an ad hoc reply to a series of distinct problems treated randomly or even in the order in which they had come to Paul’s attention. The order is most likely Paul’s own, one to which he is drawn, perhaps instinctively, as the similar thought patterns evident in Romans 1:21-28; 15:5-16 and 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 attest. 1 Corinthians is effectively an early Christian reformulation of the traditional Jewish approach to dealing with sexual immorality and idolatry along with expectations associated with the eschatological conversion of Gentiles. And while unity is clearly a significant issue, Paul’s most fundamental concern is not with unity itself, but with the glory of God, that is, that the church in Corinth might reflect the ultimate goal, “that God may be all in all” (15:28) (52).

This has implications for understanding Paul, the letter-writer:

The “Paul” that emerges from reading the letter turns out not to be random and inconsistent, as is often thought. Instead, he is a man focused on an impossible mission,

98638.indb 700 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 701

to proclaim the message of the lordship of Christ to the glory of God throughout the entire world. He acts out of a secure and noble identity, intent on fulfilling his priestly duty to ensure the purity of God’s temple, which is the new humanity that is being transformed and renewed by God” (52).

Therefore, “rather than settle for seeing the letter merely as Paul’s response to oral and written reports of problems in the Corinthian church such as disunity, incest, lawsuits, and prostitution, we are convinced that an approach that takes full account of its biblical and Jewish roots is preferable” (52). When seen in this light, 1 Corinthians is:

Paul’s attempt to tell the church of God in Corinth that they are part of the fulfilment of the Old Testament expectation of worldwide worship of the God of Israel, and as God’s eschatological temple they must act in a manner appropriate to their pure and holy status by becoming unified, shunning pagan vices, and glorifying God in obedience to the lordship of Jesus Christ (52).

This sketch of the approach taken by this fresh and inspiring commentary has to suffice, since space does not permit detailed interaction with the actual interpretation (53-867). The volume closes with various indices (bibliography on pp. xxii-liv). The authors assess the relevance of the letter as follows

1 Corinthians has much to say to the modern world. No book in the New Testament, even Paul’s letter to the Romans, does more to explain the grace God, the lordship of Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit. The contribution of the letter to the practical knowledge of God is immense. Not only is its ethics searching and rigorous, but its theology, especially of the cross, announces the end of the world as we know it. In addition to supplying concrete answers to many problems which have comparable manifestations today, on subjects as diverse as leadership, preaching, pluralism, sexuality, and worship, 1 Corinthians models how to approach the complexity of Christian living with the resources of the Old Testament and the example and teaching of Jesus. Above all, it shows the importance of asking, How does the gospel of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which envelop the letter in chapters 1 and 15, teach us to live? (1)

Owing to its fresh, coherent biblical theology approach to the letter and its nuanced hermeneutical reflection, this commentary is a gold mine. C. Stenschke

Albert C. Geljon – Riemer Roukema (eds.). Violence in Ancient Christian- ity: Victims and Perpetrators (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae, 125). Leiden – Boston, MA, Brill, 2014. (16×24), viii-252 p. ISBN 978-90-04-27478-5. €104.00; $135.00.

This collection of essays had its origin in the 50th anniversary conference of the Dutch Foundation for Ancient Christian Studies, which was held in October 2011 on the topic of the title of the volume. The “Introduction” (1-7) by the editory introduces and summarises the ten contributions to the volume. In his introductory essay, “Religious Violence

98638.indb 701 20/01/16 10:35 702 BOOK REVIEWS

between Greeks, Romans, Christians and Jews” (8-30), Jan N. Bremmer challenges a number of often repeated assumptions. He suggests that religious violence is neither a neutral nor an accurate term because, in the era under consideration, the roles of violence and religion were very different from their current understanding. Bremmer criticises the view that polytheistic religions are more tolerant than monotheisitc religions and provides examples of violent intolerance of polytheists. He also concludes that before the establishment of Christianity, no pagan author would plead religious tolerance.

After Christianity had become the dominant religion, testimonies to Christian violence against pagans and their temples do exist, but Bremmer points to those scholars whose critical analysis of the literary and archaeological sources contests their historical reliability. In his view, cases of destruction of pagan temples by Christians were exceptions. He argues that in the fourth and fifth centuries many of these temples were not visited anymore and a fair number of them were transformed to churches. Without downplaying rhetorical and physical violence by Christians against Jews he notes that sometimes the sources are less clear than one might wish (1).

In his essay, “Violence against Christians and Violence by Christians in the First Three Centuries: Direct Violence, Cultural Violence and the Debate about Christian Exclusiveness” (31-55), Danny Praet argues that violence cannot always be explained by non-religious factors, but is inherent to the traditions themselves. From a pagan perspective, “The pax deorum mechanism identified the Christian refusal to sacrifica as the cause of catastrophe and triggered direct violence against Christians” (54). While direct violence by Christians is very rare in the first three centuries, the examples of violent discourses in Jewish and Christian sources pre- figure real violence against idols and temples in later centuries. Fred Ledegang (“Eusebius’ View on Constantine and His Policy”, 56-75) shows that Eusebius’ view of Constantine developed along two lines. There was the traditional Roman understanding of emperorship according to which the emperor as pontifex maximus ensures that the pax deorum is not disturbed and that the cult is practiced in the right way and in unity. Therefore, when someone fulfills his officia, he in turn receives the beneficia from the deity. For Eusebius, Constantine not only matched Augustus in this regard, but surpassed him.

The second line is Eusebius’ view on history as history of salvation. Divine Provi- dence determines history. He makes use of men to realize His reign on earth. Constantine had been chosen by God and had received the emperorship from Him. For that reason he enjoyed God’s support and his victories were given to him by God. He freed the people from the tyranny of the persecutions. He combined political and religious leadership. Therefore Eusebius sees him as a second Moses, who even surpassed the first one (75).

In the essay, “Avenging Julian: Violence against Christians during the Years 361-363” (76-89), Hans C. Teitler argues that the alleged violence perpetrated against Christians by pagans in Julian’s reigns needs critical reassessment. While Julian was not friendly toward the Christians and one might accuse him of dis- crimination, later testimonies to bloody persecutions are not confirmed by authors who were contemporaries of the emperor and whose policy they abhorred. It seems that Julian decided not to follow the example of Diocletian, which had created many martyrs who were subsequently honoured by the Christians. Not all of

98638.indb 702 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 703

Julian’s pagan subjects followed his restraint and the emperor condoned their violent actions against Christians (3). F.J. Elizabeth Boddens Hosang studies “Attraction and Hatred: Relations between Jews and Christians in the Early Church” (90-107). She concludes that Judaism was not a religion in decline. The point when a parting of the ways took place is unclear. According to many church leaders the parting should already have occurred, “Yet the situation on the ground appears much more complex. Rather than assume an early and clear partition, the evidence from the council texts, with additional information from archaeology and some church fathers, proves otherwise” (106). Regarding later times she writes:

The steady Christianization of the Roman empire from the fourth century onwards meant a growing need for clearer identity. Within this context we must place the council texts: attempts at establishing boundaries within which the Christian faithful were assumed to stay. Contacts between Christianity and Judaism on the level of the ordinary faithful remained close, and for a much longer period than church leaders liked. This interaction continued until the end of the tenth century when one sees that canons of church councils increasingly focus against Jews in particular and no longer against Christian faithful in their so-called Judaizing “practices”. Church fathers reacted against the interaction, and still grappled with the question of the continuing existence of Judaism which Christianity was supposed to have superseded. The negative view of Jews and Judaism in church father writings resulted in a rise in hostilities and attacks: not on fictive, but on genuine Jews. Jews suffered as a result of the theology developed in this formative period and increasing violence and distance between the religious groups was the result. Aggression and violence which began in textual attacks – church and civil laws excluding Jews from the public sphere, and patristic writings exaggerating the negative view of Jews and Judaism, gradually led to actual physical harm to Jews and Jewish property. Early developments of anti- Judaism which eventually led to full-fledged anti- Semitism (107).

Hans van Loon examines “Violence in the Early Years of Cyril of Alexandria’s Episcopate” (108-131), in particular violence towards Jews and the murder of the philosopher Hypatia. Cyril’s policy towards Jews was far from Christian, even though a number of Christians had been killed by Jews. Socrates, who was critical of Cyril, did mention the plundering of synagogues and the Jews’ expulsion from Alexandria, but not the murder and killing of Jews by Christians. The sources concerning Hypatia and Cyril’s role in this event disagree over the latter’s involvement and responsibility. The widespread view that the archbishop was directly responsible for Hypatia’s death is incorrect. However, Cyril fostered a climate in which such a murder could take place. Van Loon concludes that the first years of Cyril’s episcopate were volatile, but even the critical historian, Socrates, does not implicate him personally in anybody’s death. Joop van Waarden studies “Priscillian of Avila’s Liber ad Damasum, and the Inability to Handle a Conflict” (132-150), which was an exceptional case of violence in the fourth century when the bishop of Avila was eventually tor- tured and decapitated. According to Van Waarden, what had been missing in the whole tragic course of events was a serious lack of sagacious conflict management. In his essay, “Quid dicam de vindicando vel non vindicando? (Ep. 95,3): Augustine’s Legitimation of Coercion in the Light of His Roles of Mediator, Judge, Teacher and Mystagogue” (151-184), Paul van Geest examines the nuanes

98638.indb 703 20/01/16 10:35 704 BOOK REVIEWS

in the development of Augustine’s stance on the use of violence and the various roles adopted by Augustine. Van Geest reminds us

that the Church Father has never exactly indicated what he understands by “violence” and to what degree he wants to prescribe it or had it applied. With Augustine the Latin coercitio does not have the meaning of English (means of) “coercion”, but is rather linked to correctio-correptio (“correction”, “admonition”). Force was a generally accepted means in all areas of society and bishops too had the possibility to lead their flock by means of force. They could allow themselves to be intolerant; the question was “only” whether they gave shape to their intolerance in an acceptable way (153).

He argues that against the widespread violence of his day, it is quite remarkable that Augustine speaks about the application of coercion and violence in such a balanced way: “In fact, Augustine had far more balanced ideas about the application of coercion and violence than anyone else in those days” (181). Gerard Bartelink examines the “Repression von Häretikern und anderen religiösen Gruppierungen im späteren Altertum, in der Sprache widerspiegelt“ (185-197). His discussion includes the identification of a rhetorical genre of an ars male dicendi, the ironic use of proper names, notable designations in secular authors of the era, negative designations for the cult buildings of heretics, the use of conventiculum, conciliabulum, sepulcrum, spelunca and antrum, neutral terminology, the prohibition to adopt the designations of office of the catholica, designations for heresies, and the use of conventus and coetus. Bartelink concludes that

sich in den polemischen Schriften der christlichen Schriftsteller gegen die Häretiker und in den offiziellen Verbotsdekreten viele Beispiele einer abwertenden Terminolo- gie finden. … Eine Menge pejorativ gefärbter Wörter (überwiegend Substantive und Adjektive) wurde unterschiedslos für irgendwelche Ketzerei verwendet. Allmählich hatte man eine feste, traditionell gewordene Reihe von Schimpfwörtern zur Verfügung (187).

Riemer Roukema examines the “Reception and Interpretation of Jesus’ Teach- ing of Love for Enemies in Ancient Christianity” (198-214; before Constantine: texts addressed to Christians, texts addressed to the authorities and critics of Christianity, use in doctrinal debates; after Constantine’s turnabout texts directed to non-Christians and arguments in doctrinal debates, texts addressed to Chris- tians). According to Roukema, Jesus’ radical instructions on love and prayer for enemies has been received and transmitted by Christians of the subsequent centuries as a most serious injunction. Yet: “It is difficult to establish, however, how far Christians practiced his message. … Before Constantine his precepts were probably taken quite seriously in relation to non-Christians. Jews were also considered enemies for whom Christians had to pray” (213). After Constantine, Jesus’ instructions were applied to the personal readiness to abstain from revenge and to forgiveness, and less to the authorities’ political responsibilities. Mostly the Christians’ personal lives were in view. “It is doubtful … how far the injunction to love the enemies was also applied to the Jews, who were blamed with deicide. ‘Heretics’ also could not always count on the love of Catholic Christians …” (213). A number of indexes round off this well-produced and stimulating volume (References, Names and Subjects, Greek and Latin Words, Modern Authors,

98638.indb 704 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 705

215-252). At the end of the introduction, the editors caution against the possibility of drawing conclusions from violence in ancient Christianity for today’s religious conflicts:

As was remarked already, religious violence is also known in our times, and it is tempting to draw parallels between our times and antiquity. Although it was not the aim of the conference to study religious violence in the present time as well and to compare it with this phenomenon in antiquity, several papers have shown that we should not draw such parallels too quickly. There are similarities indeed, but the social context in which violence took place and the attitude toward violence were different. Furthermore, religious extremists were not the only ones, as one might think, who resorted to religious violence. In many aspects ancient society was like our societies, but still different, also regarding the role of religious violence (7).

