1 - Biblical representation (Vorstellung): divine communicative action and passion

Summary

Coping with God and his generosity is the central task of Christian faith.

If demythologizing had a patron saint, it might well be Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. It was Hegel who perfected the translation of biblical representations into philosophical conceptualizations – Vorstellung into Begriff, mythos into logos – without remainder. In so doing, however, Hegel fails adequately to attend to the way in which biblical forms of discourse are themselves forms of reasoning, thus diluting the wine of theodrama into the water of abstract theoretical truth. By contrast, this chapter sets the stage for remythologizing by sampling a variety of biblical passages that (1) occur at key points in the theodrama that focus on God in communicative action and (2) represent a variety of types of divine–human dialogical interaction. These are the passages with which theologians must come to grips when formulating a doctrine of God in order to do justice to the biblical mythos, itself a means of God's self-presentation. The second part of the chapter culls out several key issues that emerge from a consideration of these passages and which have proved decisive in distinguishing one theism from another.

A gallery of canonical exhibits

The purpose of this brief survey is to concentrate our attention on the biblical material upon which theology must reflect in order to formulate a theodramatic metaphysic: a categorial analysis of God's mighty (and occasionally meek) communicative acts.