Abstract
Consideration of the nature of New Testament Theology (NTT) necessitates an account of theology or “God-talk”. Karl Barth grasped that all valid God-talk begins with God’s self-disclosure through Jesus and the Spirit, which people acknowledge and reflect on. Abandoning this starting point by way of “Foundationalism”—that is, resorting to any alternative basis for God-talk—leads to multiple destructive epistemological and cultural consequences. The self-disclosure of the triune God informs the use of the Bible by the church. The Bible then functions in terms of ethics and witness. It grounds the church’s ethical language game. Creative readings here are legitimate. The New Testament (NT) also mediates a witness to Jesus, which implies an historical dimension. However, it is legitimate to affirm that Jesus was resurrected (see 1 Cor 15:1–9), which liberates the devout modern Bible scholar in relation to history. The historical readings generated by such scholars have value because the self-disclosing God is deeply involved with particularity. These readings can be added to the archive of scriptural readings used by the church formationally. Ultimately, then, all reading of the NT is theological (or should be) and in multiple modes. NTT focuses our attention on the accuracy of the God-talk operative within any historical reconstruction, and on its possible subversion, which are critical matters.
Highlights
In this article, we are considering the curated volume of Religions “the future of NewTestament Theology,” and its attempts to answer the question on what a New TestamentTheology (NTT) should look like
New Testament (NT), it really references the divinity identified by the church, which is composed in the main of Christians,1 who generally relate Jesus to a unified notion of God in some strong sense
If we follow the progression I have recommended here, treading in the footsteps of Barth, theology is prior to the reading of the NT and enfolds it and drives it
Summary
We are considering the curated volume of Religions “the future of New. We will ask what scholarly work is Religions 2021, 12, 1072 appropriate for the modern Bible scholar in her particular institutional location with all its distinctive privileges and challenges, assuming throughout that she remains “devout,” which is to say, grounded within the truths articulated by Steps I–III (If she does not stay grounded in Steps I through III she will not be doing proper God-talk when she begins to interpret the NT in the university, and no answer to our initial question will be possible) After this final specialized inquiry, our journey will be over and a cogent, if slightly surprising answer to our opening question will be apparent. With this road map for the journey ahead in mind we can begin our quest where we must, with God-talk, learn rapidly as we begin, because God has already begun with us. And the person who has understood all this with the most clarity in the modern period is, I would suggest, Karl Barth
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