While this point may be granted for Western societies, a discussion of what to do with this problematic heritage in the Christian tradition is still mandatory, particularly in context where the patristic heritage is appropriated uncritically. It must not be ignored in the current upsurge of interest in late ancient Christianity. Of related interest are the collections of essays edited by Mark Juergensmeyer, Margo Kitts and Michael Jerryson (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013) and by Wendy Mayer and Bron- wen Neil (eds.), Religious Conflict from Early Christianity to the Rise of Islam (AKG 121; Berlin – Boston: de Gruyter, 2013). C. Stenschke

David Rylaarsdam. John Chrysostom on Divine Pedagogy: The Coherence of His Theology and Preaching (Oxford Early Christian Studies). Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014. (15,5×24,5), xxvi-317 p. ISBN 978-0-19-871538-2. £65.00.

As an outline of the exegetical and theological presuppositions of John Chrysos tom’s prolific oeuvre, Rylaarsdam’s Divine Pedagogy is an excellent guide. This revised dissertation lucidly demonstrates that a single, comprehensive under standing of the Divine character undergirds John Chrysostom’s biblical exegesis. The key to the book is 1 Cor 9,22: “I have become all things to all people” (quoted 167, 264). Not only does this verse grasp Rylaarsdam’s understanding of John Chrysostom’s reading of Paul’s life and teaching, but it encapsulates Chrysos tom’s understanding of the relationship between the Incarnation and biblical hermeneutics. What Paul expressed in these words is the principle of a teacher who understands his pupils so well that he knows precisely what they need in order to progress: where there is a lazy mind, so follows a harsh rebuke; where there is an infringement upon conscience due to harsh ethical practice, so follows a concession to the Gentiles. In the narrative of the Old Testament, and most fully in Christ, God’s character evidently follows similar patterns: where there is a desperate nation, so follows a pillar of fire to lead them through the wilderness; where the implications of the Law are dense, so the divine discourse adjusts to the weakness of human minds (see e.g. 112-114). Rylaarsdam skillfully organizes a vast amount of data; the reader is compelled by clear structure and consistency of

98638.indb 705 20/01/16 10:35 706 BOOK REVIEWS

argument to grasp Chrysostom’s vision of a divine character analogous to the wisest and most seasoned grammatikoi of the rhetorical traditions of Antiquity. The wider goal of the monograph is to rescue Chrysostom from aspersions cast by modern critics, which have tended to fashion him as a silver serpent, a bitter moralist, or a facile rhetor. The author is to be commended for his diligent incorporation of a wide variety of Chrysostom’s homilies, though it is clear that several series dominate the exposition (Hom. Gen.; Hom. Jo.; In Is.; In epis. I Cor.). At points, the reader encounters a problematic tension between broad synthesis and detailed analysis. For instance, a significant implication to Rylaarsdam’s thesis is that John Chrysostom christianizes “classical processes of formation” (193; compare similar statements on pp. 96-97). For the given chapter in which this conclusion features prominently, the reader endures 35 pages with some 240 footnotes to arrive at the statement. But upon looking back, there is little offered to illustrate precisely what constitutes these ‘classical processes of formation’, and how, exactly, these processes are transformed. It is true that the discernment of when to use invective was a function of classical oratory and excellent pedagogy. But that Chrysostom adopts such methods for Christian purposes is a point so basic one wonders if it needs arguing. More importantly, though, the evidence for such transformative composition is disproportionately confected: to prove that “Chrysostom draws on Greco-Roman arguments” (182), a single passage from Plutarch without quotation is adduced (182 n.172, borrowed from Mitchell’s The Heavenly Trumpet, 338-339); to prove that for John Chrysostom Paul challenged the “most powerful tradition in ancient society” (160) the author has collected six pages with copiously documented texts from Chrysostom on Paul, but not one text – secondary or primary other than brief footnotes to Mitchell’s Trumpet – is adduced for substantiating the various expressions of said tradition by authors from Chrysostom’s fourth-century context. Thus, there are occasions when one cannot help but think that Chrysostom simply replaced classical rhetorical ideals (e.g., a good rhetor knows his audience) with Christian ones (e.g., the Incarnation is evidence that God knows the audience of humanity). But this is precisely the kind of shallow conception of Chrysostom that Rylaarsdam sought to debunk. Thus as an introduction to the content of Chrysostom’s exegetical output, this book is an excellent option. Rylaarsdam does not attempt to contextualize Chrysos- tom’s trinitarian theology or his biblical exegetical techniques with contemporary authors. Very little biographical details are offered. The merit of this monograph is in its thorough systematization of themes related to hermeneutics and spirituality in several key works by Chrysostom. Rylaarsdam opens avenues for further research that would give wings to his thesis of cultural transformation. Of particular interest for Patristic and classical scholars alike should be the opportunity for close textual comparison. For instance, it is argued that Chrysostom’s seemingly simplistic rhetoric is a result not of naivete but of his perception of diverse audiences. It is curious, however, that Basil of Caesarea preached on similar subjects (e.g., the Hexaemeron), yet felt free to quote liberally from Aristotle and discuss in much greater depth theories of Neo-Pythagorean cosmology. What might one make of this contrast, particularly given the assumption that both texts were preaching to mass audiences during Lent? S.A. Pomeroy

98638.indb 706 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 707

Elisabeth Birnbaum – Ludger Schwienhorst-Schönberger (eds.). Hiero nymus als Exeget und Theologe: Interdisziplinäre Zugänge zum Koheletkommentar des Hieronymus (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 268), Leuven – Paris – Walpole, MA, Peeters, 2014. (16×24,5), xviii-331 p. ISBN 978-90-429-3067-4. €80.00.

It has often been said that Jerome gave the Middle Ages their Bible (the Vul- gate that would develop out of pope Damasus’ request to correct the Latin text of the gospels and the Psalms on the basis of the Greek), whereas Augustine provided them with its exegesis (by popularising the allegorical – and more specifically typological – exegesis of the ‘Alexandrian school’ in the West). This, however, should not obfuscate the fact that Jerome did more than simply translate the Bible; he was also quite active as an exegete and produced a series of commentaries on various Scriptural books from the Old and New Testament. Among those was a rather extensive volume on Ecclesiastes, the oldest known Latin commentary on the book, which claims to be based on the Hebrew text rather than on its Greek translation in the Septuagint. By turning Qohelet into an even stronger advocate of so-called contemptus mundi than a number of Greek fathers had done before him, Jerome’s commentary laid down the contours of the book’s exegesis for the centuries to come in the Latin Middle Ages, and thus became as influential for the interpretation of Ecclesiastes as, for example, Gregory the Great’s Moralia in Job for the book of Job. As part of a research project supported by the Austrian Fund for Scientific Research (FWF), this volume presents the proceedings of an interdisciplinary international symposium devoted to Jerome’s Commentarius in Ecclesiasten held in November 2012 at the University of Vienna. It contains nine German and two English essays, for all of which abstracts in German and in English have been included. The opening essay by Elisabeth Birnbaum, who recently translated Jerome’s commentary into German, introduces readers to the main issues in the commentary itself and in critical research on it. The next two essays then read the commentary against the background of Hellenistic and Jewish thinking by probing the influence of Origen’s anthropological cosmology, exemplified in Jerome’s exposition on the opening poem in Eccl 1,4-11 (Alfons Fürst), as well as the many parallels vis-à-vis rabbinic tradition, the study of which is nevertheless hampered by the fact that the oldest textual witnesses for the latter post-date Jerome’s commentary by several centuries (Günter Stemberger). Two exegetically-theologically oriented essays offer a detailed study of the apologetic and polemical aspects of the preface to this and other commentaries (Andrew Cain), and of a few examples that illustrate the relationship between the Commentarius in Ecclesiasten and the various Septuagint translations that circulated in Jerome’s day, despite his self- declared dependence on the Hebrew text alone (Eberhard Bons). The subsequent bunch of essays is focused on particular themes and problems, more specifically the eschatological views exposed in the commentary (Danuta Shanzer), its development of a theology of substitution in polemicizing against Judaism (Josef Lössl), its rather awkward combination of a generally negative view on women with a positive attitude towards certain specific women (Barbara Feichtinger-Zimmer- mann), and the broader patristic context in which Jerome’s misogyny is to be

98638.indb 707 20/01/16 10:35 708 BOOK REVIEWS

understood (Agnethe Siquans). The two final essays focus on the reception of Jerome’s Commentarius in Ecclesiasten as the most important commentary on this biblical book that determined its exegesis in the medieval West, with an overview of how a number of important later commentaries – among which those written by Hugh of Saint Victor and Bonaventure – are virtual anthologies of Jerome’s work (Thomas Prügl), and an exemplary exposition on Jerome’s interpretation of a few specific verses that opens up new perspectives for a hermeneutical dialogue between Jerome and contemporary biblical scholars (Ludger Schwienhorst-Schön- berger). The volume concludes with a set of detailed indices. Taken together, these essays written by scholars coming from different disciplines paint a rich and diversified picture of the background, contents and reception history of Jerome’s commentary on Ecclesiastes. As claimed in the introduction, the authors do indeed correct a number of common misconceptions about Jerome and his work, such as its supposed lack of originality or arbitrary exegesis, while they also confirm – albeit in a nuanced fashion – the prejudices about his anti-Jewish and misogynistic tendencies. As such, this volume may be described as an invaluable companion to the commentary itself, and it is to be more broadly recommended to anyone interested in the history of exegesis and/or the interpretation of the book of Qohelet. Moreover, its interdisciplinary approach may serve as a model in overcoming artificially established scholarly boundaries between the fields of biblical studies and patristics, which is no small achievement in light of current scholarly tendencies towards hyper-specialisation. H. Debel

Paul Rigby. The Theology of Augustine’s Confessions. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2015. (16×23,5), xv-340 p. ISBN 978-1-107-09492- 5. £65.00; $99.00.

Augustine of Hippo’s Confessiones (to be situated around the transition of the fourth to the fifth century) are a hallmark in the canon of Western literature. This Odyssey of Augustine’s soul has appropriately received much due interest, and perhaps – in more recent times – also as many critiques. The Confessiones were, for example, rebuked as a product of religious narcissism and the articulation of theistic incredulity. Critical approaches of, amongst others, Kant, Hegel, Feuer- bach, Freud, Nietzsche, Heidegger – and in their wake many contemporary philosophers and psychologists who reject religion and Christian theology – prevent readers today from having the same ‘unbiased’ and ‘unproblematic’ access to the Confessiones intended by Augustine, which its first ‘audience’ had. After 40 years of reading the Confessiones and 30 years of publishing on Augustine’s doctrine of original sin, Paul Rigby presents in the current volume a ‘recontextualization’ of Augustine’s autobiography of the heart. Mainly in dialogue with Paul Ricoeur’s appreciation of Augustine, Rigby succeeds in rediscovering Augustine’s proper intention in drafting his confessional introspection, and as such Rigby ‘defends’ Augustine in a very nuanced way – as in a higher court of appeal – against the accusations presented by many of the rather destructive readings of the Confessiones mentioned above. Rather than considering the latter as neurotic or narcissistic, Rigby shows how to understand Augustine’s confessional narrative, and makes us

98638.indb 708 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 709

realize that the Confessiones are a credible and true testimony. As such, he clears the road, bridges the gap, and regains for contemporary readers the same access to the Confessiones its original readership had. In eleven chapters Rigby meticulously analyses the three questions that constitute the central impetus of Augustine’s thinking in general, and of his Confes- siones in particular. (1) The intrinsic relation between divine grace and human free will, transcending the idea of an autarkic freedom and resulting in Augustine’s belief in a ‘lyrical life’. (2) The ancient question of theodicy: the notions of individual sin, radical evil, human innocence, ontological goodness coming together in the Augustinian concept of original sin. (3) Divine hyper-ethical predestination and eschatological loving freedom. By demystifying Augustine’s Confessiones after its unfortunate deconstruction by philosophers and psychologists, Rigby renders it again plausible. He makes us hear Augustine as he was heard in his own time. Rigby’s erudite and subtle exegesis of the Confessiones and its manifold interpretations (re-)create a forum where Augustine himself again can take the stance and explain for us the original plan he had in composing this literary and theological pièce de résistance. The Theology of Augustine’s Confessions not only reconstructs the theology that forms the foundation of the Confessiones, but even more it ‘constructs’ a theology based on the Confessiones, which processes the fundamental Augustinian notions of original sin, grace, predestination and love, a confessional theology highly relevant today, for Christians and theologians alike. A. Dupont

Konrad Kremser. Augustins Auslegung des Psalms 131 (130) im Horizont neuzeitlicher Bibelwissenschaft (Stuttgarter Bibelstudien, 234). Stutt- gart, Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2015. (14,5×20,5), 142 p. ISBN 978-3- 460-03344-3. €24.90.

