The Old Testament Is Dying: A Diagnosis and Recommended Treatment

by Brent A. Strawn

Overview

The Old Testament constitutes the majority of the Christian Bible and provides much of the language of Christian faith. However, many churches tend to neglect this crucial part of Scripture. This timely book details a number of ways the Old Testament is showing signs of decay, demise, and imminent death in the church. Brent Strawn reminds us of the Old Testament's important role in Christian faith and practice, criticizes current misunderstandings that contribute to its neglect, and offers ways to revitalize its use in the church.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801048883
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/14/2017
Series:	Theological Explorations for the Church Catholic
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Brent A. Strawn (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is professor of Old Testament at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. He previously taught at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. He has authored or coedited numerous volumes, including The World around the Old Testament.

Table of Contents

Contents

Testimonia
Part 1: The Old Testament as a Dying Language
1. The Old Testament Is Dying
A (Non)Telling Vignette
The Diagnosis, in Brief, with a Caveat
The Old Testament Is (Like) a Language
Plan of the Book and Two Additional Caveats
2. Initial Testing
The U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey
The "Best"(?) Sermons
The Psalms in Mainline Hymnody
The Revised Common Lectionary (and the Psalms)
Conclusion
3. On Language Growth and Change, Contact and Death
Language Change and Language Contact
Pidgins and Creoles, Pidginization and Creolization
Language Death
Conclusion
Part 2: Signs of Morbidity
4. The New Atheism
Dawkins and the New Atheists on the Old Testament
Answering Dawkins
Pidgin versus Pidgin
5. Marcionites Old and New
The Old Marcion
Tertullian contra Marcion
Von Harnack pro Marcion, or the New Marcion(ism)
Contra von Harnack, or the Deadly Ramifications
6. New Plastic Gospels: The "Happiologists"
The Bible and Your Best Everything Right Now!
Assessing Osteen "and Company"
Conclusion to Part 2
Part 3: Path to Recovery
7. Recommended Treatment
On Saving Dying Languages
Resurrecting Hebrew
Learning First, New, and Very Old Languages
Bilingualism and Code-Switching
It Could Happen to You (Us)
8. Saving the Old Testament
Evidence of Further Decline
Deuteronomy as a Model of/for Second-Language Acquisition (SLA)
9. Ways Forward and Not
The Most Basic (and Obvious) Recommendation: Regular Use
The Need for Adequate Linguistic Training
Intentionality in Language Practice and Language Learning
On Creating Bilinguals
On "Bothness"
The Challenge of Future Change
Music, Memory, Poetry, . . . and Children (Again)
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Newton Series
Appendix 2: Butler Series
Appendix 3: Cox Series
Appendix 4: Size of Testaments
Appendix 5: Sermon Data from Walter Brueggemann
Appendix 6: Old Testament Texts Used by Walter Brueggemann
Indexes

Editorial Reviews

★ 01/09/2017
In this intriguing analysis, Candler School of Theology professor Strawn sounds an alarm, equating the Old Testament with a dying language the loss of which threatens devastating consequences for Christianity and humanity. Using linguistic investigations, Strawn describes both the “vicious disdain” for the Old Testament deity professed by biologist Richard Dawkins and the New Atheists, and the extreme “religious rhetoric” of television evangelist Pat Robertson as “pidgins”: “greatly abbreviated languages that facilitate the bare minimum of communication.” Arguing that the second-century heresies of Marcion, who found irreconcilable differences between the deities represented in the Old and New Testaments, have endured, Strawn suggests that the “pidginization reflected in Christian liturgy” led to the rise in German anti-Semitism and eventually the Holocaust. He argues that the Old Testament language was “reduced, then subsumed, then transformed, and... entirely forgotten” in the “creole” preached by prosperity gospel “happiologists” like Joel Osteen. Following these depressing analyses with “A Path to Recovery,” Strawn emphasizes the need to save dying languages and become bilingual, concluding that “the Old Testament must be used—extensively and regularly... in formative moments of Christian practice and education.” This engaging scholarly work deserves serious attention from today’s church leaders. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly