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Old Testament Essays

On-line version ISSN 2312-3621
Print version ISSN 1010-9919

Old testam. essays vol.22 n.2 Pretoria  2009

 

"Brave new world" - Towards a Philosophical theology of the Old Testament

 

 

J. W. Gericke

North-West University, Vanderbijlpark

Correspondence

 

 


ABSTRACT

There is currently no philosophical theology of the Old Testament. Biblical scholars appear reluctant to offer philosophical accounts of YHWH and it is popularly believed that philosophical concerns are without fail distortive of the non-philosophical god-talk in the biblical texts. In this paper, however, the author argues that "philosophical analysis" (conceptual clarification) can be purely historical and descriptive and may provide new insights into ancient Israel's own metaphysical assumptions. Other foci of the interest include the anachronism of "perfect-being theology, " Aristotelian category theory, the metaphysics of properties and the modelling of theological pluralism with the philosophy of identity over time and across possible worlds.


 

 

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Correspondence:
Jaco Gericke
Post-doctoral fellow, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Subject Group Theology
North-West University (Vaal Triangle Campus)
P.O. Box 1174, Vanderbijlpark, 1900
E-mail: 21609268@nwu.ac.za

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