The present concise study compares the strengths and weaknesses of the Patris- tic reading of the Bible with the more contemporary historical-critical biblical scholarship. Augustine’s Enarratio in Psalmum 130 – a homiletical commentary on Ps 131 (130) – serves as Kremser’s point of departure. Augustine frequently opted for a Christological exegesis of the Psalms. He understands, for instance, Ps 131 (130) as voiced by the Church, Christ’s body. This is quite different from the reconstruction of the historical context and intention of the author and literary textual analysis fostered by the historical critical exegesis since the 19th century. Ps 131 functions as an excellent case study: F. Delitzsch considers it as a retrospective consideration of David, H. Gunkel as a continuation of the Lamentations, G. Quell and K. Seybold as an expression of popular devotion, W. Beyerlin and E. Zenger as a sapiential poem. This historical-critical methodology, however, has also certain limitations, as it is not really instructive for practical theological aims or contemporary reflection. The latter was clearly an objective of Augustine, who recontextualized the Psalms in order to address the pastoral and ecclesial questions of his time. Despite the fact that Augustine did not neglect the importance of the ‘historical’ nature of biblical texts, he was more interested in their place in salvation history. Rather than history, salvation history (which culminates in Christ’s incarnation) was Augustine’s impetus in explaining scripture to his flock. In this

98638.indb 709 20/01/16 10:35 710 BOOK REVIEWS

perspective, the bishop of Hippo reads Ps 131 (130) as an invitation for humility. Through careful analysis of an interesting case study, this volume presents a lucid comparison of the possible different exegetical approaches of the Bible. A. Dupont

Nello Cipriani. La teologia di Sant’Agostino. Introduzione generale e rifles- sione trinitaria (Studia Ephemeridis Augustinianum, 143). Roma, Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum, 2015. (16,5×24), 304 p. ISBN 978-88-7961-141-1. €38.00.

Decades of research, lectures and publishing on the theology of Augustine of Hippo (354-430) comes to a synthetic fruition in the present monograph authored by Nello Cipriani, professor at the Patristicum (Rome). Cipriani’s point of departure is the Augustinian unity between philosophy and theology. Since Augustine believed theology to be part of philosophy – the highest part, because it deals with God – it would be anachronistic to distinguish the pair explicitly in reconstructing Augus- tine’s own mindset. The first part of this study introduces readers to Augustine’s theology in general, which Cipriani achieves by considering, first, the essential characteristics of the reflections of the bishop of Hippo: ‘serving theology’, struc- tured and coherent, biblical and sapiential, dialectical and rhetorical. Crucial to understanding Augustine, Cipriani stresses, is taking into account the development, growth, and evolution in Augustine’s thinking – hence the importance of the chro- nology of his writings. Second, Cipriani carefully considers the Augustinian ‘theological method’ and ‘hermeneutical circle’, proceeding from scientia (‘intellige ut credas’) towards sapientia (‘crede ut intelligas’). In the second part of his study, Cipriani elucidates how Augustine applied these ‘general’ principles and methodology in conreto to his Trinitarian theology. The first chapter provides an instructive reconstruction of the growth of Augustine’s Trinitarian reflections prior to the composition of his De Trinitate, beginning with his early philosophical dialogues. The second chapter – which covers approximately half of the book – offers an in-depth analysis of Augustine’s De Trinitate, described by Augustine as: “frustrating to write and only understood by the happy few” (Ep. 137). After sketching the historical, literary, and theological background, Cipriani presents a theological synopsis of the 15 books of De Trinitate, paying special attention to Augustine’s recourse to psychological similitudes to explain the dogma of the Triune God. Cipriani elucidates Augustine’s reflections about the interpersonal life of the Trinity and the role of the Trinity in salvation history. The double goal of this study – an introduction in the general principles of Augustine’s theology and analysis of his Trinitarian thinking – is successfully accomplished, guiding students who take their first exploratory steps in the world of Augustine and offering food for further thought to scholars already familiar with the basics of the doctor gratiae. A. Dupont

Giuseppe Carrabetta. Agostino d’Ippona: La Chiesa mistero e presenza del Cristo totale. Prefazione di S. Ecc.za Rev. Mons. Vincenzo Ber- tolone. Presentazione di Robert Dodaro (Studi e ricerche. Sezione

98638.indb 710 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 711

teologica). Assisi, Cittadella Editrice, 2015. (15×21), 386 p. ISBN 978-88-308-1441-7. €21.80.

The present volume gives a systematic overview of Augustine’s doctrine of the totus Christus. Carrabetta situates Augustine’s theology of the ‘whole Christ’ on three levels: Trinitarian theology (the relation between the Father and the Son); Christology (the incarnated Christ as mediator); and ecclesiology (Christ as head constitutes together with the Church, as his body, the ‘total Christ’). This systematic and thematic presentation is mainly crystallized from Augustine’s pastoral oeuvre: his sermons to the people (sermones ad populum), sermons on the Psalms (enarrationes in Psalmos), and on the Gospel of John (tractatus in Iohannis euangelium). This source material is elaborately quoted and analyzed, in dialogue with a broad selection of scientific studies on relevant Augustinian issues. A. Dupont

The Catena in Marcum. A Byzantine Anthology of Early Commentary on Mark. Edited and translated by William R.S. Lamb (Texts and Edi- tions for New Testament Study, 6). Leiden – Boston, MA, Brill, 2012. (16×24), xiii-509 p. ISBN 978-90-04-22431-5.

With only slight exaggeration, one could say that lately, scholarly study of catenae has been booming. Gradually, more editions (many of them only partial, it is true) are being published and the body of studies that focus on catenae is growing steadily. Those publications also witness to a new approach of catenae, which are more and more perceived as literary products for themselves, and not just as storehouses of fragments from earlier texts. The volume under review (the revised version of a doctoral thesis defended at the Department of Biblical Studies of the University of Sheffield) is a clear exponent of that new form of scholarly interest in catenae. In addition, it can in a way be described as pioneering because it offers the English translation of a complete catena. Unfortunately, in some regards it falls short of expectations. The volume breaks down into two parts, the second of which (213-460) is an annotated translation of ‘the catena in Marcum’–for the sake of the argument, I retain the terminology used by the author, but it is problematic (see the final part of this review). The Greek text in question is a compilation that because of the lack of author attributions for the excerpts rather has the outlook of a commentary; the manuscripts often attribute it to the enigmatic Victor of Antioch (CPG C 125: “Victoris Antiocheni commentarii in Marcum”). The translation is made on the basis of the edition by J.A. Cramer, Catenae Graecorum Patrum in Nouum Tes- tamentum. I: Catenae in Euangelia S. Matthaei et S. Marci ad fidem codd. mss., Oxonii, 1840 (repr. Hildesheim, 1967), pp. 261-447. Lamb states (22) that the translation and accompanying notes form the core of his book. He modestly labels the first part Introduction (3-209), but actually it has a much wider scope. Only chapter 2 confines itself to the realia of ‘the catena in Marcum’; the other five chapters widen the perspective considerably. In chapter 1 (Patristic Exegesis and the Theological Interpretation of Scripture, 3-25), Lamb formulates the program of his study and opens up the theological framework against the background of

98638.indb 711 20/01/16 10:35 712 BOOK REVIEWS

which the following chapters need to be read. In particular chapters 4 (Let the Reader Understand, 111-139), 5 (The Discrepancies between the Gospels, 141- 161) and 6 (Who Do You Say that I Am?, 163-198) follow that lead: successively, the author deals with the literary, historical, and dogmatic trajectories of ‘patristic’ exegesis (compare with ‘Byzantine’ in the title of the book). He concludes, “[t]he identification of these three trajectories of interpretation in the Catena in Marcum suggests that in the first five centuries of the common era, the theological interpretation of scripture was shaped by literary, historical and dogmatic concerns. All played a vital part in the Church’s reflection and engagement with the Bible as scripture. [… Consequently, this] pre-modern exegesis provides an inspiration and guide for the theological interpretation of the Bible” (203). These chapters are stimulating, not least to the reader interested in theology: they take the study of catenae further than textual critics and philologists tend to do and show how rewarding this approach can be. Chapter 3 (Commentary, Anthology, and the Scholastic Tradition, 75-110) is rather directed toward providing the reader with the necessary historical and phil- ological data. It gives the reader the impression that Lamb’s interests and expertise lie more in the field of theology than in those of history or philology. More than once (e.g., when restricting progymnasmata to “handbooks” [93], when adducing texts from Libanius [92-93] and Plato [99] as windows on the Hellenistic school room [see 91], when reducing catenae to “catenae marginales” [77, 91 and elsewhere]) Lamb’s claims and arguments are shaky. This impression is confirmed by chapter 2 (The Catena in Marcum, 27-73) on the sources, authorship, transmission, editions etc. of the Greek text: it is full of errors of different sorts. On p. 27 Lamb states as a fact that in his edition of the Greek text, Cramer used the Parisini gr. 186 and 188. This is incorrect: the manuscripts are not mentioned by Cramer in his preface among the witnesses retained for the edition and they do not occur in his apparatus. One wonders what gave Lamb (who does not mention any source for his claim) the false idea that Cramer used both Paris codices: did he perhaps rely on J.W. Burgon’s The Last Twelve Verses of the Gospel According to S. Mark (1871), 271? Incorrect information is offered throughout the entire second chapter. Lamb’s presentation of R. Devreesse’s Chaînes exégétiques grecques (1928) is, if not wrong, at least clumsy. Contrarily to what Lamb believes (50), Devreesse never suggested that “there was an historical figure in the sixth century who adopted the title of Victor of Antioch pseudonymously” or that “anyone […] adopt[ed] the title of such a relatively obscure figure”. When having put forward a ‘Pseudo- Victor’ as the possible compiler, Devreesse only wanted to express skepticism with regard to the authorship of Victor of Antioch suggested by the manuscripts. A similar judgement imposes itself with regard to Lamb’s presentation of J. Reuss’ famous Matthäus-, Markus- und Johannes-Katenen (1941). In contrast to what Lamb states (56), Reuss did not claim that the Monacensis gr. 99 is to be preferred over the Laudianus gr. 33 (on the contrary: he spoke very harshly of the German manuscript, see pp. 133 and 137 of Reuss’ book), nor did he believe that in his 1673 edition P. Possinus offered a “transcript” of the Monacensis that was of “striking quality” (on the contrary: on pp. 133-134 Reuss listed several errors committed by Possinus in copying the Monacensis). The conclusions Lamb reaches with regard to the origins and transmission of ‘the catena in Marcum’ (cf. 73) state that the original nucleus of the text had

98638.indb 712 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 713

probably been created in the first decades of the sixth century; since then, the text evolved as an ‘open book’. This view does not add to previous research: with regard to dating and provenance as well as to the openness of the textual tradition, Devreesse (1177) and Reuss (141) had already reached similar conclusions. More- over, the concept of the ‘open book’, to which Lamb lends much weight, is not always rewarding. Throughout the entire first part of the volume, Lamb regularly adduces it to explain the nature of the Greek text as one of openness and fluidity. In doing so, he uses the term ‘open book’ in more than one way: not only to designate the development of the text (e.g. 64: “[t]he literary life of the Catena in Marcum was characterised by a process of further amendment, abbreviation and transposition, which followed the compilation of the original material”), but also to portray its contents as a compilation that presents contradictory exegeses side by side and does “not always succeed in presenting a consistent point of view” (70). The second aspect is one that is typical of catenae and the first can already be found in earlier studies on the text in question: although they did not use the term ‘open book’, both Devreesse and Reuss had reached similar conclusions regarding the dynamic tradition of the text. Their studies even have an advantage over Lamb’s in that they attempted to unravel particular steps (i.e., multiple recensions) in this subsequent transmission. The problems attached to part I are not limited to chapter 2: the entire part is haunted by incongruities, obscurities, unmotivated statements and by an overall sloppiness in dealing with sources. In addition, on almost every page mistakes and inconsistencies can be found in references to manuscript shelf marks and to bibliography, in German and French citations, and worse, in Greek. Mistakes in orthography and accentuation of Greek words are the rule rather than the exception; even the simplest forms are spelled incorrectly (e.g. 173: φυσείς and προσώπον). The reader has become somewhat dispirited by the time (s)he has finished part I and moves on to the annotated translation. The very first section of note in that translation, the hypothesis (215-219), immediately confirms the impression given by part I. See the following list (all instances taken from pp. 215-219; faulty Greek spelling and references to bibliography and manuscripts are ignored): – n. 2: “in three of the manuscripts used by John Cramer, the commentary is ascribed to Cyril of Alexandria”. This is incorrect: the Laudianus gr. 33 is the only manuscript source used by Cramer that has the attribution to Cyril. – n. 11: the hypothesis does not end at f. 84 of the Laudianus gr. 33, but at f. 83v. – p. 217: what in Cramer’s edition (264) are two separate passages (ll. 17-19 Εἰρηναίου. Μετὰ τὴν … παραδέδωκε and ll. 20-23 Τὸ κατὰ Μάρκον … Πέτρου), are combined into one by Lamb. This is incorrect; Cramer even took both passages from different sources – Lamb’s claim (nn. 12 and 13) that the entire passage he identified as one (i.e., ll. 17-23) comes from a scholion written in the upper margin of Laudianus gr. 33 is by consequence also wrong: only ll. 20-23 can be found in that margin, and the Oxford manuscript does not have the fragment of ll. 17-19. (In n. 13, Lamb states that in the Laud. gr. 33 [f. 86], the fragment “is the only passage that occurs there by way of an hypothesis”: this is not only contradicted by the evidence, but also by Lamb’s own n. 11, mentioned above.) – n. 15: Lamb states that in Cramer’s edition, the passage 264.17–265.21 is attributed to Justin. In reality, the attribution to Justin is only offered at l. 24 (not

