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James M. Robinson's Impacts on Korean New Testament Scholarship James M. Robinson's Impacts on Korean New Testament Scholarship ❙So, Ky-Chun Associate Professor of New Testament 24_ Korea Presbyterian Journal of Theology 1. Introduction This essay wants to show James M. Robinson's history,1) lan- guage, theology, and hermeneutics. Reviewing many spectacular works done by James M. Robinson, I specifically went over his intellectual biography, his theological insights that came after Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann, and his impact on scholarly improve- ments in Korea. I was his student when I studied biblical studies as his Ph. D. student at the Claremont Graduate University in California. The first encounter with Robinson took place just before I finished my M. Div. program in 1984. At that time, I was attending my last year at the Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary in Korea. Although it was my first encounter, it was not an encounter with the real person but with a book entitled A New Quest of the Historical Jesus (1959). In the fall of that year, I wrote my M. Div. project paper at the seminary in Seoul, Korea.2) Igavemyhighest 1) James M. Robinson is the former director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity and Professor Emeritus at the Claremont Graduate School. He was honored as a Fulbright Scholar, American Council of Learned Societies Fellow and American Association of Theological Schools Fellow at the University of Heidelberg. The editor of The Sayings Gospel Q in Greek and English (2002), The Critical Edition of Q (2000), and author of Trajectories Through Early Christianity (1971, with Helmut Koester) and A New Quest of the Historical Jesus (1959), he is best known for his work on the Nag Hammadi Codices and as the General Editor of The Nag Hammadi Library in English (1977). 2) For my project paper, I was told to review his books, The Later Heidegger and Theology (1963), The New Hermeneutic (1964), and Theology as History (1967) entitled New Frontiers in Theology with three volumes in all, respectively featuring Heinrich Ott, Ernst Fuchs and Gerhard Ebeling, and Wolfhart Pannenberg. JamesM.Robinson'sImpactson _ 25 Korean New Testament Scholarship praise in my review of his second book among the other three volumes because I finished my M. Div. project paper relating to that book a lot. A Hermeneutical Understanding of Biblical Language: On the Focus of Ernst Fuchs and Gerhard Ebeling (1985), was awarded on the first honor roll at the commencement ceremony which was the beginning point leading to the endless adventures that was awaiting for me in the future. Although I lived in a totally different country then that of my professor Robinson, I was able to try and understand who he was and what his theological insights were and grew fond of his works by researching his marvelous books available at the library. 2. Academic Autobiography Robinson was strictly raised as a Presbyterian by “the very sheltered existence of faculty housing” at The Columbia Theolo- gical Seminary in the suburban area in Atlanta, Georgia, where his father was “an orthodox Calvinist” and a professor of church history for over 40 years.3) He recalls his Sunday school life giving nickels as offerings every Sunday for constructing seminary build- 3) James M. Robinson, “Theological Autobiography,” in The Sayings Gospel Q (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2005), 3. 26_ Korea Presbyterian Journal of Theology ings at Pyong Yang Presbyterian Seminar in North Korea, which hadbeenalreadycollapsedbytheKoreaWarandwastheformer seminary of Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary. Robinson's father spent his sabbatical period just before World War II studying under Karl Barth at the University of Basel, Switzerland. At that period, there was a great debate between Karl Barth and Emil Brunner. Brunner argued that humans have an innate capacity to hear God's word, which Barth had repudiated as “works righteousness,” in his famous pamphlet entitled simply “Nein!”4) Robinson's father took Barth's side of the argument than thatofBrunnerand,asaresult,senthistwosonstoBaselto study under Barth in 1947. However, all things had been changed somehow over the years war had been raging. German students studying in Basel smuggled into Marburg, New Testament theology of Rudolf Bultmann; ex- istentialism and demythologizing. Hence Robinson had moved from Basel to Germany for the winter semester of 1950-1951 to attend Bultmann class in Marburg just before he retired.5) Robinson moved from the Barthian stream to the Bultmannian to be the most exciting Bultmannian. But he in fact became a “post-Bultmannian” before he actually became a “Bult- mannian.” In effect, his theological trajectories over 50 years have 4) James M. Robinson, Language, Hermeneutic, and History: Theology after Barth and Bultmann (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2008), ix. 5) There, he wrote his dissertation relating to the bifurcation of dialectic theology into Barthian and Bultmannian alternatives in 1952 entitled “DasProblemdesHeiligen Geistes bei Wilhelm Hermann,” even though Hermann had