tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6547653347296107692.post275222897292193915..comments2024-01-09T12:59:32.666+01:00Comments on Narrative and Ontology: M. Noth on The Laws in the PentateuchPhil Sumpterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16491514886782881340noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6547653347296107692.post-7333945926199344562008-05-10T03:26:00.000+02:002008-05-10T03:26:00.000+02:00Phil! Sorry! I posted a response over on your ne...Phil! Sorry! I posted a response over on your new thread -- on legalism.<BR/><BR/>Cheers ~ JimJRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07674489078935633842noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6547653347296107692.post-52913139463989116912008-05-09T23:27:00.000+02:002008-05-09T23:27:00.000+02:00Phew, you've set the stakes high! I'd be intereste...Phew, you've set the stakes high! I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, especially why Childs is a “bibliolater.” As a Barthian, “biblicism” was an error he constantly tried to avoid, which he tried to do by using the category of “witness” in order to define the “genre” (if you can call it that ...) of the multiple traditions in the Bible.Phil Sumpterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16491514886782881340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6547653347296107692.post-68630179769835466882008-05-09T18:34:00.000+02:002008-05-09T18:34:00.000+02:00Phil, oh man, what great fun. “Protestantism anyb...Phil, oh man, what great fun. “Protestantism anybody?” <BR/><BR/>Don’t ask why. But, as I read your good summary of Noth (very nice job), I bizarrely saw Nietzsche. <BR/><BR/>I didn’t see “Protestantism” coming because I paused at each of your Noth paragraphs and I hadn’t yet scrolled down to the bottom of the page! <BR/><BR/>Your Noth summary made me suddenly feel that Noth was re-cooked Nietzsche: Noth’s “competing groups” unmoored from confederacy (map: to Nietzsche’s genealogy of morals via competing in-confederate groups arguing moral justifications for non-moral acts); Noth’s various groups refusing to believe that “relationship was over” (map: Nietzsche’s “Merry Science” of persistent and stubborn faith in eternal recurrence despite haunting notions that God is dead); Noth’s claim that fossilized laws endured after confederations because laws became elevated abstractions and arbitrarily conceived as autonomous (map: Nietzsche’s critique of our arbitrariness in invoking abstracted-autonomous “laws” in blatant service of our wills to power: though I don’t blame Nietzsche for what happened in Germany afterward); Noth’s notions of works righteousness and legalism for its own sake (map: to Nietzsche’s “Anti-christ” evincing Nietzsche’s contempt for reified-abstracted values as producing slaves and legalistic crusades). <BR/><BR/>How sick is all that? <BR/><BR/>Only on a blog! <BR/><BR/>So, when I saw your validly sarcastic note - “Protestantism anybody?” - well, that took me over the top! I suddenly saw Nietzsche as the consummate anti-Protestant protestant. And Noth stealing categories and thematic frames from all of them! Don’t ask why. I'm clueless. But, this whole mess was just too fun not to post. <BR/><BR/>More seriously. <BR/><BR/>I took a class on OT at a Catholic seminary that paid very heavy respect to Childs, and, about the same time I took guided post-grad research at Chicago from Rendtorff (during his visit there) –- to the end of arguing against the Catholics that Childs’ idolatry of “canon” (my bias - Childs is a bibli-idolater) allowed those Catholic-loving-canonists to make individual OT figures like Abraham and Moses into composites incorporating grand histories (they had no problem with this: it’s all a seamless “tradition”), while simultaneously arguing against Rendtorff that Noth better than Rendtorff pegged law to fragmentary traditions (Rendtorff won these arguments, by the way: damn Germans; but really, Rendtorff convinced me that Noth is a bit fanciful). <BR/><BR/>And so, I’m ready to re-visit Childs with you. Via Noth. <BR/><BR/>Who knows: maybe I’ll have a better valuation of Childs when you’re finished working me over. <BR/><BR/>Maybe that whole really weird Nietzsche detour was just my morning coffee? <BR/><BR/>Or, maybe the Spirit is using Nietzsche to clear out my polluted anti-Childs bias? – the Spirit using Neitzsche to clear the way for a new revelation through Childs for a better estimation of canon?<BR/><BR/>So, it's your turn Phil. Do your magic. <BR/><BR/>Redeemed your beloved Childs! <BR/><BR/><BR/>Cheers,<BR/><BR/>JimJRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07674489078935633842noreply@blogger.com