98638.indb 713 20/01/16 10:35 714 BOOK REVIEWS

l. 17) of p. 264. Lamb states that in fact “the passage combines an extract from Diodore of Tarsus and Eusebius”. While the second part of the passage is taken from Eusebius of Caesarea’s On Divine Manisfestation (see n. 18), the first part “is an extract from Pseudo-Justin Martyr, Quaestiones et responsiones ad orthodoxos […]. In 1901, Adolf von Harnack argued that Pseudo-Justin Martyr was in fact Diodore of Tarsus” (n. 15). That since quite some time Harnack’s hypo thesis is in fact not accepted, can be retrieved easily in the bibliography listed in CPG 6285. These comments bear only on the very first pages of the translation. They can be supplemented by some more general remarks: – the diamond symbols are not used in the way Lamb puts forward (i.e., to mark “the beginning and the end of a selected passage from an identified source” [n. 14]); – Lamb’s habit to cite in the notes Greek words from Cramer’s edition without naming any line number makes it hard for the reader to follow; – the division in paragraphs is misleading, since it neither agrees with that of Cramer’s edition nor does it reflect the structure of the text itself (i.e., that of excerpts taken from various sources). The latter observation becomes problematic when one wants to consult the appendix (461-478), which lists the sources of the text as identified by Lamb in the notes to the translation. This appendix only refers to the page and line numbers of Cramer’s text: without access to that edition, the reader can retrieve in Lamb’s translation a particular section named in the appendix only through a laborious and time-consuming investigation of the notes, or even not at all. (For example, without recourse to Cramer’s edition, the reader cannot identify in the translation of p. 216 the section that is taken from Clement of Alexandria’s Hypotyposes: in the index, this excerpt is only identified with Cramer’s page and line numbers, while in n. 11 on p. 216 only the end of the excerpt is identified, not the beginning). In addition, inconsistencies occur between the notes and the appendix. For example: the ll. 17-19 and 20-23 of p. 264 of Cramer’s edition that in Lamb’s trans lation have become one single excerpt, are again two separate ones in the appendix. The excerpt that in the notes had been (incorrectly) exposed as Diodore’s (Cramer p. 264, ll. 24-31), is in the appendix identified as from Pseudo-Justin (and the title has been changed from Quaestiones et responsiones ad orthodoxos into Responsiones et quaestiones). All of these observations not only discourage the reader to keep on reading after the hypothesis, but even warn against using this translation for getting reliable access to ‘the catena in Marcum’. Lamb’s volume is simply lacking in quality. One might say that even its title is not without problems. (1) The title page states that the Greek text was “[e]dited and translated by [Lamb]”. This is misleading: what is offered is a translation (with notes) but no edition. (2) The subtitle identifies the text that is the subject of the book as “[a] Byzantine [a]nthology”, yet throughout Part I Lamb continuously calls it patristic exegesis of late Antiquity (e.g. 25 resp. 19, and passim). (3) The main title reads “[t]he Catena in Marcum”. The definite article not only gives a wrong impression by suggesting that only one (Greek) catena on Mark would exist (in fact, there are more), but is also problematic because this particular ‘catena’ existed in different forms and was very volatile (‘open book’!). Even the choice in the title of the term ‘catena’ can be debated, since the text is anything but a typical catena (compare CPG C 125: “commentarii”).

98638.indb 714 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 715

In conclusion, the overall feeling the reader has is one of disappointment: simply containing too many errors and shortcomings, this volume is a lost opportunity. R. Ceulemans

Alexandra Michalewski. La puissance de l’intelligible: La théorie ploti- nienne des Formes au miroir de l’héritage médioplatonicien (Ancient and Medieval Philosophy. Series 1, 51). Leuven, Leuven University Press, 2014. (16×24), ix-264 p. ISBN 978-94-6270-002-4. €82.50.

For several decades throughout the 20th Century, physicists were puzzled by string theory which, whilst it was motivated by discoveries and advances in science, nonetheless yielded no fewer than five different equations concerning the description of the world, a rather inelegant result. Then in the 1990s, an American physicist by the name of Edward Witten proposed that these were not so much five distinct equations, but five different aspects under which to view one and the same description of the universe. When he suggested this conclusion at a conference before some of the most eminent scientists in the world, in one flash of brilliance Witten resolved decades of difficulties with string theory and opened the way for new avenues in contemporary physics, not to mention moving string theory itself from the periphery of science to a central place in physics. This anecdote provides an image, I believe, which will illustrate how Plotinus differs from his middle-Platonic predecessors, according to Alexandra Michalewski. In this excellent work, M. proposes that the approach according to which the Forms are identified with the ‘thoughts of the demiurge’, an approach distinctive of middle-Platonism, does not correspond to the doctrine of Plotinus. In contrast, Plotinus opposes this middle-Platonic idea, attempting to reconcile the traditions of Aristotle and Plato. As M. writes, “Selon Plotin, il s’agit de montrer que la critique aristotélicienne des Idées, au lieu de pointer leur impossibilité à être causes, sert en réalité le propos de Platon” (126) Her subtle analysis reveals how Plotinus, far from reject- ing the Aristotelian critique of the Platonic ideas, actually places Aristotle at the service of Platonism in order to advance an interpretation of the Timaeus which resolves the dilemmas generated by an ‘artificialist’ reading by the middle-Platon- ists, as well as overcoming the materialism of the Stoics. As I intimated above, the key for understanding the specifically Plotinian approach is to grasp that for Plotinus, the forms are not the thoughts of God as if they are entirely separate from His essence or His being. Rather, the Forms, that is, the Intelligibles, represent the manifold ways in which God understands Him- self of being imitated at various ontological levels, or degrees closer to or more distant from Him. The forms are not simply the ideas or the thoughts of God, but these thoughts are themselves constitutive of the divine Intellect and coextensive with It. In her work, M. emphasizes that the creative activity of the divine Intellect is integrally connected with its activity of illuminating. Through the light of the Intellect, the forms are given being. Thus for Plotinus, the idea of creation is more subtle and dynamic than that of his middle-Platonic counterparts, who hold that

98638.indb 715 20/01/16 10:35 716 BOOK REVIEWS

the demiurge, in thinking about the forms, produces reality as a model, but without any logical or essential link with its being. M. defines this latter approach as ‘artificialist’, for the demiurge, in exercising his creative power, works like an artisan who makes things according to whatever manner he pleases. According to Plotinus, in contrast, the divine Intellect, which proceeds eternally from the One, renders the entire intelligible world sensible, “nécessairement et involontairement”, that is, moving the forms from (mere) ideal existence to material instantiation, and thereby performing an act possessed of ontological significance. (In fact, this strikes one as the doctrine of ‘emanation’ under a different name). These various ideas are not models in the mind of the creator, but rather represent the diverse ways according to which the being of the One can be manifested or realized, or stated from the opposite perspective, these ideas represent the logical ways in which individual beings can imitate the source of all being. God’s reason, the Intellect, does not correspond to the doctrine of forms which separates them from the essential identity of the entity which bears them. Rather, the Intellect’s knowledge of itself is constitutive of, and therefore ‘produces’, the forms. Thus the forms and the mind of God are simply two aspects under which to view the same reality. Thus Plotinus establishes an indissoluble link between the Intellect and the forms, that is, between a modified version of the middle-Platonic demiurge, and the intelligibles through which all reality is ordered and assembled. According to Plotinus, in contrast to the middle-Platonists, the forms and the divine Intellect do not represent two distinct principles or beings, but are rather two aspects according to which to consider the creator. Moreover, as M. argues, according to Plotinus, the desire for the One in the soul is due to the fact that the source of each and every being is the divine Intel- lect, to which one therefore desires to return. The emphasis which Plotinus places on einai concerns creation, which explains why the foundation of the desire to return to God is situated in the soul. As M. notes, the Plotinian theory therefore admits of both ontological and moral aspects, and these intertwined. A further virtue of this work is that it shows the importance of number in the overall context of Plotinus’ thought. This is a key concept, as it is at the heart of Plotinus’ ontological system and represents the source of the entire intelligible world. M. also makes clear how a variety of non-philosophical factors contributed to the development of what we know to-day as ‘Platonism’. For example, in 176 ad, Marcus Aurelius established four chairs in Athens, which corresponded to the four main philosophical schools of the period. The assertion according to which middle-Platonism represented a unified system seems to be more of a political view than a philosophical or historical one. Moreover, the same act of valorizing certain schools over others is important because, as M. notes, middle-Platonism was a very diverse and scattered movement after the closure of the Athenian Academy, after which Alexandria became the centre of (middle-)Platonic thought. Platonism was not so much a coherent system as a way of thinking, and indeed, a way of life, admitting of a variety of different interpretations of the same Platonic canon of texts. M. shows how terms like ‘middle-Platonism’ became umbrella terms which encompass a variety of readings of Plato. M. listens to the sources with great attention, and establishes a dialogue, at times rather critical if perceptive, with the secondary literature. Indeed, she relates the complex history of the development and the reception of Plato’s thought, in particular as it is presented in the Timaeus. She gives considerable attention to more obscure figures of antiquity, such as Proclus, Iamblichus, and Alcinous.

98638.indb 716 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 717

Moreover, her work raises a variety of interesting questions. For instance, her work touches upon how Platonic texts, especially the Timaeus, were read as sources of philosophical speculation on cosmology and aetiology. Recently, scholars have also noted the way in which such texts were read alongside Genesis (cf., e.g., Löhr 2010, Tornau 2014). With this work, M. has both clarified and contributed original research to a long-established field, and in so doing, has pioneered new areas of research, especially as pertains to the reception of Plotinus in late antiquity. M.W. Knotts

Marcello Angheben. D’un jugement à l’autre. La représentation du jugement immédiat dans les Jugements derniers français: 1100-1250 (Cul- ture et société médiévales, 25). Turnhout, Brepols, 2013. (15,5×23,5), viii-686 p. ISBN 978-2-503-54764-0.

Historien du Moyen-Âge, l’auteur est Maître de conférence à l’Université de Poitiers et membre du Centre d’Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale. La minutieuse recherche qu’il présente concerne les jugements derniers ou «évé- nements de la fin» de diverses églises de France entre 1100 et 1250. Il constate qu’on a joint bien souvent au «jugement dernier» la représentation de ce qu’il appelle le «jugement immédiat», celui qui intervient à la mort, au moment de la séparation de l’âme et du corps. Ce jugement est l’occasion d’une première évaluation de la vie du défunt, suivi d’un séjour temporaire, soit un «paradis d’attente» pour les âmes des élus, soit l’antichambre de l’enfer pour les âmes des damnés. À la fin des temps aura lieu le dernier jugement, sorte de confirmation du «jugement immédiat». L’âme du juste s’unit de nouveau à son corps qui vient de ressusciter. On pourrait presque dire que la résurrection, au sens d’une pléni- tude de vie bienheureuse, ne concerne que les justes. Une première série d’œuvres (notamment Autun, Mâcon, Conques, Saint-Nectaire) appartient à la période romane, d’autres plus tardives sont de l’époque gothique (Bourges, Chartres, Notre-Dame de Paris, Amiens, Reims, Poitiers), Saint-Denis étant rattachée à l’une et l’autre époque. Il n’est pas rare que des églises possèdent les deux jugements dans leurs sculptures ou leur vitrail. Dans ce cas, le jugement immédiat se situe en bas et le jugement final au-dessus, indiquant au visiteur le sens de la lecture. Pourquoi avoir associé les deux jugements? Comment le jugement intermédiaire a-t-il trouvé place dans ces grands ensembles? Quelle est l’utilité du jugement dernier, si le sort des défunts est déjà fixé lors du premier jugement? C’est à toutes ces questions qu’Angheben s’efforce de trouver des réponses ou au moins des hypothèses explicatives. Les influences byzantines, les sources bibliques et littéraires, la théologie occi- dentale et les intentions des commanditaires sont mises à contribution en vue de reconstituer des contextes et d’y voir plus clair. Le jugement immédiat correspond au moment de la mort et des funérailles; il est le plus proche spirituellement, chronologiquement et psychologiquement de la communauté chrétienne et du clergé chargé de la cura animarum. Cette première représentation permettait de rappeler aux fidèles le sérieux de l’existence, la préoccupation de l’Église pour leur salut et les ressources de la communion des saints comme la célébration de l’eucharistie, l’aumône, la prière, etc.