very little to say about the Holy Spirit. JamesM.Robinson'sImpactson _ 27 Korean New Testament Scholarship moved step by step from Bultmann to Post Bultmann. Ernst Käsemann provided a crucial early transition, once it had become clear to Robinson that Oscar Cullmann, his house-father at the Alumneum in Basel, was a leading scholar for making his salvation theology in a conservative aspect but Robinson felt that it did not meet up to his expectations. For Robinson's whole academic career was not focused on church dogmatic but on New Testament studies. After the years, Robinson returned again to the Princeton Theological Seminary, where he had finally finished his doctorate dissertation in the department of the New Testament in 1955 entitled “the Problem of History in Mark.” Robinson's dissertation on the understanding of history in the Gospel of Mark dealt with the problem of the famous term “messianic secret” which William Wrede found and announced to the world of New Testament scholarship in the beginning of the 20th century.6) Robinson attempted to intellectually trace his academic trajectory from his doctor father Karl Barth's Theology of the Word and Rudolf Bultmann's kerygmatic Theology of the New Testament, to Robinson's own projects,7) and recently he has been writing more books for the general audience such as the Gospel of Jesus, the Gospel of Judas, and Jesus. 6) Helmut Koester, “An Intellectual Biography of James M. Robinson: Speech at the Occasion of His Retirement,” in From Quest to Q:FestschriftJamesM.Robinson, eds. by Jon Ma Asgeisson, Kristin de Troyer, and Marvin W. Meyer, (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2000), xiv. 7) Das Problem des Heiligen Geistes bei Wilhelm Hermann, Das Geschichtsverstndnis des Markus-Evangeliums, A New Quest of the Historical Jesus, the Nag Hammadi Library, Database Q, the Sayings Gospel Q, etc. 28_ Korea Presbyterian Journal of Theology 3. Hermeneutics and Theology Robinson's study of hermeneutics and theology has broad inter- ests,8) which includes but not limited to, philological, historical, literary, sociological, feminists, postcolonial, post-modernistic, and especially theological approaches.9) Robinson's Language, Hermeneutic, and History10) has an in- troduction, abbreviations, three chapters, three bibliographies, and indexes of names, scripture, key foreign words and phrases. The works of Martin Heidegger, Heinrich Ott, Rudolf Bultmann, Ernst Fuchs and Gerhard Ebeling, and Wolfhart Pannenberg are all refer- enced and brought into fruitful conversation. The historical relevance of the Later Heidegger will be familiar to readers with a background in existential philosophy and onto- logical theology. If there are any surprises, however, it is the amount 8) It was also my interest. For more information, see Ky-Chun So, “A Hermeneutical Understanding of Biblical Language: On the Focus of Ernst Fuchs and Gerhard Ebeling,” M. Div. Project Paper, Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary, 1985. 9) The following explanation is based on the book review by Ky-Chun So, Language, Hermeneutic, and History: Theology after Barth and Bultmann.ByJamesM.Robinson. Eugene, Oregon: CASCADE Books, 2008. Pp. 249. $29.00, Horizons in Biblical Theology 31 (2009): 12-14. 10) This slim edition incorporates seminal introductions from the New Frontiers in Theology series:Vol.1TheLaterHeideggerandTheology(1963), Vol. 2 The New Hermeneutic (1964), and Vol. 3 Theology as History (1967). John B. Cobb says there are no other volumes where the impetus and import of Continental theology is so meticulously and thoughtfully presented. In each work, Robinson has an extensive essay that points to a new hermeneutical direction: The German Discussion of the Later Heidegger, Hermeneutic since Barth, and Revelation as Word and as History. JamesM.Robinson'sImpactson _ 29 Korean New Testament Scholarship of attention given to the smaller works of Heidegger.11) Paul J. Achtemeier descriptively notes the full range of Robinson's encom- passing encyclopedic knowledge and his mastery of theological issues. I highly recommend Robinson's New Hermeneutic approach for anyone interested in the development of German theology and philosophy. Regarding Heidegger's philosophy, Robinson sees Dasein being relatively grounded in the Supreme Being, which is the uncaused cause (causa sui). The investigation of this problem has been the traditional task of ontology since this Supreme Being is often con- ceived by metaphysics as God. Heidegger speaks of the on- to-theo-logical nature of metaphysics.12) In this context, Heidegger understands modern science and technology as the outcome of metaphysics. Robinson perceives that the end result of this meta- physics is modern technology.13) Ottisseenasthefirsttheologiantoattemptaprogrammatic way of using the Later Heidegger for theological purposes. Ott finds a correspondence between the biblical faith in God the Creator and the philosopher's basic questions.14) Robinson argues that the 11) Being and Time, Existence and Being, Der Feldweg, Die Frage nach der Technik, Gelassenheit, Holzwege, An Introduction to Metaphysics, Kant und das Problem der Metapyisik, etc.
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