Between Hearing and Silence: A Study in Old Testament Theology by John Kessler

Abstract

Reviewed by: Between Hearing and Silence: A Study in Old Testament Theology by John Kessler Mark McEntire john kessler, Between Hearing and Silence: A Study in Old Testament Theology by (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2021). Pp. xiv + 274. Paper $39.95. The new offering from John Kessler is intriguing in two initial ways. He has already produced a large volume on OT theology (Old Testament Theology: Divine Call and Human Response [Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2013]) based on the concept of divine–human interaction and communication. Will this volume move in different directions or fill gaps in the previous work? Second, while he describes Between Hearing and Silence as a monograph, the subtitle carries the phrase "Old Testament Theology." There are searchengine-related reasons to do this, of course, but how might this volume relate itself to the troubled subdiscipline of OT theology? There is an ongoing debate about whether something called "Old Testament theology" exists and, if it does, what it should look like. During the heyday of this enterprise, it became a synthetic presentation of everything about ancient Israel, including its religion, literature, social and political institutions, self-understanding, and place in the world. A narrower, and more manageable approach has been to make OT theology an examination of how the HB/OT presents the divine character. The work of K. is closer to this second conception of the field, and a large part of this latest volume examines when and why that character goes silent. Other parts of the book examine the silence of humans, but typically in the presence of the divine or in relation to divine behavior, so K. does not stray far from the more focused definition. Silence is rarely, if ever, total, and K. understands it broadly. He is concerned with more than the presence or absence of sound; the book's primary interest is changes in the "soundscape" of the biblical text and what these changes signal. "Silence, either human or divine, is generally a form of communication, and when present, calls for an explanation" (p. 5; italics original). The bulk of each chapter consists of detailed lexical and exegetical work with selected texts in which silence, or change in soundscape, plays a significant role. An early sequence of chapters looks at silence as an aspect of alienation, as a response to catastrophe, and as an element of repentance and renewal. The discussion of alienation or even "divine rejection" begins with the story of King Saul. While this is an example of a drastic change in divine interaction with a human being, the story is more layered than the treatment here, which ignores the political and ideological efforts to replace Israel, embodied in Saul, with Judah, embodied in David, as the ascendant nation. The result is a dichotomous portrayal of Samuel and David as good and Saul as bad, a situation signaled by modes of divine presence and their accompanying soundscapes. The treatment of Jeremiah's silence, commanded by God at various times in [End Page 306] Jeremiah 7–15 is a more productive example of a change in soundscape as a result of a ruptured relationship, though explanations of the cause and effect are almost entirely spiritualized and thus take little account of the material and political struggles of the Babylonian threat to Judah's existence. A greater sense of material concern is present in the discussion of catastrophe. The soundscape produced by a thriving and productive society, including agriculture, commerce, and celebration, is different from that produced by a society that has experienced destruction. The latter can include, but is not limited to, silence, as Lamentations 2 and Job 2 both demonstrate. The meaning of silence reaches its nadir here, as K. acknowledges, and his treatment moves on to the role of silence in repentance and restoration. At times, the argument seems like a retreat to a predetermined Christian piety of silence as acquiescence. This move will continue to shape the presentation as it moves to its most urgent set of questions. The most poignant issue for most modern readers emerges in chap, 7, concerning divine silence in the face of human suffering. The tendency of most theological...