98638.indb 717 20/01/16 10:35 718 BOOK REVIEWS

L’intérêt de la représentation du jugement dernier est de montrer l’heureuse issue offerte aux justes, en particulier la résurrection préludant à la vision béati- fique du Christ Sauveur qui garde les stigmates de la Passion, et de la Trinité. De la sorte aussi, l’Église invite à la réflexion les pécheurs endurcis, en suggérant anticipativement le triste sort qui les attend. A. Haquin

Thomas F. O’Meara – Paul Philibert. Scanning the Signs of the Times: French Dominicans in the Twentieth Century. With a Preface by Jean- Pierre Jossua. Adelaide, ATF Press. 2013. ISBN 978-1-9223-916-7.

The seven French Dominicans profiled in this volume are all important figures for a comprehensive history of the church in the twentieth century, but many of them are far from being household names outside of some specialized academic circles, and certainly outside of the French speaking world. Chief among these is Marie-Dominique Chenu, whose impact on the church cannot be understated. Chenu and Yves Congar are, of course, well known, but the others, including Antonin-Gilbert Sertillanges, Louis-Joseph Lebret, Jacques Loew, Pierre-André Liégé, and Marie-Alain Couturier, may need some introduction. Congar, who appears to be in vogue with American graduate students at the moment, is placed in context as one figure among many who benefitted from the experience of his teachers and predecessors as well as the vitality of his younger Dominican brothers who wrote and enacted much of what Congar stood for. That is precisely the point of this volume: an introduction to important and dynamic friars who shaped the church in its long journey towards Vatican II. Jean-Pierre Jossua, OP, the biogra- pher of Yves Congar, provides the preface, while the individual chapters alternate between the co-authors. Many of the men profiled here were students, teachers, or both, at the famed Dominican study house, Le Saulchoir. Sertillanges, who is the eldest on the list, focused his life’s work on preaching, apologetics, and the early efforts at contex- tualizing Thomas Aquinas. His public disagreement with Benedict XV over the latter’s plan for ending the First World War earned him a seventeen-year exile from France. Even so, this brought him into contact with scholars and other Dominicans in Jerusalem, the Netherlands, and Belgium, extending his influence as a prominent Thomist scholar and educator. The second chapter deals very well with Chenu. In its twenty-two pages it draws his personal history, teaching career, influence at the Council, and more, into a very compelling mini-biography. Chenu’s understanding of the role of history is especially emphasized, as well as his personable and attentive nature, and his generosity. The chapter on Congar focuses on his ecumenical work and what he achieved as a peritus at Vatican II. It is one of the shortest in the book, but this seems appropriate, since he is already so well known. It provides an excellent introduction to Congar’s thought and his person, without crowding out someone like Leb- ret, who is treated next. Lebret, an economist, was involved in the worker priest movement, and founded several institutions for international development. He was also involved in advising Latin American and Vietnamese bishops at Vatican II. If Lebret was one of the architects of the worker priest movement in France, then

98638.indb 718 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 719

Loew was one of its first practitioners. The chronicle of his life as a dockworker, friar, and advocate evinces “the smells of people and work” (94). He was both an inspired advocate for the underclasses and a deeply contemplative personality. Liégé was a trailblazing teacher who practically invented catechetics and keryg- matic theology as academic disciplines. Despite multiple denunciations of his work to Roman authorities, he continued to teach up to and through the Council. He even drafted the original text of what became Paul VI’s encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi and his work continues to be the seedbed of contemporary ‘pastoral theology’. Finally, Couturier, was an artist and visionary for church architecture who fostered, despite all objections, a relationship between modern and contemporary art and the mysteries of faith. He did his best to revive visual arts in the church at a time when styles had become stagnant and mediocre. It would have been nice to have included some images in this chapter to illustrate Couturier’s vision for the reader. A major asset of this relatively short book, is the fact that it is teachable. This should become a standard text for graduate courses on the topic. The chapters on Lebret and Loew express such resonance with our time that I believe them to be especially important for students. Lebret and his brothers (especially Loew and the worker priests) have shown how Christians are to be active in the world, not merely against it, but working for a common good while remaining critical of economic and political structures that are destructive and sinful. This is a lesson sorely needed today, and if there is one final thing to say it is that this book actually does theology through biography. It is short, readable, and addresses non-specialists, but it should above all be made available to students. D. Minch

Lieve Gevers. Kerk in de kering: De katholieke gemeenschap in Vlaande ren 1940-1980. Kalmthout, Pelckmans, 2014. (16,5×25), 504 p. ISBN 978-90-289-7352-7. €35.00.

Published on the occasion of her retirement from the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at KU Leuven, this book presents a form of synthesis of the author’s work as professor of Contemporary History of Church and Theology, focused on the decades from the Second World War to the beginning of the rapid secularisation of Flanders in the 1980s. As a compilation of articles that have been previously published in various journals and collections, it does not offer the kind of systematic treatment that one would expect in a monograph. Instead, each chapter highlights one particular aspect of the theological and ecclesiastical developments that occurred during this period in Flanders, or more broadly in the (Belgian) ecclesiastical province of Mechelen-Brussels to which Flanders belongs. The thirteen essays included have been brought together under four different headings. The first part concerns the War and its effects, with essays reviewing respectively the position of the episcopate during the years of occupation and resistance; the political orientation of the Church and the catholic party during the early post-War years; and changing opinions on the Jews in the wake of the Shoah. The essays in the second part sketch the various forms of theological education in Flanders during this period: the fourth chapter is devoted to the organisation of the priestly formation in the pre-conciliar period as exemplified

98638.indb 719 20/01/16 10:35 720 BOOK REVIEWS

by the career of Robrecht Michiels, formerly professor of dogmatic theology at what was then still called the Louvain Faculty of Theology; the fifth chapter presents the theological formation of religious and lay people at the Louvain Higher Institute for Religious Studies from its foundation in 1942 until its integration in the Faculty of Theology in 1992; and the sixth chapter examines in depth the sweeping reorganisation of the Faculty in the course of the academic year 1968-1969 as part of the split between the Dutch-speaking Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the French-speaking Université catholique de Louvain in Louvain-la- Neuve. The articles gathered in the third part centre on the Second Vatican Coun- cil and its reception in Flanders, with a state of the question on thirty years of research into the aggiornamento in the Low Countries (1962-1992); some examples of lay perspectives on the Council itself and the major discussions in its immediate wake, taken from the periodical De Maand; the changing views and emerging crisis in the priesthood in the Low Countries in the wake of the council; and the turn in conjugal and marital ethics and catholic teaching on marriage and sexuality between 1950 and 1980. Continuing the line of the latter essays, the fourth and final part presents three studies on the broader turn in the catholic community during the twentieth century, more specifically on catholic life in the province of Antwerp – at that time not yet an individual diocese, but part of the archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels – under the episcopate of cardinal Van Roey, i.e. during the interbellum and on the verge of the Second Vatican Council; the quickly changing mentality among adolescents as exemplified by the members of the student guild of the Jonge Klauwaarts; and the discussions on the Roman Catholic character of the University of Leuven in the years following the split in the late sixties. A previously unpublished concluding chapter presents a synthetic picture of the Church in Flanders during the period 1940-1980 as ‘a Church in times of hope, transformation and contestation’. On the whole, this volume does not only present readers with impressions of the Church in Flanders as it went through a process of transformation of which the effects may still be felt today; it also paints a representative picture of the scientific contribution of its distinguished author. By bringing together a dozen of originally independent case-studies, it exemplifies a form of historiography where history at large is being written through a series of concrete smaller histories. In addition, this collection of essays is also meant to be a kind of Festschrift, and therefore concludes with a brief sketch of the author’s career, a fuller list of her publications and a tabula gratulatoria. A review of it can therefore only join the choir in con- gratulating prof. Gevers on her impressive achievements. Ad multos annos! H. Debel

Alexandra von Teuffenbach (ed.). Konzilstagebuch Sebastian Tromp s.j. mit Erläuterungen und Akten aus der Arbeit der Kommission für Glauben und Sitten II. Vatikanisches Konzil, 2 vols. Nordhausen, Verlag Traugott Bautz, 2014. (16×24), 1-751 + 759-1194 p. ISBN 978-3-88309- 929-3. €150.00.

Avec l’édition du Tome 3 du Journal conciliaire du Père Tromp s.j., secré- taire de la Commission doctrinale, AvT poursuit avec patience et persévérance la

98638.indb 720 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 721

transcription des notes manuscrites en latin, prises par Tromp lors des multiples sessions de la commission doctrinale pendant le concile Vatican II. L’édition des Tomes 1 et 2 (cf. ETL 82 [2006] 513-515 et 87 [2011] 272-274) avait déjà mis en lumière l’importance de ce journal pour les historiens, qui peuvent s’appuyer sur des notes abondantes fort objectives et précises et munies d’une chronologie détaillée. Le Premier Volume (751 p.) commence, après une introduction de l’auteur et un In memoriam du traducteur B. Wegener, décédé le 6.4.2011, par une interview du Père Tromp, donnée le 25 août 1964 (et non à la fin de la 2e session comme indiqué par erreur) au Kölnische Rundschau, dans laquelle il explique sa position concernant les relations entre le pape et les évêques et la collégialité épiscopale. Le lecteur est ainsi, dès le début, averti des positions personnelles de Tromp, qui s’écartaient notablement de celles de la «majorité» conciliaire. Suivent alors la transcription des notes manuscrites (18-723) à partir du 29.9.1963 (ouverture de la 2e session) jusqu’au 13.9.1964 (fin de la 2e intersession) ainsi que la traduction allemande. Cette édition est complétée par un appareil de 892 notes, avec des références aux Acta Synodalia, aux documents conservés à l’Archivio Segreto Vaticano (dont un grand nombre est publié dans le vol. 2), à d’autres archives, notamment celles de G. Philips, et à des passages parallèles de journaux non publiés d’acteurs du concile, entre autres ceux de H. Schauf et O. Semmelroth. Le Deuxième Volume (435 p.) comporte quatre types de documents: 1° Les «Relationen» (759-956). Ces documents contiennent les rapports des réunions de la commission doctrinale, rédigés par Tromp, mais aussi des rapports de plusieurs sous-commissions, rédigés alors par d’autres rapporteurs. Signalons les rapports des réunions pour le nouveau texte De Divina Revelatione, de la main d’U. Betti, et une note de Tromp du 28.2.1964 sur De Episcoporum Collegio, qui permet de connaître avec précision sa position sur le problème de la collégialité. 2° Les «Briefe» (957-1029). Il s’agit de la correspondance relative aux travaux de la commission doctrinale. Les lettres échangées avec Philips y occupent une place importante, signe évident du rôle de plus en plus prépondérant de celui-ci dans le travail de la commission doctrinale. Il est révélateur d’y trouver une lettre de Maria van Goethem, une Anversoise traditionaliste, qui se plaint de façon détaillée à Ottaviani des dangers et des abus du concile. Tromp prend la peine de traduire cette lettre néerlandaise en latin et envoie alors sa traduction au Secrétaire d’État. On apprend aussi que Siri et Staffa peuvent obtenir qu’Ottaviani leur transmette «sub secreto» un projet provisoire du chapitre III de Lumen Gentium sur la collégialité, afin que celui-ci puisse être discuté et surtout combattu lors de la réunion de la conférence épiscopale italienne du 14 au 16 avril 1964. Pourtant, ce chapitre sera à nouveau modifié en juin 1964 avant d’être envoyé aux Pères conciliaires. 3° Les «Protokolle» (1030-1145). Il s’agit des rapports («verbali») de la sous- commission pour le De Revelatione de mars 1964 (rédigés par Betti), d’une réunion privée de quelques experts sur le schéma De Beata, s’étant déroulée le 25.11.1963 ainsi que de la réunion de la commission doctrinale du 2.12.1963, lors de laquelle Charue est élu 2e vice-président et Philips secrétaire-adjoint (avec le détail des votes). 4° Les «Dokumente» (1046-1111). Il s’agit de plusieurs documents concernant les travaux de la commission doctrinale: la liste des présences, les propositions alternatives rédigées contre les Propositiones des modérateurs (votées le 30.10.1963), des observations de Schauf, de Schröffer, de Tromp (notamment sur la Qualificatio theologica des documents conciliaires).

98638.indb 721 20/01/16 10:35 722 BOOK REVIEWS

Le volume se termine par un index onomastique avec quelques éléments bio- graphiques. On peut regretter que l’index ne renvoie qu’aux noms du Diarium du Volume I et pas aux noms présents dans le Volume II. La publication de ce «Journal» et de ses Annexes nous livre un nouvel éclai- rage sur plusieurs aspects de l’histoire du concile et de la rédaction de quelques documents importants. Signalons notamment: – la nouvelle rédaction du De Divina Revelatione en mars, avril et juin 1964. Et il est manifeste que ni le pape, ni Bea n’ont encore voulu réunir la commission mixte. Bea a bien reçu le texte et a pu formuler quelques observations; – l’âpreté du débat sur la collégialité. Quand le 6.3.1964, le nouveau chapitre est approuvé, y compris par Ottaviani, celui-ci regrette presque aussitôt son appro- bation et en informe le pape, qui nourrissait d’ailleurs lui-même des inquiétudes. Les «13 suggerimenti» préparés par un petit groupe de travail ultra-secret (avec Colombo, Garrone, Ramirez et Bertrams) et envoyés le 19.5.1964 à la commission doctrinale pour obtenir des révisions textuelles, ne sont pas le fait de Tromp ou de Parente, mais sont à attribuer au pape et au secrétaire d’État qui ont fait appel à Felici; – l’imbroglio de la nouvelle rédaction du schéma XVII (XIII) et la difficulté de concilier les points de vue des membres provenant de la commission doctrinale et ceux venant de la commission pour l’apostolat des laïcs; – l’importance que Tromp a attachée à la «Qualificatio theologica» des documents conciliaires; – et enfin, dans tout le Journal, on vit le drame du Père Tromp, qui était tout puissant dans la commission théologique préparatoire et pouvait y imposer ses vues, mais qui est désormais mis en minorité dans la commission et qui doit, à partir de mars 1963, céder sa place à Philips. Avec perspicacité il note, le 3.12.1963: «Vespere colloquium cum Mons. Philips. Dixi me esse secretarium primum, eum secretarium adiunctum. Reapse autem me esse adiunctum et ipsum primum» (371). On ne peut que se réjouir de cette publication et remercier l’auteur pour ce travail considérable, non seulement pour la transcription du Diarium – manuscrit latin difficile à déchiffrer avec d’innombrables noms propres, parfois écrits de façon peu précise par Tromp –, mais aussi pour la publication des Annexes. Toutefois, on doit signaler quelques erreurs, surtout de latin (environ 140). À titre d’exemples citons: p. 313: eius=ius; p. 583: num=nunc; p. 693: diem=dum. Et à la note 892, il ne s’agit pas des «modi» mais de la façon de voter (modus suffragandi). Espérons que la publication de la dernière partie de ce Diarium puisse être réalisée sans trop tarder. L’historiographie du Concile Vatican II en sera enrichie. L. Declerck

Mark Juergensmeyer – Margo Kitts – Michael Jerryson (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence. Oxford – New York, Oxford University Press, 2013. (18×25,5), xiii-653 p. ISBN 978-0-19-975999- 6. $150.00.

While the relationship between religion and violence is not a new issue, for a number of reasons it has come to the forefront of in recent years. The origins and at times disastrous consequences of this relationship are no longer a narrowly

98638.indb 722 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 723

defined academic question but widely discussed in society. Often the focus has been on one or several religious traditions readily and commonly associated with the use of violence. Often the public discussion has been ill-informed or operating with stereotypes. In view of these developments, the Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence is very welcome. The editors note in the preface:

The dark attraction between religion and violence is endemic to religious traditions. It pervades their images and practices, from sacred swords to mythic conquests, from acts of sacrifice to holy wars. Though much has been written about particular forms of religious violence, such as sacrificial rites and militant martyrdom, there have been few efforts to survey the field as a whole, to explore the studies of religious violence historically and in the present, to view the subject from personal as well as social dimensions, and to cover both literary themes and political conflicts (1).

The Handbook aims at providing a comprehensive examination of the field and wants to introduce new ways of understanding it. In the “Introduction: The Endur- ing Relationship of Religion and Violence” (1-9), Mark Juergensmeyer, Margo Kitts, and Michael Jerryson describe the approach of the volume, analyse the present situation and briefly outline various interdisciplinary approaches to the perplexing aspects of the relationship of religion to violence. The volume seeks to unravel these aspects and to

show how acts of destruction in the name of God (or gods) or justified by faith have been rooted in historical and literary contexts from early times to the present. Contemporary acts of religious violence, of course, are profuse. Since the end of the cold war, violence in the name of religion has erupted on nearly every major continent, and many of its perpetrators have been revered by those who find religious significance for such actions. Although no longer novel, religious violence and the adulation of its prophets continue to confound scholars, journalists, policy makers, and members of the general public. Some of them have argued that religious violence is not really religious – it is symptomatic of something else and thus is an anomaly, a perversion of foundational religious teachings. Yet it is precisely foundational religious teachings that are claimed to sanctify violence by many of its perpetrators. Others cite bloody legends of martyrs and heroes and argue that religions, or some of them, are violent at the core, their leaders masterminds of criminal behaviour. Yet the chapters in this volume show that there is a much more nuanced interpretation of the presence of violence in so many different traditions (2).

The editors also point out that there is a variety of ways in which religious violence can be understood:

Some social scientists point to a resurgence of anti-colonialism, poverty, and economic injustice; the failures of secular nationalism; cultural uprootedness and the loss of a homeland; and the pervasive features of globalization in its economic, political, social, and cultural forms. Alternatively, literary theorists and historians examine how scriptural traditions and founding cults are steeped in violent myths, metaphors, and apocalyptic expectations that support acts of violence in the contemporary world. Different still are analyses based in evolution, anthropology, and psychology. The various approaches represent the range of lenses from which one might view religion and violence within the total realm of historically situated human experience (2).

The editors provide short introductions to the different parts of the volume and to the essays presented there.

98638.indb 723 20/01/16 10:35 724 BOOK REVIEWS

The Handbook consists of four parts. Part one offers a survey of how different religious traditions have engaged with violence. The aim is to understand how violence is justified within the literary and theological foundation of the tradition, how it is used symbolically and in ritual practice, and how social acts of venge- ance and warfare have been justified by religious ideas (1). The chapters aim to capture the diversity within the different religious traditions, the differences between theological pronouncements in scripture and the actual instances of religious violence in society. In some instances, sacred texts do not just pronounce but describe forms of religious violence, such as sacrifice and warfare. Violence is also embedded in religious symbols. What are the theological and symbolic connections to violence and also its historical and social manifestations, including warfare, torture, ritual, or suicide? The following essays appear in this part (sum- maries of each essay on pp. 4f.): Veena Das, “Violence and Nonviolence at the Heart of Hindu Ethics” (15-40); Michael Jerryson, “Buddhist Traditions and Violence” (41-66); Cynthia Keppley Mahmood, “Sikh Traditions and Violence” (67-77); Ron E. Hassner, Gideon Aran, “Religion and Violence in the Jewish Traditions” (78-99, covering biblical prescriptions for violence, biblical descriptions of violence, coping with the violent implications of the Bible, the legacy of early Judaism as one of rebellion and destruction, the oral Torah and Rabbinic rulings, Kabbalah and mythology, Messianic ideas and movements and the question of 1800 years of non-violence; the authors conclude: “Thus, to the two parallel and complementary Jewish traditions, violence and anti-violence, one should add another Jewish tradition, that of victimhood. These three traditions can be viewed as an integral triangle, each corner of which has a dialectical relationship with the other two”, 98); Lloyd Steffen, “Religion and Violence in Christian Tra- ditions” (100-125, see below); Bruce B. Lawrence, “Muslim Engagement with Injustice and Violence” (126–152); Nathalie Wlodarczyk, “African Traditional Religion and Violence” (153–166); Andrea Strathern, Pamela J. Stewart, “Religion and Violence in Pacific Island Societies” (167-82) and Meir Shahar, “Violence in Chinese Religious Traditions” (183-196). The introduction to Steffen’s article on religion and violence in Christian traditions notes that, The story of the Christian religion traces back to an execution, an act of political violence directed at a first-century itinerant teacher, a Palestinian Jew, and according to the final book in the Christian scriptures, Revelation, to an apocalyptic vision of the end of history. Violence and destructiveness are inseparably linked to the Christian self-understanding, from beginning to end, and are clearly integral to the unfolding story of Christianity in the Western historical record. The involvement with violence is not a surprising development given that the religion early in its history became the official religion of the Roman Empire and thus became a player embedded in the world of power politics. That Christian people have resorted to violence to settle conflicts believing that using force is consistent with Christian values contrasts, however, with other, more irenic teachings in the tradition that offer a compelling, even beautiful vision of forgiveness, reconciliation and peace-making (101f.). Steffens surveys various theological justifications for violence (Paul, Jesus, the ethics of just war, the crusades, violence in the context of subduing heresy and in the inquisition, direct or indirect violence and missionary movements) and concludes that Christians have justified violence over the centuries by appealing to Scripture and by developing theological interpretations that sanction violence

98638.indb 724 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 725

in the belief, that it is according to God’s will. He also notes that today many Christians are working with a new consciousness of this history and a new deter- mination to create dialogue in religious affairs and to combine faith with action in ways which repudiate reliance on the use of force (116). Steffens also surveys symbolic representations of violence in the Christian tradition and manifestations of violence in warfare, punishment and various forms of social control. The chapter hardly deals with the violence done to Christians by members of other religions or ideologies (there are three brief references to the New Testament) and the different Christian responses to such experiences. With such an emphasis on the engagement of Christians in acts of violence on religious grounds (100), the suffering of Christians, reaching all-time peaks in the 20th century also deserves mention. Part two is devoted to “Patterns and Themes” relating to religious violence which occur within different religious traditions. They are explored in cross- disciplinary regional analyses. “Some of these are patterns – activities that reveal the religious dimensions of political violence, cosmic war, genocide, terrorism, torture, and abortion-related conflicts – that are found in the social histories of many religious traditions. Others are themes – concepts and practices more centrally related to religious ideas and conduct, such as the concepts of evil, just war, martyrdom, and sacrifice” (5f.). This part includes the following essays: James Aho, “The Religious Problem of Evil” (199-208); David Carrasco, “Sacrifice/Human Sacrifice in Religious Traditions” (209-225); David Cook, “Martyrdom in Islam” (226-241, with a strong emphasis on developments in contemporary Islam); Liz Wilson, “Starvation and Self-Mutilation in Religious Traditions” (242-249); Jamel Velji, “Apocalyptic Religion and Violence” (250-259); Reza Aslan, “Cosmic War in Religious Traditions” (260-267); Christopher C. Taylor, “Genocide and the Religious Imaginary in Rwanda” (268-279); Mark Juergensmeyer, “Religious Ter- rorism as Performance Violence” (280-292); Karen L. King, “Christianity and Torture” (293-305; dealing with religious justifications for and against torture, she discusses the torturous narratives at Christianity’s foundations, the notion of redemptive martyrdom, and the various ways in which Christians have challenged as well as supported the torturous suffering of friends and foes, 7); John Kelsay, “Just War and Legal Restraints” (306-314); Julie Ingersoll, “Religiously Moti- vated Violence in the Abortion Debate” (315-323, Christian reconstruction, abortion as violence, operation rescue and nonviolent civil disobedience, the use of violence to stop abortion, anticipated violence by God in judgement for the sin of abortion); Ron E. Hassner, “Conflicts over Sacred Ground” (324-331, Hassner notes that time and again decision makers, who naively treated contests over contested sites like normal disputes over real estate have used strictly political solutions such as partition, scheduling, and exclusion, in this way they aggravated rather than ameliorated these disputes); Monica Duffy Toft, “Religion and Political Vio- lence” (332-344); Susumu Shimazono and Margo Kitts, “Rituals of Death and Remembrance” (345-350) and Margo Kitts, “Violent Death in Religious Imagina- tion” (351-360). Part three is devoted to major analytical approaches to the relation of religion and violence in specific disciplinary fields (sociology, anthropology, psychology, literature, theology, and political sciences) from literary analyses to social- scientific studies, which are surveyed with an eye to showing the diversity of analytic perspectives and the ways in which scholars have and are wrestling with

98638.indb 725 20/01/16 10:35 726 BOOK REVIEWS

explanations of and treatments of religiously motivated violence (8). The chapters pursue two objectives:

They are attempts to provide an overview of the way that the aspect of religion and violence has been conceived as a field of studies within each discipline and how it has evolved. … The chapters also provide an opportunity for the authors to develop analytic approaches that they think are particularly appropriate to the disciplinary perspective from which they approach the topic. For this reason, the discussions are critical analyses of the studies of religion and violence in the various disciplinary areas (8).

The essays are: John R. Hall, “Religion and Violence from a Sociological Perspective” (363-374); Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern, “Religion and Violence from an Anthropological Perspective” (375-384); James W. Jones, “Religion and Violence from a Psychological Perspective” (385-396); Daniel Philpott, “Religion and Violence from a Political Science Perspective” (397-409); Margo Kitts, “Religion and Violence from Literary Perspectives” (410-423) and Charles Kimball, “Religion and Violence from Christian Theological Perspec- tives” (424-434, survey from pacifism to the just war doctrine and the crusades, the inquisition and events in Calvin’s Geneva, violence and Christian theology in the twentieth and twenty-first century; the notion of unambiguous early pacifism has recently been challenged by Despina Iosif, Early Christian Attitudes to War, Violence and Military Service [Gorgias Studies in Classical and Late Antiquity, 1], Piscataway, NJ, Gorgias, 2013). Kimball concludes:

For 2,000 years, Christians have wrestled with questions about their religion and the role of violence. For more than 1,700 years, followers of Jesus have embraced vastly different approaches to what the earliest Community understood to be Jesus’s teachings. The unprecedented circumstances of multireligious societies in an economically and ecologically interconnected world of nation-states have spurred a new generation of theologians and ethicists to fashion contemporary responses by asking once again with a clear sense of urgency, “What would Jesus do?” (434).

Part four presents new models and analytic approaches for the study of religion and violence and new directions in established approaches. The essays are to indicate “… productive new possibilities in the study of religion and violence that will illuminate not only this specific topic but the range of ways in which religious culture interacts with other social phenomena” (10): Walter Burkert, “Sacrificial Violence: A Problem in Ancient Religions” (437-454); Saskia Sassen, “Cities as One Site for Religion and Violence” (455-466, survey of the rise and growing structural power of organised religions in today’s global modernity, the violent bridging of religion and cities, the physics of the city, Mumbay as a case study and Gaza, “When Religious Difference is used to fight a territorial battle”); M.A. Sells, “Armageddon in Christian, Sunni and Shia Traditions” (467-495, American apocalypticism and God’s promise to Israel, a Saudi Salafi Amargeddon); Hent de Vries, “Phenomenal Violence and the Philosophy of Religion” (496-520); David Frankfurter, “The Construction of Evil and the Violence of Purification” (521-532); Wolfgang Palaver, “Mimetic Theories of Religion and Violence” (533-553); Hec- tor Avalos, “Religion and Scarcity: A New Theory for the Role of Religion in Violence” (554-570, applying scarce resource theory to understanding violence and religion); Candace S. Alcorta and Richard Sosis, “Ritual, Religion, and Violence: An Evolutionary Perspective” (571-596); Harvey Whitehouse, Brian McQuinn,

98638.indb 726 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 727

“Divergent Modes of Religiosity and Armed Struggle” (597-619) and a final essay by Mark Juergensmeyer and Mona Kanwal Sheikh, “A Sociotheological Approach to Understanding Religious Violence” (620-643). An index closes the comprehensive volume (645-653). This Handbook combines broad surveys with detailed studies by authors who mostly come from the United States (according to institutional affiliation). Their experience and perception of religious violence shape the character of the volume. Other perspectives would have enriched the volume. In a broader perspective the quasi-religious nature of some forms of secularism and atheism has been recognised. It would have been interesting to also deal with their relationship to violence. This Handbook indicates the variety of approaches, theories and methods that can be applied to the study of religion and violence and that could also be applied to other fields of interaction between different groups. An up-to-date reader with key texts on religion and violence would be welcome. C. Stenschke

Jean-Baptiste Sèbe. Le Christ, l’écrivain et le monde: Théologie et œuvres littéraires chez Hans Urs von Balthasar (Cogitatio fidei, 284). Paris, Cerf, 2012. (13,5×21,5), 510 p. ISBN 978-2-204-09494-8. €45.00.

L’esthétique est pour Hans Urs von Balthasar ce que le surnaturel fut au jésuite français, Henri de Lubac. En effet, elle est communément reçue comme l’indicatif de la théologie produite par le lucernois, mais aussi comme le résumé des critiques et des incompréhensions qu’elle a suscitées. Une esthétisation indue de la Gloire, esthétique comme pure force de domination (G. Agamben), réduction de l’esthétique théologique à une fonction langagière de type métaphorique où elle est discréditée sur le plan conceptuel, parce que soupçonnée de puiser à des sources qui ne pou- vaient décemment assurer aux vérités connues par la foi une assise dont puisse se satisfaire la raison naturelle (M.M. Labourdette), et le recours à l’esthétique comme discipline théologique donne aux travaux de Balthasar un aspect intemporel (Karl- Joseph Kuschel). Telles sont parmi d’autres, les critiques et les équivoques dont l’esthétique ne saurait faire l’économie d’indispensables précisions. Sans entrer dans les méandres de la polémique suscitée par ces critiques, souvent précoces, l’ouvrage de Jean-Baptiste Sèbe nous livre un travail inédit sur le rapport de la théologie balthasarienne aux œuvres littéraires, et qui pourrait consti- tuer un contrepoint, voire une réfutation des interprétations proposées par ses détracteurs. À l’évidence, Sèbe ne s’encombre nullement de la source littéraire pour situer avec exactitude l’amplitude que Balthasar donne au terme «esthé- tique». Car «une esthétique théologique valorise l’ordre de la chair en laquelle le Logos est advenu, non seulement dans l’unicité personnelle du Verbe assumant cette chair, mais aussi, et par extension, dans toute vie d’homme aux prises avec sa condition mortelle de finitude» (16). Il importe de le reconnaître, l’ouvrage ici analysé est magistral, et à plus d’un titre inédit. Si l’auteur le consacre aux œuvres littéraires dans la théologie de Hans Urs von Balthasar, c’est cette intention balthasarienne qui se trouve patiemment et rigoureusement reportée, analysée et évaluée en neuf chapitres de longueur inégale. En effet, l’on ne disposait jusqu’à ce jour d’aucune monographie traitant

98638.indb 727 20/01/16 10:35 728 BOOK REVIEWS

de la place qu’occupent les œuvres littéraires dans la théologie qui, non seulement s’en est indirectement nourrie, mais qui a pris soin de les intégrer dans le cours de son exposition, non pas tant sous la forme d’intermèdes ou d’excursus visant à objectiver ses sources d’inspiration, mais comme faisant «corps» avec elle. Aussi, par le biais de cet ouvrage, on voit sous la plume de Balthasar l’œuvre litté- raire résonner de ses propres virtualités, dans l’agencement de ses métaphores et des réseaux sémantiques qu’elle orchestre, des espaces qu’elle projette en construisant la grande métaphore du théâtre du monde, reflet plus concret et plus directement accessible du «drame» de la liberté finie aux prises avec son destin. En le mon- trant avec autant de perspicacité, Sèbe s’écarte de la funeste hypothèse selon laquelle la littérature ne fournirait, somme toute, qu’un matériel d’images, de métaphores et de catégories dans lequel la théologie verse des contenus préparés. Sous ce prisme, on saisit sans peine pourquoi l’auteur centre sa recherche sur l’objectivation théologique d’une intention énoncée par Balthasar et qui touche précisément à l’extension de sens donnée à la vieille notion de Theologia natura- lis. Il y a ici comme une heureuse alchimie qui n’est certes pas le moindre des mérites qui échoit au livre sous analyse. Car croisant ainsi des intérêts proprement littéraires et spécifiquement théologiques, Sèbe indique la voie d’une interpréta- tion possible de la place qu’occupent les œuvres littéraires en la situant dans un tryptique évocateur et judicieux, qui devient le titre de son livre: Le Christ, l’écri- vain et le monde. Ce titre révèle bien plus qu’une simple intention méthodologique ou heuristique. Il exprime le mode de contact qui caractérise la rencontre de Bal- thasar avec le monde des œuvres; un mode de contact qui relève de la possibilité de l’écoute et non pas d’abord de la posture herméneutique. D’un mot que nous pourrions davantage commenter, l’étude des sources de la théologie du savant lucernois se concentre sur les apports de la philosophie et de la patristique dans la Trilogie. Cependant, elle néglige de manière générale, la littérature et la relation ancienne qui lie la théologie aux œuvres littéraires, d’où l’originalité de la présente publication qui met en lumière l’apport original et spécifique de la littérature dans le travail du célèbre théologien suisse, Hans Urs von Balthasar. C’est à l’envi et avec une nette clarté que Sèbe le montre: chez Balthasar, l’œuvre littéraire fournit, d’abord par son déploiement, puis par le travail du style littéraire, une couleur à l’esthétique théologique, éloignant la foi chrétienne d’un platonisme désincarné. Il y a plus: jouant du fond et de la forme, le style devient un principe discrimi- nant pour établir la réelle marge de manœuvre laissée au texte littéraire et par là échapper au soupçon de récupération. L’insistance sur la singularité des figures est aussi un gage de l’autonomie du texte littéraire. En exposant la conception catholique de la grâce et de la nature, Balthasar noue, pour ainsi dire, les relations entre la pensée humaine et l’inouï de la Révélation, tout en maintenant un chris- tocentrisme qui lui est cher. Et de l’avis de l’auteur, la lecture balthasarienne se fait alors proprement théologique et discerne en chacun des auteurs, l’élément chrétien qui éclaire l’unique figure du Christ. Chacun le fait à sa manière et avec sa richesse particulière. C’est donc avec un bonheur particulier qu’on perçoit, sous la plume de Sèbe, Balthasar arpenter les chemins de «l’amour des lettres et du désir de Dieu». De bout en bout, il est et demeure théologien, sans cesse en dialogue avec tout ce que produit l’esprit humain. La catégorie de sacrement (au sens large) reconnaît ainsi aux réalités terrestres et aux mots un poids inédit: ils sont reconnus capables de

98638.indb 728 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 729

dire le mystère de l’Être et en définitive celui de Dieu. Théologien et lecteur averti du grand lecteur que fut Balthasar, Sèbe nous fait participer avec compétence et hauteur de vue, par son ouvrage, à l’acte théologique de l’une des figures les plus emblématiques de la théologie du XXème siècle. R. Ongendangenda Muya

Fadi Abdel-Nour. Vérité et Amour: Une lecture de «La Théologique» de Hans Urs von Balthasar (Cogitatio fidei, 286). Paris, Cerf, 2013. (13,5×21,5), 337 p. ISBN 978-2-204-09774-1. €32.00.

Dans un monde soumis à la «dictature du relativisme», pour reprendre les termes de Joseph Ratzinger, traiter de la question de la vérité est une entreprise bien risquée. Pourtant, c’est à ce type d’initiative que Fadi Abdel-Nour s’engage avec la publication de ce volume, qui se veut une analyse du concept de vérité au travers d’une lecture de la dernière partie de la Trilogie de Hans Urs von Baltha- sar: La Théologique. En effet, pour l’auteur, faire un tour ou scruter la question de la vérité dans l’histoire de la pensée ne consiste pas à écrire une histoire de la vérité, ni à passer en revue toutes les conceptions de la vérité d’une manière scolaire, mais plutôt à suivre à travers des jalons de cette histoire, le processus de l’élaboration de la question de la vérité et de voir comment nous sommes arrivés à penser ainsi la vérité (12). Dans cette perspective, il est apparu opportun à l’auteur de jeter un regard sur les tâton- nements de la pensée humaine dans sa démarche vers la construction des concepts et leur utilisation au sein des théories les plus variées. Ce qui donne lieu à une gamme de vérités que Balthasar reprend dans sa Théologique pour retenir principa- lement la vérité intramondaine et la vérité divine. La rencontre de ces deux vérités dans l’histoire devrait nous inciter à réfléchir sur les modes et les lieux de leur rapport, qui ne saurait être isolément taxé ni de monophysite ni de manichéiste. L’évocation de la source principale et primaire de la réflexion de l’auteur incline à préciser que La Théologique est composée de trois volumes. Le premier traite de la vérité intramondaine selon ce que Balthasar nomme «une phénoménologie renouvelée» (Th I, 31). Le second (Th II) parle, selon la méthode de la théologie (Th II, 30), de la vérité divine qui est entrée dans l’histoire et s’est révélée dans l’événement du Verbe fait chair, le Verbum Caro. Le troisième (Th III) analyse le rôle de l’Esprit de vérité dans l’événement du Verbum Caro et la vie des croyants. Qui plus est, de l’avis d’Abdel-Nour, la lecture ici conduite de La Théologique de Balthasar est un dialogue avec lui à l’intérieur du dialogue qu’il a mené avec les autres. Cette lecture s’intéresse à l’écriture balthasarienne chamarrée de perles pré- cieuses par la fidélité à son acte d’intervention. Elle est l’acte de «pénétrer jusqu’à cette source vitale de (son) esprit, jusqu’à cette intuition fondamentale et secrète, qui dirige toute l’expression de (sa) pensée et qui nous révèle une de ces grandes attitudes possibles que la théologie a adoptées dans une situation concrète et unique» (cf. Présence et pensée…, xiii). Dans cette lecture, deux moments se présentent simultanément: l’écoute et l’invention (20-21). En cinq chapitres, l’auteur montre comment Balthasar, «dans l’effort de son écriture dialoguant avec la tradition, souligne que l’amour de la vérité divine ou de la vérité intramondaine n’est crédible qu’en se mesurant à l’aune de la vérité

98638.indb 729 20/01/16 10:35 730 BOOK REVIEWS

de l’amour divin pour les humains, et n’est vérifiable que dans l’amour de tout humain envers son prochain, analogique à cet amour révélé par l’événement du Verbum Caro» (318). Sous cette orientation donc, le rapport de la vérité intramondaine à la vérité divine n’est plus un rapport de représentation du possible, mais un rapport d’être libre dans une existence totale ouverte sur l’impossible. Le rapport de la vérité divine à la vérité intramondaine n’est plus un rapport de logique humaine soumis aux catégories de l’esprit humain, mais un rapport de logique divine qui se surpasse dans l’esprit de l’amour divin. Ce double rapport ne viole ni la vérité intramondaine dans son autonomie finie ni la vérité divine dans son intimité absolue. Tout compte fait, l’originalité du livre de Fadi Abdel-Nour réside dans un effort soutenu pour repenser autrement la vérité intramondaine, la vérité divine ainsi que leur rapport selon la logique de l’amour à travers une lecture de La Théologique du savant lucernois. En effet, la tendance à réfléchir d’abord sur la question de la Vérité en général, afin d’appliquer en suite les conclusions aux deux vérités, comme si elles étaient convertibles, s’avère incongrue. D’où l’urgence de changer de perspective dans le but de trouver, en évitant les écueils du relativisme et de l’absolutisme, une «troisième voie» qui aide les humains, via le processus du dialogue, à édifier des relations dignes d’un monde épris de vie. Or, selon la conception balthasarienne, chaque vérité possède une logique qui lui est propre, et elles entretiennent toutes deux un rapport analogique et cata- logique à l’intérieur de la circumincession des transcendantaux. C’est pourquoi une réflexion sur les dimensions esthétique (le Beau), dramatique (le Bon) et logique (le Vrai) des deux vérités revêt une importance primordiale pour la com- préhension de leur relation ou rapport. À la faveur d’une méthode de la polarité- dans-la-ternarité, l’ouvrage explore de nouvelles pistes de recherche, lesquelles invitent la philosophie à reconsidérer le rôle de l’amour dans la recherche de la sagesse et exhortent la théologie à accueillir la vérité divine comme l’engagement d’amour du Logos divin. Ainsi, l’amour de chaque vérité se mesurera à l’aune de la vérité de l’Amour. Si, comme le relevait Vincent Holzer, «deux difficultés majeures obturent le chemin qui mène à la connaissance de l’œuvre du théologien Balthasar; qu’elles tiennent d’une part à la perception largement accréditée d’une œuvre jugée baroque, se déployant sous le profil d’une logique de la totalité, d’autre part, à une koinè théologique qui répète des formulations plus qu’elle ne les analyse dans les méandres de l’écriture balthasarienne» (RSR 85 [1997] 557), on doit avouer qu’Ab- del-Nour contourne le double obstacle par un effort constant de déchiffrement, d’interprétation authentique d’une écriture difficile d’accès. Là se trouve l’autre mérite de son ouvrage. R. Ongendangenda Muya

Nathanaël Pujos. La «Kénose» du Père chez H.U. von Balthasar: Genèse et limites (Théologies). Paris, Cerf, 2013. (13,5×21,5), 201 p. ISBN 978-2-204-09743-7. €18.00.

Qu’est-ce que l’amour en Dieu? Comment le Père aime-t-il le Fils dans l’Esprit au sein de la Trinité éternelle? Telles sont les interrogations de fond que Nathanaël

98638.indb 730 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 731

Pujos aborde dans son livre. En effet, lorsque Paul s’exclame: le Fils de Dieu m’a aimé et s’est livré pour moi (Ga 2,2), cet amour du Crucifié enraciné dans l’amour éternel du Père est alors le plus grand Amour (Jn 15,13); le Christ s’est anéanti lui-même, prenant la condition d’esclave …obéissant jusqu’à la mort, et à la mort sur une Croix (Ph 2,7.8). De ce verset de l’hymne aux Philippiens vient le terme christologique «Kénose»: dans l’Incarnation et la Passion, le Christ se dépouille par amour de son apparence divine, de sa Gloire. À travers toute son œuvre, Balthasar décline le sens de cette Gloire. Si elle est la beauté de l’Amour de Dieu, alors elle rayonne pleinement sur la face défigurée du Crucifié. La Gloire rejoint ainsi la Croix, et l’Amour se révèle comme «Kénose». Et Balthasar peut s’autoriser à fonder la kénose du Fils dans un amour du Père qui serait déjà kénotique lui-même (10). Le drame de la Croix, dans toute son ampleur et son épaisseur, n’est possible à Dieu que parce qu’éternellement le Père engendre le Fils dans une première «Kénose», dans laquelle Il Lui donne tout ce qu’Il est. Comment parler de l’amour de Dieu au terme d’un siècle qui vît se manifester le paganisme et l’horreur? Qui nous fera voir ton salut? Interroge le psalmiste dans son abandon et son angoisse (Ps 4,7), et à sa suite l’humanité entière devant l’apparente absence de Dieu. Comment sommes-nous sauvés? Ne disposant pour répondre à ces questions que de l’alphabet de la Révélation, Balthasar exprime par un terme cet Amour qui est Dieu et par lequel le Père engendre le Fils: ce terme, traditionnellement sotériologique, est celui de Kénose. Pour Pujos, Balthasar appuie l’usage trinitaire de ce terme «Kénose» en recou- rant à l’analogie, qu’il travaille sous l’influence croisée d’Erich Przywara et de Karl Barth: c’est le Christ qui nous est manifesté comme l’analogia entis concrète. Il est le chiffre de toute l’herméneutique trinitaire. La pensée balthasarienne trouve alors des consonances théologiques chez Sergeï Boulgakov, qui décrit lui aussi l’amour intratrinitaire en termes de sacrifice de soi et de «Kénose». Mais elle trouve surtout un foyer mystique dans les révélations d’Adrienne von Speyr et dans son expérience personnelle de la Passion du Christ. Balthasar décèle enfin une expression théologique dans la dramatique préférant semble-t-il Goethe à Kant et les Pères de l’Église à la scolastique pour rendre compte de la foi et jus- tifier notre espérance au monde actuel (184). S’agissant des limites du concept de «Kénose» du Père, Pujos formule trois critiques décisives. Il le fait en fonction d’un ordre qui vise à permettre l’articulation de sa réflexion selon une cohérence croissante: dogmatique, fondamentale et épistémologique. – La critique dogmatique d’inspiration thomiste, nécessaire mais non priori- taire, tant elle réduit l’expression théologique de Balthasar à une grammaire indispensable certes, mais qui n’est pas fondamentalement sienne. – La critique fondamentale, qui nous semble plus pertinente, et articule les trinités économique et immanente autour du terme «Kénose», terme sotériolo- gique puis trinitaire chez Balthasar. Certes, écrit Pujos: Balthasar affirme que la théologie en son ensemble ne se laisse pas autrement traiter que par les répétitions en spirale d’une totalité toujours identique. Il n’en demeure pas moins que la correspondance subtile qu’établit Balthasar entre Trinité économique et Trinité immanente nous a porté à affirmer qu’il introduisait par son langage et sa conceptualisation, sinon une négativité, du moins la possibilité de celle-ci en Dieu lui-même, un risque, une imprudence, une éternelle préoccupation du Père par la

98638.indb 731 20/01/16 10:35 732 BOOK REVIEWS

Croix, presque une inquiétude là où nous voudrions que l’amour parfait bannisse la crainte (185).

– La critique épistémologique. La Kénose appliquée au Père nous paraît para- digmatique. L’usage de ce terme sert-il la visée profondément sotériologique de Balthasar ou affaiblit-il le message, élevant théodramatiquement le tragique de la Croix en Dieu lui-même? Annoncer que Dieu veut que tous les hommes soient sauvés (1 Tm 2,4): tel est l’Évangile de la Gloire du Christ, qui est l’image de Dieu (2 Co 4,4). Cette Gloire se révèle alors comme la Beauté de l’Amour d’un Dieu, toujours plus Grand et ineffable, fait éclater sans cesse les cadres provisoires de nos saisies analogiques. Telles sont les lignes essentielles du livre de Pujos qui tient pour vrai que l’emploi original du terme «Kénose» chez Balthasar, qui n’est pas sans soulever de nombreuses objections dogmatiques, fondamentales et épistémologiques, éclaire de façon transversale toute la doctrine trinitaire et la christologie du grand théologien que fut Hans Urs von Balthasar, aujourd’hui devant l’Éternel. R. Ongendangenda Muya

Gérard Siegwalt. Dieu est plus grand que dieu: Réflexion théologique et expérience spirituelle. Entretiens avec Lise d’Amboise et Fritz West- phal (Théologies). Paris, Cerf, 2012. (13,5×21,5), 292 p. ISBN 978- 2-204-09799-4. €26.00.

Si le nom de Dieu ne peut être que balbutié, ce balbutiement a pris dans la vie de Gérard Siegwalt, entre autres formes, celle de la rédaction d’une Dogmatique pour la catholicité évangélique (10 volumes). Œuvre immense à laquelle il a travaillé pendant vingt-huit années, et qui reste le reflet d’une expérience, d’un chemin spirituel qui a traversé toute la vie de l’auteur sans céder, un seul instant, sur les exigences intellectuelles. Il s’est agi pour l’auteur, de rendre compte de la foi chrétienne en relation et en intéraction avec les défis devant lesquels se trouve placée notre civilisation contemporaine. Pour cela, celui-ci mène un dialogue critique aussi bien avec la science qu’avec la philosophie et la théologie tradition- nelle des Églises. L’auteur de la Dogmatique pour la catholicité évangélique analyse la situation dans laquelle toutes se trouvent comme un «ébranlement des profondeurs» (ou des fondations) et cherche à partir de là, à ouvrir un chemin d’avenir non seulement à l’Église et à sa théologie, mais également à l’humanité et au monde dans son ensemble, en dégageant la source vive qui les porte l’une et l’autre. Concrètement, ce dialogue pointe sans cesse vers la dimension de mystère – ou de transcendance – du réel, en l’explorant dans ses données élémentaires. Trans- cendance perçue non pas dans un ailleurs, mais dans l’immanence même du réel. Présence de Dieu dans, avec et à travers le monde d’aujourd’hui – et les crises qu’il traverse – là où la foi en Lui cherche à prendre sa place dans les conditions culturelles et sociales de nos sociétés contemporaines. Cette perspective entraîne, comme on peut le constater, une grande ouverture non seulement vis-à-vis des interrogations qui agitent bien des croyants et des croyantes aujourd’hui, mais également à l’égard d’autres traditions spirituelles et religieuses.

98638.indb 732 20/01/16 10:35 BOOK REVIEWS 733

En ce sens, Dieu est plus grand que dieu est un titre prégnant, mais en même temps l’expression qui rend compte de cette ouverture à la dimension de profon- deur du réel, de nos vies et du monde. Dimension que nous ne pouvons jamais nous approprier, que nous ne pouvons qu’accueillir et laisser se révéler à nous, au creux de son émergence à notre conscience, dans la mesure où nous nous ren- dons disponibles à elle. Alors, elle peut nous conduire sur un chemin qui nous transforme (8). Tant il est vrai que la pensée théologique de Gérard Siegwalt est elle-même longuement mûrie dans une profonde méditation, elle incite dans cet ouvrage à une écoute des profondeurs. De la sorte, la réflexion théologique peut devenir expérience spirituelle. Aussi, ce livre d’entretiens de Gérard Siegwalt avec deux connaisseurs de sa pensée, Lise d’Amboise et Fritz Westphal, peut à bon droit s’intituler Dieu au bonheur de la conversation. En effet, au fil d’un dialogue libre, l’ouvrage nourrit l’ambition de rendre accessible, de faire mieux connaître et de traduire exactement les préoccupations qui traversent et structurent toute l’œuvre du théologien stras- bourgeois dont le souci constant est de rendre compte de la foi chrétienne. Il faut rendre compte de la foi chrétienne et de ce que tous nous sommes des fragments. Chacun de nous l’est, mais dans ce fragment peut s’exprimer quelque chose qui évoque la plénitude. C’est à la découverte de cette évocation que nous invite le présent livre, qui entend permettre une approche de la pensée théologique par le biais d’une parole mise en liberté. Son langage, qui conserve à dessein la marque de l’oralité, peut introduire à la compréhension d’une œuvre théologique dont la visée est d’éclairer le réel. Peut-être contribuera-t-il aussi à nourrir, à sa manière et selon son mouvement propre, la quête spirituelle de qui en entreprend la lecture et y persévère. Excellent compte rendu d’une réflexion théologique qui s’est cristallisée en particulier dans un ouvrage – Dogmatique pour la catholicité évangélique –, et compte rendu des tenants et des aboutissants existentiels de cette réflexion théo- logique, mais également de l’expérience spirituelle qui la sous-tend, l’irrigue et l’oriente. Il ne saurait donc être le condensé du livre susmentionné ni obéir aux clichés autobiographiques. Les sujets abordés ne couvrent pas l’ensemble du champ théologique, néanmoins ils sont significatifs de ce dernier. Et l’interviewé ne raconte pas sa vie. Même s’il répond aux questions personnelles qui lui sont posées, et cela dans la conscience que la réflexion théologique ne va pas sans une totale implication personnelle, le vécu personnel sous-jacent n’a de raison d’être, ou de légitimité dans une publication comme celle-ci, que s’il est pertinent au-delà de la personne propre du théologien, s’il apparaît donc comme signifi- catif dans un sens plus général. Et c’est bien le cas dans cet ouvrage. Car la légitimité qui se confond avec la crédibilité de la théologie, s’atteste dans cette pertinence. La théologie doit être mesurée à cette aune. On l’aura compris, la fonction essentielle du présent compte rendu consiste précisément à donner, sous quelques aspects particuliers, chair et vie à ce qui est assumé. Ces entretiens sont une mine pour toute personne intéressée. Ils espèrent, pour ainsi dire, «mettre en appétit». R. Ongendangenda Muya

98638.indb 733 20/01/16 10:35